Got GPT-5 but still copying and pasting?

#vibecoding #ai #productivity #showdev

This summer I started a small vibe-coding experiment — just for fun.

The idea: edit, translate, and refine text with AI right where you’re working, without switching windows or tabs.

It was supposed to be a weekend hack. Instead, it became a daily tool I can’t work without — so I shipped it to GitHub and the App Store.

🛠 From Need to Prototype

I often use AI for small edits — fixing typos, translating a sentence, rewriting a short code snippet.

But opening ChatGPT in the browser, pasting text, getting results, and pasting back… it kills focus.

So I built a minimal macOS app:

Select text in any app
Press a global shortcut (⌥ + /)
Type a command (e.g. /fix or /en)
AI processes the text and replaces it in place — no copy-paste, no window switching

⚡ Stage 1: Quick Hack in Swift

The first prototype was built in one evening — my first time using Swift.

With a little help from AI, I had a functional app that:

Detected selected text
Sent it to an AI provider
Returned the result via the clipboard

At this point, I called it vibe-coding: fast prototyping just to see if the idea works.

🎯 Stage 2: Minimalist UX

The UI should not distract — just a small popup, quick keyboard shortcut, hands stay on the keyboard.

Added features along the way:

Command shortcuts (/en, /fix, /shorten)
Command history (↑/↓ like in the terminal)
Local commands without AI (.sort, .unique, .trim)

🚀 Stage 3: Shipping It

When I turned it off, I felt its absence — that was the sign to release it.

Challenges:

Passing App Store review (had to create a separate China build using DeepSeek only)
Simple backend for paid users — no accounts, just App Store purchase receipts as IDs
No logs beyond credit counters