QuickGPT

A tiny Windows popup to chat with ChatGPT from anywhere, toggled by a global hotkey. It stays out of the way, appears with a smooth animation, and keeps a minimal local history.

Features

• Global hotkey (default: Ctrl+Alt+Space) to show/hide the popup
• Frameless, always‑on‑top, rounded UI with animated rainbow border while generating
• System tray icon with Show/Hide and Quit
• Multi‑turn chat; Enter sends, Shift+Enter inserts newline; Esc hides
• Model dropdown to switch between gpt-5 and o4-mini
• Emoji top‑bar buttons:
  • 👁/🙈 show/hide system messages in the transcript
  • 🧹 clear chat history (also clears persisted history)
  • ❌ hide the popup
• Minimal chat history persisted at %APPDATA%/QuickGPT/history.json
• Uses OPENAI_API_KEY; optional MODEL, QUICKGPT_HOTKEY, QUICKGPT_DEBUG

Requirements

• Windows 10/11
• Python 3.10+
• Packages: PySide6, keyboard, openai, python-dotenv (optional but recommended)

Install dependencies:

pip install PySide6 keyboard openai python-dotenv

Quickstart

1. Set your OpenAI API key (recommended via a .env file in the project folder):

# .env
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
# Optional defaults
MODEL=gpt-5
QUICKGPT_HOTKEY=ctrl+alt+space
QUICKGPT_DEBUG=0

2. Run the app:

python main.py

3. Use the hotkey (Ctrl+Alt+Space by default) to show/hide the popup.

Usage

• Type into the input field and press Enter to send; Shift+Enter makes a newline.
• Use the top bar:
  • Model dropdown to switch between gpt-5 and o4-mini (persists across restarts)
  • 👁/🙈 toggles system messages (e.g., “Thinking…”, errors)
  • 🧹 clears on‑screen and persisted history
  • ❌ hides the popup (app continues running in the tray)
• The animated rainbow border appears only while generating and fades in/out smoothly.

Configuration

Environment variables (or .env):

• OPENAI_API_KEY (required): your OpenAI API key
• MODEL (optional): default model, gpt-5 or o4-mini (UI can change per run)
• QUICKGPT_HOTKEY (optional): e.g., ctrl+alt+space, ctrl+shift+g
• QUICKGPT_DEBUG (optional): set to 1 to print debug lines in the transcript

History is stored at:

• %APPDATA%/QuickGPT/history.json

Troubleshooting

• Hotkey doesn’t work:
  • Some shortcuts require elevated privileges on Windows; try running a terminal as Administrator or choose a different key combo.
  • The app uses a native Windows hotkey first; if it fails, it falls back to the keyboard package.
• No output / API errors:
  • Ensure OPENAI_API_KEY is set and valid.
  • Verify internet connectivity and that your key has access to the selected model.
• Emojis look small or misaligned:
  • Windows emoji rendering varies by font; increasing DPI/scaling or font size in code can help. Ask if you want me to adjust sizes.

Showcase