AI Rephrase

A macOS menu bar app that rephrases selected text using on-device AI. Works in any application — select text, hit a shortcut, get a polished version instantly pasted back.

Supports Ollama (recommended) and Apple Intelligence. Everything runs locally — no API keys, no cloud.

  

  

Why?

Writing in a non-native language means constantly second-guessing your phrasing. AI Rephrase fixes that — select awkward text anywhere (Slack, email, docs, IDE), press one shortcut, and it gets rephrased in-place. No API keys, no cloud, no copy-pasting into ChatGPT.

How It Works

1. Select text in any application
2. Press ⌥⇧⌘R (customizable)
3. App copies the selection, sends it to on-device AI for rephrasing
4. Rephrased text is automatically pasted back

Features

• Works everywhere — any app that supports text selection
• One shortcut — ⌥⇧⌘R (customizable in the menu bar popover)
• Dual backend — Apple Intelligence (on-device) or Ollama (local models)
• Auto-detection — picks the best available backend, manual switch anytime
• Ollama model picker — choose any locally installed model (gemma3, llama, etc.)
• Persistent history — browse all past rephrasings with search
• Copy original or rephrased — from the history window
• Menu bar app — no dock icon, stays out of your way
• Native macOS — SwiftUI, zero external API dependencies

Backends

Backend	Recommendation
Ollama	Recommended. Works with any language, reliable results. Use gemma3:12b or similar.
Apple Intelligence	Limited. English only, ~3B model struggles with rephrasing (tends to answer questions instead), frequently triggers false-positive content filters.

You can switch between backends at any time via the dropdown in the menu bar popover.

Requirements

• macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later
• Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later)
• Ollama running locally (recommended) — or Apple Intelligence enabled

Setting up Ollama (recommended)

brew install ollama
ollama pull gemma3:12b
ollama serve

AI Rephrase will detect Ollama automatically on launch.

Apple Intelligence (limited)

The built-in Apple model is small (~3B params). It only supports English, may refuse to process some text, and sometimes answers questions instead of rephrasing them. If you still want to use it:

1. Open System Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri
2. Turn Apple Intelligence on
3. Set Mac language and Siri language to English (US)
4. Wait for the on-device model to download

Install

Homebrew

brew install --cask alexrett/tap/ai-rephrase

Download

Grab the latest AiRephrase.dmg from Releases.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/alexrett/rephrase.git
cd rephrase
swift build -c release --arch arm64 --arch x86_64

License

MIT