Feather

Press a shortcut. Tell your computer what to write.
An AI writing assistant for Mac, Windows, and Linux that drafts replies from what's on your screen.

Download · Website · Releases

While working in any app, press ⌥ Space, describe what you want to write, and Feather generates it from the context around your cursor. Press Return (Enter on Windows and Linux) again to paste it into the field you were using.

Reply that I can do tomorrow at 2 pm, in a formal tone.

• Works in any app: chat, email, docs, browser forms. No plugins or copy-paste.
• Reads the context for you: the focused field, selected text, the window's text, and optionally a screenshot.
• Refine as you go: follow up with "shorter" or "more casual," regenerate, or copy instead.
• Private by design: nothing is captured until you press the shortcut, and screen context is discarded when the panel closes.
• Bring your own model, or don't: use your Claude API key, ChatGPT account, or OpenCode Go key for free, or Feather Plus with no key at all.
• Native and open source: SwiftUI on macOS (Sources/), Tauri on Windows and Linux (desktop/), MIT licensed.

It lives in the menu bar on macOS and in the system tray on Windows and Linux. The two apps stay in parity.

How it works

When you invoke Feather, it captures the available context from the frontmost app and sends it with your instruction to the selected provider. Context can include:

• App and window name
• Text in the focused field and selected text
• Readable text from the active window
• A screenshot of the active window, when enabled

The reply streams into Feather's panel. You can insert it, copy it, regenerate it, or keep writing an instruction to refine it.

Nothing is captured until you press the shortcut, and screen context is discarded when the panel closes. To let you bring back a recent conversation with ↑, Feather keeps your last 5 instructions and replies in a file on this computer only; it never saves screen context there. Feather logs generation timings only; it does not log screen contents, instructions, or responses.

Providers

Set up a provider in Feather > Settings > Connection. Providers you have set up are listed first, with the one in use marked; click Use to switch. The first one you set up is used right away, and removing the one in use switches to another that is set up.

Feather Plus

Feather Plus is the hosted option: no API key needed. Click Set Up… next to Feather Plus in Settings > Connection, sign in with a one-time email link, and pick a plan. The account and usage are in Settings > Feather Plus.

Both are the same Feather Plus, billed differently. Each month includes a set amount of model use, shown in Settings as a percentage used. Feather never stores your instructions, screen context, or replies; they pass through its server to the model provider, which handles them under its own data policy. Only your email, plan, and request, token, and cost counts are kept.

Bringing your own Claude API key, ChatGPT account, or OpenCode Go key stays free.

Claude

Claude uses the Anthropic Messages API. Paste a Claude API key from the Claude Console in Settings, then select a model. The default model is claude-haiku-5-5.

Your API key is stored in the macOS Keychain. Usage is billed to your Anthropic account.

OpenCode Go

OpenCode Go uses its OpenAI-compatible streaming API. Paste an OpenCode Go API key in Settings, then select a model from the available-model list. The default model is deepseek-v4.1-flash.

Your API key is stored in the macOS Keychain. Model availability and usage are managed by your OpenCode subscription.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT connects through a browser sign-in flow. Select ChatGPT in Settings and choose Sign in with ChatGPT. Feather stores the resulting session credentials in the macOS Keychain and refreshes them when needed.

Select one of the ChatGPT models offered in Settings. Access and model availability depend on your ChatGPT account.

Setup

1. Launch Feather from the menu bar.
2. Open Settings > Connection and set up Feather Plus, Claude, ChatGPT, or OpenCode Go.
3. Grant the required permissions:
   • Accessibility lets Feather read the focused field and paste a result.
   • Screen Recording lets Feather capture the active-window screenshot.
4. Choose a shortcut and, optionally, configure writing preferences or disable screenshots.

Screen Recording is required by the current permissions flow even when the screenshot option is disabled. Relaunch Feather after granting it.

Download

feather.rxmos.dev/download picks the right file for your system. Every build is also published on the GitHub Releases page:

• Feather-<version>-arm64.dmg for Apple Silicon Macs, macOS 14 or later
• Feather-<version>-x86_64.dmg for Intel Macs, macOS 14 or later
• Feather-<version>-windows-x64-setup.exe for Windows 10 or later, 64-bit
• Feather-<version>-linux-x86_64.AppImage for Linux

The Mac builds are signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so they open like any other app downloaded from the internet.

After Feather opens, grant Accessibility and Screen Recording in its Settings page. You can also grant them manually in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility and Screen Recording. Quit and reopen Feather after granting Screen Recording.

Feather checks for updates on launch and every hour. When a new version is out it asks before installing, and the permissions carry over. You can also choose Check for Updates… from the menu-bar icon.

Code signing policy

Free code signing for the Windows installer is provided by SignPath.io, with a certificate from the SignPath Foundation.

• Authors, reviewers, and approvers: Yuri Ramos is the only maintainer and holds all three roles. Every release is built by the public GitHub Actions workflow from a v* tag, and signed only after it is approved.
• Privacy: Feather reads your screen context only when you press the shortcut, and sends it only to the provider you chose (OpenCode Go, Claude, ChatGPT, or Feather Plus) to generate the reply. It transfers no other information to other networked systems, except the update check against GitHub Releases and feedback you choose to send from the menu, which carries only your message, the optional email you type, and the Feather and system versions.

Keyboard shortcuts

Global shortcut

The default shortcut is ⌥ Space. Choose one of these presets in Settings:

In the Feather panel

If Feather cannot paste into the target field, it copies the result instead.

Build from source

Requirements:

• macOS 14 or later
• Xcode 15 or later

From the repository root:

swift build
swift test
scripts/bundle.sh          # produces dist/Feather.app
open dist/Feather.app

The bundle script uses ad-hoc signing by default. macOS ties Accessibility and Screen Recording grants to the code signature, so use a stable signing identity while developing to retain those permissions between builds:

CODESIGN_IDENTITY="Apple Development: Your Name (TEAMID)" scripts/bundle.sh

Set VERSION to override the app version embedded in the bundle:

VERSION=1.0.0 scripts/bundle.sh

Local builds leave the updater off. To publish a release, push a version tag; the Release macOS workflow builds both architectures, signs them, and publishes the disk images with a signed Sparkle feed per architecture:

git tag v0.1.7 && git push origin v0.1.7

Development

FeatherCore contains the pure, testable logic for prompt construction, provider requests, and server-sent-event parsing. The Feather target contains the macOS app, including the menu-bar UI, permissions, hotkey, screen capture, and text insertion.

Run the unit tests with:

swift test

AppKit, Accessibility, and ScreenCaptureKit behavior should also be verified by running the bundled app.

License

Feather is released under the MIT License.