Select text in any app, press a shortcut, and it's instantly replaced with the translation — in the register you choose (German Sie vs du, French vous vs tu, …). Powered entirely by Apple's on-device model (Apple Intelligence / Foundation Models). No accounts. No API keys. No cloud. Your text never leaves your Mac.
A free, open-source DeepL / Google Translate alternative for macOS — built for people who write and read in more than one language.
🧠 How it works · ⬇️ Install · 🆚 How it compares · 🐛 Report a bug / request a feature
If you write emails, messages, or docs in a language that isn't your first, you're stuck in a loop: copy → open DeepL/Google Translate → paste → translate → copy → paste back. And the result often gets the words right but the tone wrong — which in German (and French, Spanish, Italian…) is the difference between polite and rude.
Two things go wrong with the existing options:
- 🌐 Cloud translators (DeepL, Google Translate) mean sign-ups, monthly limits, and your private text leaving your machine. The "translate in any app" desktop tools are mostly the same — cloud behind a popup.
- 🧩 Local LLM tools get privacy right but make you install Ollama, download a model, or paste in an OpenAI API key first.
Easy Write uses the LLM already built into macOS 26 — so it's private and zero-setup, and it understands formality, which a plain dictionary translator can't.
- ⚡ Translate in place — select → shortcut → the selection is replaced with the translation, in any app
- 🗣️ Formal / informal — one keystroke for German Sie vs du, French vous vs tu, Spanish usted vs tú…
- 📖 Read mode — translate incoming foreign text to English in a popup (for web pages, emails, chats you can't edit)
- 🌍 12 languages — German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Turkish, Polish, Russian, English, Japanese, Chinese
- 🧠 Personal style & glossary — teach it your preferred terms so the output sounds like you
- ⌨️ Custom shortcuts — rebind every action
- 🔒 100% local — no account, no API key, no telemetry, zero network code
- 🪶 Tiny & native — a ~600-line Swift menu-bar app, no Dock clutter, launches at login
The honest version: these tools are good — Easy Write just occupies a different corner (free, private, zero-setup, register-aware).
| Easy Write | DeepL | Google Translate | Apple Translate | Ollama-based tools | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on-device / private | ✅ | ❌ cloud | ❌ cloud | ✅ | ✅ |
| No account or API key | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ||
| Formal vs informal (Sie/du) | ✅ | Pro only | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Replace selection in place | ✅ | app only | ❌ | ✅ | varies |
| Works in any app | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | |
| Setup | just the app | account | — | built-in | install Ollama + model |
| Open source | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Price | Free | Free / Pro | Free | Free | Free |
- macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later, Apple Silicon
- Apple Intelligence enabled — System Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri
git clone https://github.com/onekapisch/easy-write.git
cd easy-write
./setup-signing.sh # one-time: a stable self-signed identity so the Accessibility grant sticks
./build.sh # compile + bundle + sign → EasyWrite.app
cp -R EasyWrite.app /Applications/
open /Applications/EasyWrite.appThen grant Accessibility when prompted (or menu-bar icon → Accessibility Settings…). That's the permission that lets Easy Write read your selection and paste the result. Done — select text and press a shortcut.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
⌥⌘T |
Translate to formal (Sie / vous / usted…) |
⌥⌘I |
Translate to informal (du / tu / tú…) |
⌥⌘P |
Plain translation (keeps the source's natural tone) |
⌥⌘E |
Read → English (popup, for text you can't edit) |
Set the target language, rebind shortcuts, add a personal style guide, and toggle preview-before-replace in Preferences (menu-bar icon → Preferences…).
Nothing leaves your Mac. The model runs locally; there is no network code, no analytics, no accounts. The only permission required is Accessibility — to read your current selection (synthesised ⌘C) and paste the translation back (⌘V). Your clipboard is snapshotted and restored around every swap. Don't take our word for it — the whole app is ~600 lines of Swift. Read it.
See SECURITY.md for the full data-flow and how to report a vulnerability.
See HOW_IT_WORKS.md — the on-device LLM integration, the permissive-guardrails gotcha (Apple's default safety filter blocks ordinary translations!), the system-wide inline swap via synthesised keystrokes, and the code-signing trick that keeps the Accessibility grant alive across rebuilds.
Preview-before-replace for every mode · translation history · more languages · a notarized prebuilt download. Ideas and PRs welcome — open an issue.
Is it really free? Yes — free and open source (MIT). No account, no subscription, no upsell.
Does it send my data anywhere? No. There is zero network code. Everything runs on-device.
Why does it need Accessibility permission? To read your current selection and paste the translation back. That's the only way to work in every app, not just one.
Why not the Mac App Store? Posting synthetic keystrokes is incompatible with App Store sandboxing, so it's distributed build-from-source (a notarized download may come later).
"Apple Intelligence isn't available." Enable it in System Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri (requires Apple Silicon + macOS 26).
How is this different from Apple's built-in Translate? Apple's right-click Translate opens a separate popover you copy from, and it can't do formal vs. informal. Easy Write swaps the text in place and is register-aware.
PRs and issues welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md. Good first contributions: more languages, translation history, long-text handling.
MIT © onekapisch
⭐ If Easy Write saves you a trip to a translation site, star the repo — it genuinely helps other people find it.
Made with Swift + Apple's on-device intelligence · No cloud, no accounts, no tracking.