I got tired of sending half-written thoughts to cloud AI, so I built this for Mac

Every AI writing tool seemed to ask me to do something slightly ridiculous:

Write half an email.

Stop.

Copy it.

Open an AI tab.

Paste it.

Ask it to fix the sentence.

Copy the answer.

Go back.

Paste it.

Continue writing.

All of that because I wanted to fix a typo or make one sentence sound less awkward.

So I built DraftKey.

👉 https://www.getdraftkey.com/

The idea is pretty simple:

AI writing help should feel more like spellcheck and less like visiting another destination.

So DraftKey lives where I'm already typing

I'm writing an email and make a typo?

Keep typing.

I'm halfway through a sentence and blank on the next few words?

Hit Tab if the suggestion is good.

I wrote something that sounds way more aggressive than it did in my head?

⌘ + ⌥ → make it friendlier → review → insert.

No copy/paste pilgrimage required.

DraftKey currently gives you:

automatic spelling + grammar cleanup when you pause

AI autocomplete for the next few words

rewrites like shorter, clearer, friendlier, professional, etc.

custom rewrite instructions

per-app controls

and one completely unnecessary feature that I now refuse to remove…

The AI runs on your Mac

This was the part I cared about most.

Think about the text you type every day:

Client emails.

Internal messages.

PR descriptions.

Notes.

Unfinished ideas.

Things you would absolutely never publish.

It felt weird to me that fixing "teh" or rewriting a two-sentence email could require sending the entire thing to a cloud AI service.

So DraftKey's writing model runs locally on Apple Silicon.

Autocomplete, corrections, and rewrites are processed on the Mac.

After the model is downloaded, your actual writing doesn't need to be shipped off to a cloud AI API.

There are still internet-connected parts of the product — activation, updates, and downloading the model — because I'm not going to pretend the machine never touches the internet.

But the text you're actively writing?

That's the part I wanted to keep local.

The annoying engineering problem wasn't actually the AI

It was text fields.

If you've ever worked with macOS Accessibility APIs, you can probably guess where this went.

Not every app exposes text in exactly the same way.

Normal text fields can behave beautifully.

Custom editors can decide they have other plans for your afternoon.

Secure fields should obviously be left alone.

And sometimes an app technically exposes a text field while still doing something bizarre enough to make you question several life decisions.

So I'm intentionally not marketing DraftKey as:

WORKS PERFECTLY IN EVERY APP™ 🚀

It doesn't.

It works in compatible macOS text fields, and I'm continuing to improve compatibility as I find edge cases.

I would rather tell people where the limitation is than pretend macOS Accessibility is magic.

And then I made a terrible product-management decision

I added mechanical keyboard sounds.

Six of them.

Recorded key presses/releases.

Cream.

Topre.

Keychron Red.

Cherry MX Blue.

Cherry MX Black.

And more.

Then I added volume control.

Then tone control.

Then stereo positioning, so keys on the left side of your keyboard can sound slightly more to the left in your headphones.

Did my local AI writing assistant need spatially positioned mechanical keyboard sounds?

Absolutely not.

Was it worth it?

Unfortunately, yes.

You can actually try that part in the browser without buying or installing anything:

👉 https://www.getdraftkey.com/

Headphones recommended.

I apologize in advance if you lose 15 minutes comparing switches.

I also didn't want another AI subscription

DraftKey is currently sold as a lifetime license for up to three Macs.

No monthly meter running because you wrote too many emails this month.

The local model is about 1.12 GB, and you'll need:

Apple Silicon

macOS 14+

at least 8 GB RAM

Local AI obviously has tradeoffs.

It uses your hardware.

There's a model download.

Cloud models can be much larger.

But for the tiny writing tasks I do dozens of times every day, I've ended up really liking the trade:

smaller local model + almost zero workflow interruption + private text.

The thing I'm trying to build

I'm not trying to replace ChatGPT or Claude.

If I need to reason through something complicated, I want a full AI conversation.

DraftKey is for a different category of moment:

I already know what I want to say.
Just help me say it without breaking my flow.

That's the whole product thesis.

AI writing that feels less like opening an AI product...

…and more like another native capability of the text field.

If you're on an Apple Silicon Mac, I'd genuinely love for you to try it:

👉 https://www.getdraftkey.com/

And even if you have zero intention of buying it, go try the keyboard sounds on the site and tell me which switch wins.

I'm especially curious what other devs think about:

1. Local model vs. cloud model for something this ambient
2. Where you'd actually use autocomplete during the day
3. Which macOS apps you'd most want me to make sure work well

I'll be in the comments.

And yes, I am prepared to defend the completely unnecessary keyboard sounds.