A-Instant

A-Instant is an AI-powered text assistant that enhances productivity by enabling quick in-context interactions with AI models directly from any application on your Mac.

Key Features

• Universal: Works in any application where you can highlight text
• Multiple AI Providers: Supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, Mistral, xAI, Groq, Custom OpenAI-compatible API providers and local models via Ollama
• Customizable Activation: Choose your preferred trigger key (defaults to right shift)
• Prompt Library: Save and reuse complex or frequently used prompts

How It Works

1. Select text in any application
2. Double-tap your A-Instant trigger key
3. Enter a prompt for the AI model
4. The selected text will be replaced with the AI response (standard mode) or the AI response will be displayed in a separate area (non-destructive mode)

A-Instant eliminates the need to switch between apps, copy/paste, and wait for results. Simply highlight, double-tap, and you're done!

Examples

Standard Mode

In this mode, the selected text is directly replaced by the AI's response. This is useful for quick edits and transformations.

You can use prompts such as: "Translate this text into French," "Add humor and sarcasm to this comment", "Add relevant hashtags and format for social media", "Correct the grammar and improve the flow of this sentence", "Optimize this code for performance," "Add detailed comments to this code block," or "Write a shell script that automates this process..."

Non-Destructive Mode

In this mode, the AI's response is displayed separately, leaving the original text untouched. This is ideal for summarizing or analyzing text without altering it.

Example prompts include: "Summarize this article in three sentences", "Create a polite and professional response to this email", "Explain what this code snippet does in simple terms", "Extract the key dates and locations from this text" or "List the main arguments presented in this document".

Installation

Requirements

• macOS 14.0 or later
• Access to an AI provider API or local Ollama

Steps

1. Download the latest release from the Releases page
2. Unzip the file (macOS usually does this automatically)
3. Move the app to your Applications folder
4. When prompted, grant accessibility permissions in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility

Usage

Setup

1. Open A-Instant settings from the menu bar icon
2. Configure your AI provider and API key
3. Choose your trigger key if you don't want to use right shift

Using A-Instant

1. Select text in any application
2. Double-tap your trigger key
3. Enter your prompt in the popup window
4. In standard mode: The selected text will be replaced with the AI response
5. In non-destructive mode: The AI response will be displayed below your prompt, with options to copy or clear

License

A-Instant is Open Source and free to use under the MIT License.
Created with ♥ in Barcelona by Pau Oliva Fora