A native macOS spelling assistant. Press a hotkey from any app, type a word the way you think it sounds, get the correct spelling and definition, press ↩ to copy.
I created this utility in a few hours using Claude Code to address a specific need. It may not be useful for others, but I'll leave it here in case you find it helpful or want to customise it. Check out Extending stav for further expansion.
- macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later
- Apple Silicon Mac
- Apple Intelligence enabled (System Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri)
stav is intentionally minimal. Open the panel, type a word you can't quite spell, press ↩ to copy it. No commands needed.
recieve → receive
definately → definitely
metodologi → methodology
Input is treated phonetically, so approximate spellings work. English words only.
For freeform questions, type /prompt followed by your input. The on-device model handles it directly, though results vary for open-ended tasks.
For other writing tasks like rewriting, summarising, translating. I recommend you use macOS Writing Tools (available system-wide via right-click).
The default shortcut is ⌃⌥⇧⌘ Space. Change this to your liking, or use Hyperkey, or a similar utility, for a simplified <super> + Space shortcut.
Open stav/stav.xcodeproj in Xcode 16+ and build. No package dependencies beyond the standard SDK.
stav is designed to be forked and modified. See AGENTS.md for a developer guide covering how to add slash commands and a detailed account of what the on-device model can and cannot do reliably.