SidePrompt

Local-first Mac scratchpad for AI-assisted work — capture selections from any app, stage prompts, copy them back when ready.

Open source. MIT licensed. No account, no sync, no telemetry.

Why

When you bounce between ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and the browser, useful bits scatter everywhere. SidePrompt is a floating queue for those bits: capture with a shortcut, organize in sections, copy back as a list when you need them.

Features

• Double-tap Shift (configurable) to capture the current selection from any app
• Floating panel with sections, search, checkboxes
• ⌘-click multi-select, Shift-click range select
• Copy / Copy as List / Merge
• Prompt templates with {{variables}}
• Local JSON storage only

Requirements

• macOS 14+
• Accessibility permission (reads text selection + global shortcuts)

Install (from source)

git clone https://github.com/yavuz/SidePrompt.git
cd SidePrompt
xcodegen generate
open SidePrompt.xcodeproj

Build & run in Xcode (sign with your team), then grant Accessibility for the built app.

CLI:

xcodegen generate
xcodebuild -scheme SidePrompt -configuration Debug -derivedDataPath build/DerivedData build
open build/DerivedData/Build/Products/Debug/SidePrompt.app

Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Capture selection	Double-tap Shift (Settings → configurable)
Show panel	Menu bar icon or ⌘⇧P (configurable)
Edit item	Click
Multi-select	⌘-click
Range select	Shift-click
Copy selected	⌘C
Copy as list	⌘⇧C
Select all	⌘A
Merge selected	⌘⇧M
Delete selected	Delete
Close editor / panel	Esc

Templates: panel ••• → Templates… — use {{variable}} placeholders.

Data

~/Library/Application Support/SidePrompt/store.json

Nothing is uploaded. Keep Time Machine (or any backup) on.

Project layout

SidePrompt/           # Swift sources
docs/                 # Landing page + Sparkle appcast scaffold
scripts/package.sh    # Release ZIP/DMG (+ optional notarize)
project.yml           # XcodeGen

Release (maintainers)

./scripts/package.sh
# Optional:
NOTARIZE=1 APPLE_ID=... APP_PASSWORD=... TEAM_ID=... ./scripts/package.sh

Sparkle keys / hosted appcast are optional for open-source builds. Placeholder SUPublicEDKey disables the updater until configured.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. Keep the app local-first: no analytics, no forced accounts.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.