Runse for macOS

Refine and translate selected text in any macOS app, powered by your favorite LLM provider.

Runse for macOS is the desktop companion to Runse for iOS. Select text anywhere — Notes, Mail, Safari, Xcode, your editor of choice — and refine or translate it without copy-pasting into a separate window.

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Highlights

• Three entry points, one transform window. Pick whichever feels least invasive:
  • Global hotkeys — ⌃⌥R to refine, ⌃⌥T to translate.
  • Floating action bar — a small PopClip-style popover next to your selection.
  • Services menu — right-click on selected text → Services → Runse.
  • Menu bar item — wand icon for quick access.
• Bring your own provider. OpenAI Responses, Anthropic Messages, plus generic OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible endpoints (NVIDIA NIM, DeepSeek, Kimi, OpenRouter, local llama.cpp/vLLM, …). Reasoning-model schemas (Qwen3, DeepSeek-R1) handled out of the box.
• API keys live in the macOS Keychain. Never written to disk in plain text.
• No telemetry. Your selected text only ever goes to the provider you configured.
• Notarized + signed. Stable Developer ID build means TCC permissions stick across launches.

Installation

Build from source (recommended for now)

brew install xcodegen
git clone https://github.com/madeye/runse-mac.git
cd runse-mac
xcodegen generate
open RunseMac.xcodeproj
# ⌘R in Xcode

Or via the command line:

xcodebuild -scheme RunseMac -configuration Release \
  -destination 'platform=macOS' \
  -derivedDataPath build build
cp -R build/Build/Products/Release/RunseMac.app /Applications/

Pre-built releases

Notarized .app builds will be published on the Releases page once the app reaches 1.0. Until then, build from source.

Quick start

1. Launch Runse (/Applications/RunseMac.app).
2. macOS will prompt for Accessibility access — allow it. Required for the global hotkeys and floating bar to read selected text.
3. Open Providers. The bundled NVIDIA fallback works out of the box if you configured a default API key at build time; otherwise add your own:
   • OpenAI — Type: OpenAI Responses · Base URL: https://api.openai.com · Path: /v1/responses · Model: gpt-4.1-mini
   • Anthropic — Type: Anthropic Messages · Base URL: https://api.anthropic.com · Path: /v1/messages · Model: claude-sonnet-4-5
   • NVIDIA NIM (Qwen3) — Type: OpenAI Compatible · Base URL: https://integrate.api.nvidia.com · Path: /v1/chat/completions · Model: qwen/qwen3.5-122b-a10b
4. Paste your API key, hit Save Key, then Test to confirm.
5. Select text in any app and press ⌃⌥R to refine, or ⌃⌥T to translate.

How it works

                        ┌───────────────────────────┐
                        │  Selection in another app │
                        └─────────────┬─────────────┘
                                      ▼
       ┌──────────┐       ┌──────────────────────────┐       ┌──────────────┐
       │ Hotkey   │       │   AccessibilityReader    │       │ Services menu│
       │ ⌃⌥R / ⌃⌥T│──────▶│  reads kAXSelectedText   │◀──────│   (pboard)   │
       └──────────┘       └─────────────┬────────────┘       └──────────────┘
                                        ▼
                          ┌─────────────────────────┐
                          │   AppServices presents  │
                          │  TransformWindowView    │
                          └─────────────┬───────────┘
                                        ▼
              TransformRunner → LLMProvider client → your provider

The RunseCore framework owns provider HTTP clients, prompt rendering, Keychain storage, and SwiftData models. It has no AppKit dependency and is fully unit-tested. The RunseMac app target wraps it in a SwiftUI host plus the four entry-point controllers (HotkeyController, MenuBarController, SelectionPopoverController, and the NSServicesProvider).

Privacy

Permission	Why it's asked	What happens if you skip it
Accessibility	Read selected text from any app via AXUIElement (no clipboard).	Hotkeys still register, but cannot read text from other apps. Floating bar disappears. Use the Services menu as a fallback.
"Allow access to data from other apps"	macOS gates Service-pasteboard reads in Sonoma+. Allow once per source app.	Services menu cannot read selection from that app; hotkeys still work.
Login keychain access	Read/write API keys for Runse.ProviderAPIKey. macOS may prompt the first time after re-signing the bundle.	Provider requests fail with "Missing API key."

Selected text is sent only to the LLM provider configured in Providers. Runse has no analytics, no remote config, no first-party server.

Tests

xcodebuild -scheme RunseMac -destination 'platform=macOS' test

The Notes context-menu UI tests are opt-in (they automate Notes and need Accessibility/Automation grants):

touch /tmp/runse-notes-ui-tests-enabled
xcodebuild -scheme RunseMac -destination 'platform=macOS' test \
  -only-testing:RunseMacUITests/NotesContextMenuUITests
rm -f /tmp/runse-notes-ui-tests-enabled

Architecture

Module	Role
RunseCore (framework, macOS-only AppKit-free)	LLMProvider clients (OpenAI Responses, Anthropic Messages, OpenAI-/Anthropic-compatible), PromptRenderer, KeychainStore, SwiftData ProviderProfile / PromptTemplate / TransformHistory.
RunseMac (app)	SwiftUI host, AppServices (Services provider + AccessibilityTrigger), HotkeyController, MenuBarController, SelectionPopoverController, TransformWindowView.
RunseMacTests	Unit tests for prompt rendering, request building, response parsing, secret seeding.
RunseMacUITests	Optional XCUITest suite that drives Notes through the Services menu.

The Xcode project is generated from project.yml via XcodeGen — regenerate with xcodegen generate after changing project.yml, target sources, Info.plist keys, or NSServices entries.

See CLAUDE.md for development guidance, conventions, and signing notes.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Built by @madeye. Issues and pull requests welcome.