ClipSlop

Select text. Press a hotkey. Grammar fixed.
AI-powered text transformations for macOS — fix grammar, translate, rewrite, format — without leaving your app.
Free and open-source.

Download  ·  Buy Me a Coffee ☕

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ClipSlop is a free, open-source AI writing tool for macOS that works in any app. Fix grammar, translate text, rewrite in different tones, format as email or Markdown — all with a keyboard shortcut. Use it as a simple AI grammar checker with a single hotkey, or chain multiple AI prompts into a full text transformation pipeline. Supports ChatGPT (free sign-in), OpenAI API, Anthropic Claude, Ollama (local models), and any OpenAI-compatible provider.

Table of Contents

• Why ClipSlop?
• How it works
• Built-in prompts
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Features
• Comparison with other AI writing tools
• Install
• Requirements
• Acknowledgements
• License
• Support

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Why ClipSlop?

Most AI writing tools make you copy text, switch to a browser, paste, wait, copy the result, switch back, paste. ClipSlop does it with a hotkey — right where you're already typing.

Fix grammar without thinking about it:

select text → ⌃⌘G → grammar is fixed in place. Done.

That's Quick Paste — assign any prompt to a global hotkey, and it runs inline: captures the selected text, transforms it, pastes the result back. You never leave your app.

Need more than one step? Chain transformations into a pipeline:

⌃⌘C → RB → TE → FE → done.

Each key picks a prompt from a navigable tree — RB Rewrite → Business, TE Translate → English, FE Format → Email. Every step is saved, arrow keys to go back, branch from any point. No browser, no copy-paste, no tab switching.

Free, open-source, works with any AI provider — ChatGPT, Claude, Ollama, or your own API.

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How it works

Quick Paste (fastest)

Select text → ⌃⌘G → grammar fixed in place

Assign any prompt to a global hotkey. ClipSlop captures the text, runs the prompt, pastes the result — all in the background.

Full pipeline

Select text → ⌃⌘C → Navigate prompts with keys → Chain transformations → Copy result

1. Trigger — Select text anywhere, press ⌃⌘C. Text appears in a floating panel.
2. Navigate — Prompt tree with single-key mnemonics: T → Translate, R → Rewrite, F → Format. Drill into folders, pick a prompt — one keypress each.
3. Chain — Result becomes input for the next prompt. Translate → Elaborate → Format as Email. Each step saved.
4. History — Arrow keys navigate the full transformation chain. Jump to any step, branch off.
5. Use — Copy (⌘C), edit (⌘E), save (⌘S), or keep chaining.

Features

• Quick Paste — Assign a global hotkey to any prompt. Captures selected text, runs the prompt, pastes the result inline — you never leave your app
• Open & Run — Like Quick Paste, but opens ClipSlop and auto-runs the prompt so you can review, edit, or keep chaining
• Prompt shortcuts — Configure per-prompt in Settings → Prompts; shortcuts appear in the menu bar organized by folder
• Keyboard-first — Single-key mnemonics for prompt navigation, all actions have shortcuts
• Full pipeline — Chain unlimited transformations, navigate history with arrow keys, branch from any step
• Multi-provider — OpenAI (sign in with ChatGPT or API key), Anthropic, Ollama, CLI tools, any OpenAI-compatible API
• Nested prompt tree — Organize prompts in folders, each with a mnemonic key
• Built-in prompts — Translate (18 languages), Rewrite (7 tones), Format (7 tools), Dev (6 tools), Analyze (4), Convert
• Manual editing — Edit any result inline (⌘E), saved as a history step
• Find in text — ⌘F search with highlighting across all display modes
• Screen OCR — Capture and recognize text from any screen region with OCR (⇧⌘2)
• Blank editor — Open an empty editor (⌃⌘N), write text, run prompts on it
• Generate prompts with AI — Describe what you want, AI writes the system prompt
• Per-prompt settings — Override provider, display mode per prompt
• Import/Export — Share prompt configurations as JSON
• iCloud Sync — Prompts sync across Macs
• Temperature & reasoning — Per-provider temperature control, reasoning effort for ChatGPT models
• Multiple display modes — Plain text, Markdown (native or HTML renderer), HTML
• Adjustable UI — Opacity, size, theme, launch at login

Built-in prompts

[⌘/] // Your prompt — type // followed by your instruction to run a one-off custom prompt
[T]  Translate   → English, Finnish, Russian, Spanish, French, German, + 12 more
[R]  Rewrite     → Elaborate, Neutral, Professional, Warm, Business, Playful, Biblical
[F]  Format      → Fix Grammar, Clean Up, Beautify Code, Reformat, Email, Markdownify, HTMLify
[D]  Dev         → Add Comments, Beautify Code, Clean Logs, Explain Code, Explain Stack Trace, Naming
[A]  Analyze     → Summary, Explain Simply, TL;DR, Condense 20%
[C]  Convert     → HTML, Markdown

Some prompts ship with default global keyboard shortcuts (Quick Paste pastes the result inline, Open & Run opens ClipSlop):

Shortcut	Prompt	Mode
⌃⌘/	// Your prompt	Quick Paste
⌃⌘⌥/	// Your prompt	Open & Run
⌃⌘G	Fix Grammar	Quick Paste
⌃⌘F	Reformat	Quick Paste
⌃⌘T	Translate → English	Quick Paste
⌃⌘⌥T	Translate → English	Open & Run
⌃⌘⌥A	Explain Simply	Open & Run

Fully customizable — add your own prompts, folders, mnemonics, and global shortcuts in Settings → Prompts.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
⌃⌘C	Trigger ClipSlop (selected text)
⌃⌘V	Process from clipboard
⌃⌘N	Blank editor
⇧⌘2	Screen capture (OCR)
⌘E	Edit mode
⌘F	Find in text
⌘S	Save to file
⌘O	Open in TextEdit
⌘D	Cycle display mode
⌘,	Settings
←→	Navigate history
↑↓	Scroll text
Space	Page down
Esc	Close / Back

Comparison with other AI writing tools

	ClipSlop	RewriteBar	WritingTools	Cai	ClipboardAI	WritersBrew	Elephas	Fixkey	ShortcutAI	Raycast AI	PopClip	ChatGPT (web)
Prompt chaining	✅ Unlimited chaining, full history	⚠️ Sequential action flow, no history	❌ One action	❌ One action	❌ One action	❌ One action	❌ One action	❌ One action	❌ One action	⚠️ Limited, no true pipeline	❌ One action	❌ Manual workflow
Keyboard-first	✅ Single-key mnemonics, full pipeline navigation, global shortcuts for text fields (Quick Paste, Open & Run) and on-screen text (OCR)	⚠️ Shortcut + action picker	⚠️ Hotkey + action picker	⚠️ ⌥C hotkey + action list	⚠️ Per-prompt shortcuts	⚠️ Shortcut + menu	⚠️ Super Command shortcut	⚠️ Custom shortcuts	⚠️ Shortcuts + // text commands	⚠️ Launcher, menu-based AI	❌ Mouse-driven	❌ Browser UI
Prompt organization	✅ Nested folders with mnemonics	⚠️ Flat action list	⚠️ Fixed presets + custom instructions	⚠️ Flat action list	⚠️ Flat list	⚠️ Flat preset list	⚠️ Flat snippets	⚠️ Flat list	⚠️ Flat list	⚠️ Flat command list	⚠️ Flat list	❌ Chat history
Step history	✅ Navigate back/forward, branch from any step	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	⚠️ Scroll up
Branching history	✅ Branch from any intermediate step	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
Provider freedom	✅ ChatGPT sign-in (free), API keys, Ollama (local), CLI tools	✅ 37+ providers, local models, Apple Intelligence	✅ Gemini (free), OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, MLX local	✅ Built-in local, Ollama, LM Studio, Apple Intelligence, cloud APIs	⚠️ BYO key (OpenAI, OpenRouter)	⚠️ BYO OpenAI key only	⚠️ Built-in + BYO keys (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini)	❌ Built-in only (provider unclear)	❌ Managed API only (no BYO keys)	⚠️ Multiple, not fully open BYO	⚠️ OpenAI API	❌ OpenAI only
Screen OCR	✅ Capture any screen region (⇧⌘2)	❌ No	⚠️ Image processing via AI vision	✅ Screenshot text extraction	❌ No	✅ OCR to Text AI	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	⚠️ Image uploads only
Platform	⚠️ macOS (native, works in any app)	⚠️ macOS (native, works in any app)	✅ macOS + Windows + Linux	⚠️ macOS (native, works in any app)	✅ macOS + Windows (native, works in any app)	⚠️ macOS (native, works in any app)	⚠️ macOS + iOS	⚠️ macOS	❌ Chrome extension only (browser text fields)	⚠️ macOS	⚠️ macOS	✅ Web (any platform)
Price	✅ Free, open-source	⚠️ $29 one-time (BYO key) or $5/mo	✅ Free, open-source	✅ Free, open-source	⚠️ €29 one-time (7-day trial)	⚠️ $24–$49 one-time + API costs	❌ $9.99–$39.99/mo	❌ $48/year	⚠️ Free (limited) / $5.90–$19.90/mo	⚠️ Free tier + Pro ~$8/mo	⚠️ $30 one-time + API costs	❌ $20/mo

Install

Homebrew

brew tap mekedron/tap
brew install --cask clipslop

Download

Grab the latest .dmg from Releases. Drag to Applications.

Opening the app (important)

ClipSlop is not signed with an Apple Developer certificate, so macOS will block it on first launch. This is expected — I simply don't want to pay Apple $99/year for a developer account.

The app is safe. The source code is fully open, and all release builds are produced automatically by GitHub Actions — nothing is added to the binary that isn't in this repository.

To open ClipSlop:

1. Drag ClipSlop.app to your Applications folder
2. Double-click to open — macOS will show a warning and refuse
3. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security
4. Scroll down — you'll see "ClipSlop was blocked from use because it is not from an identified developer"
5. Click Open Anyway, then confirm

You only need to do this once. After that, the app opens normally.

After updating to a new version

Because the app is unsigned, macOS may change its internal bundle identifier between versions. When this happens, previously granted permissions (Accessibility, Screen Recording) stop working. To fix this:

1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility
2. Find ClipSlop in the list and remove it (select → click "−")
3. Click "+" and re-add ClipSlop.app from your Applications folder
4. Do the same for Screen Recording if you use the OCR feature

This is an unfortunate side effect of not having a signed app. Your prompts, providers, and settings are not affected.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/mekedron/ClipSlop.git
cd ClipSlop
swift build
# Or open Package.swift in Xcode → Run

Requires macOS 14+ and Xcode with Swift 6.0+.

Requirements

• macOS 14.0+
• An AI provider: sign in with ChatGPT (free), API key (Anthropic, OpenAI), local Ollama, or CLI tools

Acknowledgements

ClipSlop is built with these open-source libraries:

• KeyboardShortcuts by Sindre Sorhus — customizable global keyboard shortcuts
• LaunchAtLogin by Sindre Sorhus — launch at login support
• Sparkle — software update framework for macOS
• swift-markdown by Apple / Swift Project — Markdown parsing and rendering
• Textual by Guillermo Gonzalez — native SwiftUI Markdown rendering
• swift-rich-html-editor by Infomaniak — WYSIWYG rich HTML editor
• Lobe Icons by LobeHub — provider icons for OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, Claude, Codex

License

MIT License — see LICENSE.

Support

If ClipSlop saves you time, consider buying me a coffee ☕