How Corrigo works

Everything the app does, explained — from the first launch to advanced provider setups. Five minutes of reading covers all of it.

Getting started

1. Install

The fastest way is the Terminal installer — it avoids Gatekeeper warnings during the beta:

curl -fsSL https://corrigo.me/install.sh | sh

Or download the DMG, drag Corrigo into Applications and open it. Because beta builds aren't notarized by Apple yet, macOS will object the first time: go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway.

2. Grant the Accessibility permission

Corrigo uses the macOS Accessibility API to see text fields and write corrected text back — it cannot work without it. The onboarding wizard asks for it on first launch: click Request permission, then enable Corrigo in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.

3. Add your API key

Corrigo is bring-your-own-key: paste an OpenAI API key and requests go straight from your Mac to OpenAI — no middleman, no markup. The key is validated with a test call and stored only in the macOS Keychain.

The bubble

Focus any editable text field and type at least three words — Corrigo's bubble appears in the field's bottom-right corner. It works system-wide: native Mac apps, Electron apps like Slack, and web apps in your browser.

• It follows the field as you move or resize the window, on any display.
• It never appears in password fields, during secure input, or in apps you've blocked (password managers and terminals are blocked by default).
• Ring colors: teal — ready · gray — working · red — something needs attention (usually a missing API key).
• The minimum word count is adjustable in Settings → General.

Correction

Click the bubble (or press ⌘⇧G) and the suggestion popover opens on the Correction tab. Your text — the whole field, or just your selection if you made one — is sent for proofreading: grammar, spelling and punctuation, in whatever language you wrote.

• Changed words are highlighted in green, with the change count shown below.
• Replace writes the corrected text back into the original field. Return does the same.
• Copy puts it on the clipboard instead.
• If your text is already correct, Corrigo says so — it never invents edits.

Rephrase

The second tab offers the same sentence rewritten three ways. Both tabs load in parallel the moment you click the bubble, so switching is instant.

• Neutral — a more natural version of what you wrote, same register.
• Professional — a more formal tone, for client emails and reports.
• Concise — the same meaning in fewer words.

Replace & Undo

Replacing text in someone else's app is the hard part, and Corrigo uses a chain of three strategies so it works nearly everywhere:

1. Direct write through the Accessibility API — clean and flicker-free (most native apps).
2. Select-and-type — selects the whole field and replaces the selection (Electron apps like Slack).
3. Clipboard fallback — simulates ⌘A + ⌘V, then restores your clipboard exactly as it was, every content type included.

After every replacement a small toast appears with an Undo button — you have 10 seconds to bring the original text back.

Keyboard shortcut

⌘⇧G works anywhere, any time — it opens the same popover as clicking the bubble. In apps that don't expose text fields to the Accessibility API (some games, old Java apps), the shortcut falls back to a clipboard flow: it copies your selection, processes it, and pastes the replacement.

Settings

Open Settings from the menu bar icon. Four tabs:

• General — interface language (English / Serbian), the word-count threshold for the bubble, launch at login.
• AI Provider — which model corrects your text (see below).
• License — activate a Pro license and check its status (see licensing).
• Blocked apps — per-app blocklist by bundle ID. Password managers and terminals ship blocked.

AI providers

Each provider stores its own API key in the Keychain. Switch providers any time — your keys stay saved.

Using a local model

1. Install Ollama and pull a model: ollama pull llama3.1
2. In Settings → AI Provider choose Local LLM (requires Pro).
3. Keep the default server URL http://localhost:11434/v1 (Ollama) or use http://localhost:1234/v1 for LM Studio, and enter the model name.

No API key needed — corrections run fully offline.

Plans & licensing

Activating a license

1. Buy Pro Yearly or Pro Lifetime on Gumroad — the license key is in your receipt.
2. Open Settings → License, paste the key and click Activate.
3. The status card shows what you have: for yearly licenses, the exact expiry date and days remaining; lifetime licenses never expire.

When a yearly license expires, Pro features pause and the app continues on the Free plan — nothing breaks. Renew any time to pick up where you left off.

Privacy

• Text is sent to the AI provider only when you click the bubble or press ⌘⇧G — never while you type, never in the background.
• While you type, Corrigo reads the field locally only to decide when to show the bubble; language detection happens on-device.
• API keys and license keys live exclusively in the macOS Keychain.
• Nothing is logged or written to disk. The history (last 10 corrections in the menu) lives in RAM and disappears on quit.
• With a local LLM, your text never leaves the Mac at all.

Troubleshooting

The bubble doesn't appear

1. Does the field contain at least 3 words? (Threshold adjustable in Settings → General.)
2. Is the app on your blocklist? Check Settings → Blocked apps.
3. Is the Accessibility permission active? The menu bar menu shows a ⚠ warning when it isn't.
4. Password fields and secure input never show the bubble — by design.

Permission looks enabled but doesn't work

A previous Corrigo build holds the grant. Open the setup again (menu bar → Run setup again…) and click Request permission — the stale entry is removed automatically, then re-enable Corrigo in the list.

Diagnostics from the Terminal

/Applications/Corrigo.app/Contents/MacOS/Corrigo --doctor

With a text field focused, this prints the whole chain: permission state, the focused element and whether it's editable, word count, and where the bubble would be placed.

"Corrigo Not Opened" on first launch

Beta builds aren't notarized yet. System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway — or install with the Terminal one-liner, which skips the warning entirely.