The Spark: The Friction of Rewriting Text

Every time you copy a sentence and want to rephrase it — for an email, a report, or a message — a familiar dance unfolds. You open a browser tab, paste into an AI tool, wait for the response, then copy the result back. Context switches. Tabs pile up. The flow breaks.

Most AI writing tools live in the cloud or in separate apps. They don’t sit where you already work: in the clipboard. You copy, then leave your flow to go somewhere else, paste, wait, and copy again. For quick rewrites — a tone change, a shorter version, a more formal phrasing — that round-trip is unnecessary friction.

What if the clipboard itself could rewrite what you copy?

That’s where Rewriter comes in.

Download & Use

Want to use it right away? Download the latest DMG from the Rewriter Releases page, open it, drag Rewriter to Applications, and launch. No Flutter or command line needed — just install and use.

macOS only (Windows/Linux planned)
Free — no subscription
First launch: app appears in the menu bar → open Settings, pick an AI backend (Gemini, Ollama, or Local AI), configure once, then enable. After that, copy English text and the clipboard is rewritten automatically.

The Idea: Clipboard-First AI Rewriting

Rewriter is a Flutter desktop application that runs in the system tray, monitors clipboard changes, detects English sentences, rewrites them using AI, and automatically updates the clipboard with the rewritten content. No extra tabs, no manual paste–copy cycle — copy once, get a rewritten version in place.

The core vision:

Run silently in the background, detect when you copy English text, rewrite it with AI (Gemini, Ollama, or local MediaPipe GenAI), and put the result back on the clipboard — with optional preview, history, and dashboard.

What Problem Are We Solving?

Context switching — Leaving your flow to open a browser or another app just to rephrase text.
Manual paste–copy cycles — Copy → open tool → paste → wait → copy result.
No clipboard-native option — AI rewriting not integrated where you already copy and paste.
Privacy and offline needs — Not everyone wants to send every snippet to the cloud.
One-size-fits-all tone — Needing different styles (professional, casual, concise, academic) without changing tools.

How Rewriter Solves It

Core Functionality

System Tray Integration — Runs in the background with a menu bar icon. No window to keep open; it’s there when you need it.

Automatic Clipboard Monitoring — Detects when you copy English text and triggers a rewrite. No need to open an app or click a button.

AI-Powered Rewriting — Uses Google Gemini API, Ollama, or local MediaPipe GenAI models to rewrite text in different styles.

Multiple AI Backends — Choose what fits you:

Gemini (cloud) — High quality, API key, internet required.
Ollama (local server) — Run models like Gemma, Llama, Mistral locally; no API key.
Local AI (MediaPipe GenAI) — Fully offline, no API key, privacy-focused.

Smart Language Detection — Only processes English sentences, so other content stays untouched.

Automatic Clipboard Update — Rewritten text replaces the clipboard content so you can paste immediately.

Configuration & Settings

Settings Window — Dedicated UI for all options: AI backend, style, debounce, sentence length, and more.

Secure API Key Storage — API keys stored with flutter_secure_storage (e.g. macOS Keychain).

Enable/Disable Toggle — Turn rewriting on or off without quitting the app.

Writing Styles — Professional, Casual, Concise, or Academic.

Advanced Settings — Debounce delay, minimum and maximum sentence length.

User Experience

System Notifications — macOS notifications when a rewrite is done.

Preview Window — View full rewritten text (and comparison with original) before using it.

Status in Tray — Visual feedback: processing, ready, or error.

Error Notifications — Clear messages when something goes wrong.

Keyboard Shortcuts — Quick access without touching the mouse:

Cmd+Shift+C — Copy last rewritten text
Cmd+Shift+S — Open settings
Cmd+Shift+T — Toggle rewriting on/off

History — Access the last 50 rewrites.

Dashboard — Overview of today’s and total rewrites, success vs error over time (1d/7d/30d), and recent history.

What You Need (For DMG Users)

macOS (Intel or Apple Silicon)
One AI backend (pick one):
- Gemini — Get a Google Gemini API key, enter it in Settings
- Ollama — Install Ollama, run it (e.g. ollama pull gemma2:2b), set base URL and model in Settings
- Local AI — MediaPipe GenAI model file (see the project’s LOCAL_AI_SETUP for setup)

No Flutter or dev environment required — the DMG is ready to run.

Build From Source (Optional)

If you prefer to build yourself (e.g. to contribute or run from source):

Flutter SDK ^3.10.1
Clone the repo, then:

cd rewriter
flutter config --enable-native-assets
flutter pub get
flutter run -d macos

Release DMGs are built via GitHub Actions on version tags (e.g. v1.0.0); the same app is what you get when you download from Releases.

Usage in Practice

Automatic mode (default) — Copy English text; Rewriter detects it, rewrites it, and updates the clipboard. A notification appears when done.

Preview — When a rewrite completes, you can open the preview window to see original vs rewritten (and comparison view), then copy the version you want or rely on the shortcut.

Shortcuts — Use Cmd+Shift+C to copy the last rewrite, Cmd+Shift+S for settings, and Cmd+Shift+T to toggle rewriting.

Architecture at a Glance

Services — Clipboard, Gemini, Ollama, local AI, notifications, etc. are separate services.
State — Provider for app state.
Platform — Native macOS tray, notifications, and hotkeys.
Storage — API keys in secure storage; settings and history in SharedPreferences.

AI Model Options: Quick Comparison

Option	Pros	Cons
Gemini	High quality, no local setup	API key, internet, usage limits
Ollama	Many models, local, no key	Install + run server + pull model
Local AI	Offline, no key, private	Model download, may be lower quality

Limitations & Roadmap

Focused on macOS today; Windows and Linux are planned.
One rewritten version per run (multiple versions may return in the future).
Local AI: run one rewrite at a time (no concurrent requests).
No built-in auto-update yet; onboarding can be improved.

Download the DMG, install, configure your preferred AI backend once, and you're set — Rewriter runs in the tray and rewrites what you copy, without leaving what you're doing.

Download Rewriter (DMG) — macOS, free.