I kept switching between AI tabs all day — Claude for code reviews, ChatGPT for API lookups, Gemini for translations. The constant copy-paste-switch loop was killing my flow, so I built something to fix it.
What is GroAsk?
GroAsk is a native macOS menu bar app. Press ⌥Space, type your question, Tab to pick an AI, hit Enter. The question gets sent to the AI's website automatically. The whole thing takes under 2 seconds.
Features I Use the Most
Select & Ask
Select any text on screen — error messages, code snippets, paragraphs — hit the shortcut, and it goes straight to the AI. No copy-paste needed.
Claude Code GUI
Launch Claude Code from anywhere without opening Terminal. It auto-detects your project directory. If you use Claude Code daily, this alone is worth it.
Image Questions
Cmd+V to paste a screenshot and ask the AI about it. Great for asking "how do I implement this layout?" from a design mockup.
Silent Mode
Hold Option when submitting. The question gets sent but your focus stays where it is — keep coding while the AI thinks.
How It Works
Built with Swift + SwiftUI, native and lightweight (~30MB RAM). It uses Chrome AppleScript to auto-fill and submit questions on AI websites.
The clever part: when AI websites update their UI (which happens often), the injection scripts update from the server automatically — no app update needed.
If the primary method fails, it gracefully degrades to clipboard mode (copies the question so you can paste it manually).
Free vs Pro
Free includes 4 channels: ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Kimi — enough for daily use.
Pro unlocks Claude, Claude Code, and the productivity features above (Select & Ask, image upload, silent mode).
Links
- Website: groask.com
- GitHub: github.com/ThinkerJack/groask-release
macOS 13.0+, Apple Silicon & Intel supported.
Happy to answer any questions or take feedback!
Top comments (5)
this is actually really useful. I do the exact same Claude/ChatGPT/Gemini tab dance - funny how we all ended up in that pattern. the ⌥Space shortcut is smart, I use Raycast for similar stuff but it doesn't route to different AI models. curious if you've thought about adding local models like Ollama? some of my smaller tasks don't need Claude-level power and I'd rather keep those local. also wondering how you handle API key management, do you store them encrypted in keychain?
Thanks Mykola! The "tab dance" is real 😄
Great questions — here's the thing that might surprise you: GroAsk doesn't use any API keys at all. It works by automating the AI websites directly (Chrome AppleScript), so you use your existing free/paid accounts as-is. No API costs, no key management, no keychain storage needed. That's actually one of the core design choices — zero config, just works.
As for local models like Ollama — it's definitely something I've been thinking about. Would love to hear more about your use cases for local models. What kind of "smaller tasks" do you typically run locally?
yeah I feel you on the tab switching. honestly that friction of copy paste between apps adds up. I built something similar for code snippets and the speed thing is crucial - if it's not instant you just stop using it after a week
At first I read the title as "I built a macos menu bar app [...] in 2 seconds" 🤣
Great write-up!
Haha, that would be impressive — a full app in 2 seconds 😂 Maybe I should build that next. Thanks for reading!