Ghostline

Ghostline is a quiet writing companion for macOS. It sits beside your current editor, reads the sentence under your caret, rewrites it in place, and stays out of the document itself.

What It Does

• Rewrites the focused sentence directly in apps like Word, Notes, and browsers.
• Uses local Codex by default, with OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Ollama, and compatible providers available in the app UI.
• Lets you keep the webpage-based control surface while shipping as a real macOS application.
• Supports manual rewrite with Control + Option + G and optional YOLO auto-rewrite after a short pause.
• Includes copy-based bridge prompts for Codex and external humanizer tools when you want to hand a draft off instead of rewriting in place.

Install It Like a Normal Mac App

Build a drag-and-drop installer disk image:

make dmg

That creates:

• Ghostline.app
• Ghostline-mac.dmg

Open the DMG, drag Ghostline.app into Applications, then launch it like a normal Mac app.

First Launch

When Ghostline opens:

1. Click Request All Permissions.
2. Approve Accessibility.
3. Approve Automation.
4. Approve Screen Recording if you want richer screen-aware behavior.

After that, Ghostline should stay usable as a regular installed app from Applications.

Run From Source

If you are working in the repo directly:

cd /Users/wr/github/Ghostline
/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/codex login
swift run GhostlineDesktop

If you want the desktop app to load the live browser-served page instead of the bundled one:

Terminal 1:

cd /Users/wr/github/Ghostline
npm start

Terminal 2:

cd /Users/wr/github/Ghostline
GHOSTLINE_EDITOR_URL=http://127.0.0.1:3000 swift run GhostlineDesktop

Provider Setup

Settings live inside the Ghostline UI:

• Provider
• Model
• API Key
• Endpoint
• YOLO Mode
• Display Mode

For Codex, do not paste an API key into the app. Ghostline uses your local Codex login.

Notes

• make app builds and signs the .app bundle only.
• make zip creates a zip archive of the app bundle.
• make dmg creates the normal macOS installer image.
• The desktop app requests real macOS permissions through the native wrapper, not only through the webpage.