Select any text on your Mac. PointerSense explains it instantly — no copy, no paste, no switching apps.
Photosynthesis is how plants turn sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into food, releasing oxygen as a byproduct.
How it works
PointerSense lives in your menu bar and watches for text you select, then sends it to your chosen AI model.
Highlight any word, sentence, error, or code snippet in any macOS app using your cursor.
PointerSense picks up the selection through macOS Accessibility and sends it to your AI provider.
A concise explanation floats near your cursor. Speak it aloud, copy it, or ask for more detail.
Features
Browsers, terminals, editors, documents, PDFs — anywhere macOS Accessibility exposes text.
OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq, Ollama Cloud, and Command Code. Groq + gpt-oss-20b runs ~1000 tokens/sec.
API keys stored in macOS Keychain. No screenshots, no keystroke logging, no history by default. Only the text you select leaves your Mac.
Have answers read aloud using native macOS speech. Great for accessibility or hands-free reading.
Install once. PointerSense checks for new versions on launch and installs signed updates in-place — no manual re-download.
No dock icon, no heavy UI. Pause, switch modes, and manage settings from the menu bar.
Install
Set up takes under a minute. After this first download, PointerSense installs its own updates — you'll never have to come back to this page unless you want to.
Grab the latest release below. Builds are for Apple Silicon Macs (M1, M2, M3, M4). This is your one and only manual download.
If macOS warns about an unidentified developer, right-click PointerSense and choose Open, then confirm.
On first launch, open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility and enable PointerSense.
Open Setup from the menu bar and paste a key for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq, Ollama Cloud, or Command Code. Keys go straight to macOS Keychain.
Releases
macOS app releases. Each version includes release notes and a direct download link.
## What's new in v0.4.0 **Auto-updater is here.** This is the last version you have to download manually — going forward, PointerSense checks for updates on launch and offers to install them in-place. ### Auto-update - On launch, PointerSense silently checks `https://github.com/Anuragh33/PointerSense-site/releases/latest/download/latest.json` for a newer version. - When a new release is available, the **Overview** tab shows an indigo "Update available — vX.Y.Z" banner with a single **Install & restart** button. - Updates are minisign-signed; the public key is embedded in the binary so a tampered update bundle is rejected. - You can also manually check at any time via the "Check for updates" button in Overview. ### Migrating from older versions Once v0.4.0 is installed, future releases (v0.4.1, v0.5.0, etc.) will arrive automatically. Users on v0.3.0 or earlier will need to do this download one last time. ### Requirements - macOS (Apple Silicon) - Accessibility permission required on first launch - API key for at least one supported AI provider ### Install 1. Open `PointerSense_0.4.0_aarch64.dmg` and drag PointerSense to Applications. 2. If macOS warns about an unidentified developer, right-click the app and choose Open. 3. Grant Accessibility in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. 4. Open Setup from the menu bar, go to AI Providers, paste your API key.
## What's new in v0.3.0 A bigger release covering security, a new global shortcut, and reliability fixes. ### Security - **API keys now live in macOS Keychain.** They were previously stored in plaintext at `~/Library/Application Support/PointerSense/settings.json`. New keys go straight to Keychain. Existing keys in your settings.json continue to work for backward compatibility, and the next time you save a key in Setup the legacy plaintext entry is migrated to Keychain and removed from the json automatically. ### Features - **Global keyboard shortcut: `⌘ Shift E`** — explain whatever text is currently selected, from anywhere on macOS. Works in every trigger mode including **Manual** and **Paused**, which finally makes Manual mode useful. - **Sticky pinned tooltip** — when you press Pin, the tooltip stays put. New selections no longer override a pinned answer. Press Pin again or click ✕ to dismiss and resume. ### Reliability - **Settings file mutex** — rapid concurrent settings changes (e.g. toggling several menu bar items quickly) can no longer drop updates. - **Explain button loading state** — clicking Explain in the Overview tab now disables the button until the API call completes, preventing duplicate concurrent requests. ### Requirements - macOS (Apple Silicon) - Accessibility permission required on first launch - API key for at least one supported AI provider ### Install 1. Open `PointerSense_0.3.0_aarch64.dmg` and drag PointerSense to Applications. 2. If macOS warns about an unidentified developer, right-click the app and choose Open. 3. Grant Accessibility in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. 4. Open Setup from the menu bar, go to AI Providers, paste your API key. macOS will ask permission to access Keychain the first time — choose Always Allow.
## What's new in v0.2.2 Polish release. ### Changed - **New menu bar icon**: Replaced the busy cursor + gear composition with a bold pointer arrow and a small "sense" dot just ahead of the tip. Designed as a true macOS template icon (single-color silhouette that auto-inverts for dark mode) and sized at 66x66 base so it scales cleanly to 22x22 on the menu bar. Everything else is unchanged from v0.2.1. ### Requirements - macOS (Apple Silicon) - Accessibility permission required on first launch - API key for at least one supported AI provider ### Install 1. Open `PointerSense_0.2.2_aarch64.dmg` and drag PointerSense to Applications. 2. If macOS warns about an unidentified developer, right-click the app and choose Open. 3. Grant Accessibility in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. 4. Open Setup from the menu bar, go to AI Providers, paste your API key.
## What's new in v0.2.1 A focused bug-fix and documentation release. ### Bug fixes - **Multi-monitor tooltip positioning**: Tooltips now appear on the same screen as your cursor instead of being forced onto the primary display. Uses `monitor_from_point` with a primary-monitor fallback. - **Detailed answers no longer get cut off**: The tooltip body is now scrollable with a subtle styled scrollbar instead of silently truncating at 5 lines. Window also bumped from 200px to 240px tall so most one or two paragraph answers fit without scrolling. - **Onboarding checklist accuracy**: The "Start detection" step no longer marks itself complete before you've added a key or granted Accessibility. Now requires all three preconditions before showing as done. ### Documentation - New **How it works** sidebar section in the setup window with: - Four numbered step cards walking through the full Select → Read → Explain → Tooltip flow - Reference card for the three detection modes (Selected only / Hover any / Smart) - Reference card for the three trigger modes (Automatic / Hold Option / Manual) - Tips card covering re-granting Accessibility, fastest-setup recommendation, and how to pause ### Requirements - macOS (Apple Silicon — aarch64) - Accessibility permission required on first launch - API key for at least one supported AI provider ### Install 1. Open `PointerSense_0.2.1_aarch64.dmg` and drag PointerSense to Applications. 2. If macOS warns about an unidentified developer, right-click the app and choose Open. 3. Grant Accessibility in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. 4. Open Setup from the menu bar, go to AI Providers, paste your API key.
## What's new in v0.2.0 A meaningful refresh — redesigned setup UI, two new AI providers, and detection bug fixes. ### Setup window — full redesign - macOS-style sidebar layout: **Overview / AI Providers / Detection / Output / Privacy** - Indigo + lavender color palette matching the website - **API Keys** completely reworked — one clean row per provider with show/hide toggle, status badge, Save/Clear, and "Use this" to switch active provider - Segmented controls for detection mode, trigger mode, output mode, and answer length - iOS-style toggle switches for History and Launch-at-login - Cleaner Overview tab ### New AI providers - **Groq** — default model `openai/gpt-oss-20b` (~1000 tokens/sec, the fastest cloud LLM available) - **Command Code AI** — OpenAI-compatible endpoint - Six total providers now: OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama Cloud, Groq, Command Code ### Ollama Cloud model list refreshed - Added: Gemini 3 Flash (new default), Nemotron 3 Nano 4B, RNJ-1, Gemma 4 31B Cloud - Removed: nemotron-3-super and deepseek-v3.2 (these are reasoning models that caused 3-4s delays) - Fixed: `qwen3.6` (didn't exist) → `qwen3.5` (correct tag) ### Detection bug fixes - **Selected Text Only** now works in Safari, Chrome, Notes, Electron apps. Previously it only read from the system-wide focused element which fails in webviews; now falls back to reading `AXSelectedText` from the element directly under the cursor. - **Hold Option** now feels instant — previously it still waited for the 700ms dwell delay, now it bypasses dwell entirely and uses a 600ms rate limit. Hold Option → fires immediately. ### Requirements - macOS (Apple Silicon — aarch64) - Accessibility permission required on first launch - API key for at least one supported AI provider ### Install 1. Open `PointerSense_0.2.0_aarch64.dmg` and drag PointerSense to Applications. 2. If macOS warns about an unidentified developer, right-click the app and choose Open. 3. Grant Accessibility in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. 4. Open Setup from the menu bar, go to AI Providers, and paste your API key.
## What's new First public release of PointerSense — a macOS menu bar assistant that explains selected text instantly using AI. ### Features - Select any text on your Mac and get an instant AI explanation in a floating tooltip - Six AI providers: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Ollama Cloud, Groq, and Command Code AI - Frosted-glass pill tooltip with pin, copy, speak, and expand controls - Selected-text-only detection mode — no accidental triggers from hovering menu items - Optional text-to-speech via native macOS `say` - Menu bar native — no dock icon, no heavy UI - Excluded apps list (1Password excluded by default) ### Requirements - macOS (Apple Silicon — aarch64) - Accessibility permission required on first launch - API key for at least one supported AI provider ### Install 1. Open `PointerSense_0.1.0_aarch64.dmg` and drag PointerSense to Applications. 2. First launch: if macOS warns about an unidentified developer, right-click the app and choose Open. 3. Grant Accessibility in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. 4. Open Setup from the menu bar and paste an API key for your provider.