Transy

Minimal, ultra-fast on-demand pop-up translator for macOS & Linux.
Press a hotkey → selected text is translated to Vietnamese → tooltip appears at cursor → auto-dismisses in 5 seconds.

No daemon. No background service. Zero RAM when idle.

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How it works

[Hotkey] → spawn binary → read selection → translate API → tooltip at cursor → exit

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Requirements

Platform	Requirements
Linux (X11)	xclip, xdotool
Linux (Wayland)	wl-paste, wlr-randr
macOS 13+	Xcode Command Line Tools

Build dependencies

• Rust stable (rustup — see rustup.rs)
• Linux only: pkg-config, libssl-dev, libxkbcommon-dev

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt-get install -y pkg-config libssl-dev libxkbcommon-dev xclip xdotool

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Install Rust

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"

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Development

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/transy.git
cd transy

# Build (debug)
cargo build

# Run tests
cargo test --workspace

# Lint
cargo clippy --workspace -- -D warnings

# Format
cargo fmt --all

# Format check (CI mode)
cargo fmt --all -- --check

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Configuration

All settings persist to a JSON file in the platform config dir:

OS	Path
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/transy/config.json
Linux	~/.config/transy/config.json

Open the GUI: right-click the tray icon → Settings....

Field	Default	Description
Hotkey	Cmd+Shift+T	Global shortcut to trigger translation. Click Capture then press the desired combo (Esc to cancel). Reloads live — no restart.
Auto-dismiss (s)	5	Seconds before the tooltip auto-closes.
Target language	vi	Google Translate tl= param (e.g. en, ja, zh).
Max chars	5000	Translation input is truncated to this size.
HTTP timeout (s)	5	Translation request timeout.
Screen W / H	1920 / 1080	Bounds used to clamp tooltip position.

Edit the JSON by hand if you prefer; the next launch picks it up.

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Build for release

# Linux x86_64
cargo build --release
# Binary: ./target/release/transy-platform

# macOS universal (requires both targets installed)
rustup target add x86_64-apple-darwin aarch64-apple-darwin
cargo build --release --target x86_64-apple-darwin
cargo build --release --target aarch64-apple-darwin
lipo -create \
  target/x86_64-apple-darwin/release/transy-platform \
  target/aarch64-apple-darwin/release/transy-platform \
  -output transy

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Bind a hotkey

Ubuntu GNOME

1. Settings → Keyboard → Custom Shortcuts → Add
2. Name: Transy
3. Command: /path/to/transy-platform
4. Shortcut: Ctrl+T (or your preference)

macOS

1. Open Shortcuts.app → New Shortcut
2. Add action: Run Shell Script → /path/to/transy-platform "$SELECTED_TEXT"
3. Assign keyboard shortcut: Cmd+Opt+T

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Project structure

transy/
├── transy-core/        # Platform-agnostic: translation engine, text capture logic
├── transy-platform/    # Binary: OS detection, mouse position, egui tooltip
├── .github/workflows/  # CI: build + test + clippy + fmt
└── docs/               # Architecture, roadmap, user stories

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Performance targets

Metric	Target
Binary size	< 10 MB
Cold start to tooltip	< 1 second
Peak RAM	< 50 MB
RAM after exit	0 MB

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License

MIT