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Why Easy Write?

If you write emails, messages, or docs in a language that isn't your first, you're stuck in a loop: copy → open a translator website → paste → translate → copy → paste back. And the result often gets the words right but the tone wrong — which in German (and French, Spanish, Italian…) is the difference between polite and rude.

• 🌐 Cloud translators mean sign-ups, monthly limits, and your private text leaving your machine.
• 🧩 Local LLM tools get privacy right but make you install Ollama, download a model, or paste in an API key first.

Easy Write uses the AI already built into macOS 26 — so it's private and there's nothing to set up, and it understands formality, which a plain dictionary translator can't.

What's new in 2.0

• 🔎 Easy Write Bar (⌥⌘K) — every language, tone and action next to your selection. Type to filter, or type any instruction and run it once. The result streams in before anything changes.
• 🔁 Both directions with one key — ⌥⌘T translates into your target language, or back into yours if the text is already in it.
• 🧠 Remembered per app — formal in Mail, informal in Slack, without touching a setting.
• ✨ Actions — your own instructions on a shortcut, shareable as a link.
• 🏝️ Notch HUD — progress and results right at the top of the screen, with ⌘Z to undo.
• 📥 Notarized installer with optional update checks. A user-initiated Sparkle upgrade to 2.0.2 is verified on the maintainer’s Mac; unattended updates and clean-Mac installs remain separate.

See the full changelog.

2.0.2 fixes selected-text capture in Mail’s rich-text composer while retaining source-window, field, range and text checks before replacement. See release verification.

Appearance fix in 2.0.1

The menu now follows macOS light/dark appearance and uses opaque surfaces for readable text over bright or dark windows. Existing 2.0 installations with update checks enabled can receive this patch through Sparkle; use Settings → Updates → Check for Updates. Pre-Sparkle 1.x and default source builds still need a manual upgrade. Publishing the feed makes an update available; it does not force installation or override update consent.

What you get

• ⚡ Translate in place — select → shortcut → replaced, in any app
• 🗣️ Formal / informal / natural — German Sie vs du, French vous vs tu, Spanish usted vs tú…
• 📖 Read mode — translate text you can't edit into your own language, in a card you can pin or have read aloud
• 🌍 13 languages — German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Turkish, Polish, Russian, English, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic
• ✨ Actions — Fix grammar, Make it shorter, Reply politely, Explain the grammar, Sound native, Japanese keigo, or write your own
• 📚 Glossary & style notes — exact terms and your preferences in every result
• 🕘 Opt-in history: originals and results stay local; disabling it deletes the history file
• ⌨️ Custom shortcuts — rebind everything
• ♿️ VoiceOver — labelled controls and spoken results
• 🔒 Local AI — no account, no API key, no telemetry; optional updates and external links use the network, never your selected text

🆚 How it compares

The honest version: these tools are good — Easy Write just occupies a different corner (free, private, nothing to set up, register-aware).

	Easy Write	DeepL	Google Translate	Apple Translate	Ollama-based tools
Runs on-device / private	✅	❌ cloud	❌ cloud	✅	✅
No account or API key	✅	❌	⚠️	✅	⚠️ needs setup
Formal vs informal (Sie/du)	✅	Pro only	❌	❌	✅
Replace selection in place	✅	app only	❌	✅	varies
Cross-app text access	supported Accessibility fields	✅	❌	⚠️ some	varies
Your own rewrite actions	✅	❌	❌	❌	varies
Setup	manual DMG install, or source build	account	—	built-in	install Ollama + model
Open source	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅
Price	Free	Free / Pro	Free	Free	Free

Requirements

• macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later on Apple Silicon
• Apple Intelligence turned on — System Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri

⬇️ Install

Official manual DMG install (2.0.2, build 28).

1. Quit any running copy of Easy Write or EasyWrite before installing or upgrading.
2. Download EasyWrite-2.0.2.dmg, open it, and drag Easy Write.app to Applications. Replace the existing copy if prompted.
3. Launch Easy Write from Applications. Grant access in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. If an old grant no longer works, remove the stale entry and enable the installed copy.
4. Enable Apple Intelligence and wait until its model is ready. The welcome window checks Accessibility and model readiness, then offers a practice swap. Use disposable text first.

The installer is 4,008,406 bytes. SHA-256: cc3a7dcd9e9327c536646ec2ed03b01962a5271180131d592286de1636288bd1. The product page is the canonical site. Homebrew is not live; no Homebrew installation is offered for this launch.

Build from source (still supported). Default source builds disable update configuration. Use the version tag below to build this release.

git clone https://github.com/onekapisch/easy-write.git
cd easy-write
git checkout v2.0.2
./setup-signing.sh      # once, if you don't have a Developer ID: keeps the Accessibility grant across rebuilds
./build.sh              # compile + bundle + sign → "Easy Write.app"
cp -R "Easy Write.app" /Applications/
open "/Applications/Easy Write.app"

Upgrading from 1.x? Install the DMG manually: pre-Sparkle 1.x cannot receive this upgrade automatically. Your settings move over automatically. macOS asks for Accessibility again because the app is now signed by OneKapisch. If the old "EasyWrite" entry is still in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, remove it, then delete the old EasyWrite.app from Applications. Optional update checks in 2.0 concern future releases and require consent. A user-initiated installed upgrade to 2.0.2 is verified on the maintainer's Mac; unattended updates and clean-Mac installation remain separate acceptance checks.

Usage

Mail selection compatibility in 2.0.2: rich-text Mail selections use WebKit text markers instead of ordinary character-range attributes. The patch reads those markers directly, keeps capture off the clipboard, and preserves target validation before paste. See verification notes for the owner retry and remaining compatibility checks.

Maintainers: see the release process. The release script defaults to a read-only plan; explicit preparation uses isolated candidates and never publishes automatically. See download and traffic measurement for GitHub counters and their limits.

Shortcut	Action
⌥⌘K	Open the Easy Write Bar next to your selection
⌥⌘T	Translate — into your target language, or back into yours
⌥⌘E	Read — translate into your language in a card (for text you can't edit)
⌥⌘G	Fix grammar (a built-in action)
⌃⌥R	Reply politely (a built-in action)

Click the menu-bar icon for the panel: status, your target language and tone, and quick tiles. Every shortcut can be changed in Settings → Shortcuts, and any action can get one.

🔒 Privacy & security

Your text never leaves your Mac. The model runs locally; there is no analytics, no telemetry, and no account. Optional update checks and downloads contact the website and GitHub; they send no selected text, but those servers can observe ordinary request metadata, including your IP address and app version. The permission it needs is Accessibility, to read your selection and paste the result back. Your clipboard is restored after temporary pastes while Easy Write still owns it; newer clipboard copies are preserved. Clipboard-manager behavior varies. Opening Studio, support or shared-action links visits the destination in your browser and exposes normal browser request metadata.

Automatic replacement requires the original window, field, selection range and text to remain verifiable. Otherwise the result appears for review instead of being pasted. The HUD says "Paste sent" because synthetic keystrokes have no delivery acknowledgement.

History is off by default, including upgrades from early 2.0 previews. Opting in stores originals and results as unencrypted local JSON. Disabling deletes that file. Expired entries are removed every minute while running, after wake, and on the next launch. Backups may retain earlier copies.

See SECURITY.md for the full data flow, what's stored where, and how to report a vulnerability.

🧠 How it works

See HOW_IT_WORKS.md — the on-device LLM, the permissive-guardrails gotcha, the in-place swap, the Bar that types without stealing focus, the notch HUD, two-way language detection, and how shared actions stay safe.

Roadmap

2.1 — Screen Translate: drag over any part of the screen (an image, a video subtitle, a scanned PDF) and read it in your language, on-device. Ideas and PRs welcome — open an issue.

FAQ

Is it really free? Yes — free and open source (MIT). No account, no subscription, no upsell.

Does it send my text anywhere? No selected text is sent by Easy Write. AI processing stays on your Mac. Optional update checks include the app version; hosting services can also observe ordinary HTTP metadata such as your IP address. External links open in your browser.

Why does it need Accessibility permission? To read your current selection and paste the result back using macOS APIs. The app must expose its selected text through Accessibility. If it does not, capture fails safely instead of using unrelated clipboard contents.

Why not the Mac App Store? Posting keystrokes to other apps is incompatible with App Store sandboxing. Source builds remain supported; a signed, notarized DMG is available above.

"Apple Intelligence is still preparing." Apple Intelligence is on but still downloading its model — that happens the first time you turn it on and can take a while. Wait until System Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri shows it's ready (it needs free storage and a network connection). The panel and the welcome window update on their own when it's done.

How is this different from Apple's built-in Translate or Writing Tools? Apple's Translate opens a popover you copy from and can't do formal vs informal. Writing Tools rewrites through a menu. Easy Write is one keystroke in any app, translates with the right tone, and runs your own actions.

Contributing

Website research and guides: the 23 October search strategy includes a qualitative keyword map, competitor fact check, content architecture and 90-day plan. Its six guide drafts are dated editorial snapshots. Deployable copies belong to the OneKapisch website's studio-fable/content/easy-write/ collection. This work does not publish the website or release a 2.0 binary, and does not establish translation-quality or user-outcome claims.

2.0 launch media: asset guide, local gallery, and website proposal. Reproduce the native screenshots and owned-window HUD recording with bash tools/launch-assets/export.sh. These synthetic demos are not translation benchmarks.

PRs and issues welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md. Run EasyWrite --selftest before opening a PR, and --eval for any prompt or language change.

License

MIT © onekapisch

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