SwiftPen Documentation
Everything you need to know about using SwiftPen.
Improve your text anywhere, privately, on your Mac.
Quick Start
The Whole Thing (5 seconds)
SELECT text
Anywhere on macOS
PRESS shortcut
⌘⌥K by default
PREVIEW
Instantly see the rewrite
DONE!
Hit Enter to replace
First Time Setup
Grant Accessibility permission
So SwiftPen can read your selected text and paste the improved version in any app.
Wait for the AI model to download
A one-time download for the local model. Everything runs entirely on your Mac for ultimate privacy.
Choose your shortcut
Command + Option + E (⌘ ⌥ E) is the default, but you can customize it in Settings.
Do a test run
Select some text, hit your shortcut, and verify it all works flawlessly.
Essential Settings
| Setting | Find It In |
|---|---|
| Auto-Replace | Settings → General |
| Trigger Shortcut | Settings → Hotkeys |
| Custom Instructions | Settings → Custom |
Getting Started
What You'll Need
- A Mac (Apple Silicon or Intel Processor)
- macOS 13.0 or later
- 5 minutes for setup
First Launch
When you first open SwiftPen, a setup wizard walks you through everything required to get it working natively on your Mac:
1. Accessibility Access
This lets SwiftPen detect your shortcut key and read the text you selected, as well as replace it. It sounds like a big permission, but SwiftPen processes everything securely on your Mac and just needs this to run in the background.
2. Choose Your Shortcut
Pick the key combination you'll press when you want to rewrite your selected text. We recommend Command+E.
3. Model Download
A one-time download for the local language model. This is the intelligence brain that rewrites your text, and it runs entirely on your Mac offline.
Finding SwiftPen
After setup, look for the SwiftPen icon in your menu bar — that's the row of small icons at the top-right of your screen, near the clock and Wi-Fi. (If it's not visible, it could be hidden behind the notch, but you can still access it via its dock icon or the preferences window). Click the menu bar icon to:
- See your recent rewrites
- Copy something you rewrote earlier
- Open settings
- Check your productivity stats
How to Use
The Basic Flow
Select your text
Highlight any text you want to rewrite, in any app on your Mac.
Press ⌘⌥K
Trigger SwiftPen. The selected text gets sent securely to the local model on your device.
The Panel Appears
The SwiftPen panel appears right next to your cursor with multiple views: Result, Diff, and Original. You can even pin the panel to keep it visible.
Replace or Copy
Pressing Enter automatically replaces your original text (or click the checkmark). You can also click the Copy button if you just want to paste it elsewhere. Pressing Esc closes the panel.
Rewrite Modes & Action Buttons
At the bottom of the panel, you'll see your Action Modes (like Shorten, Improve, Clarify, Translate). Click any of them to immediately rewrite the text. You can even add custom modes from the Settings screen!
History & Stats
Click the SwiftPen icon in your menu bar to view your history, search through past rewrites, or clear your history entirely. You can also adjust your history limits for privacy.
Follow-up Prompts
Want a specific change? Use the text bar at the bottom to type a Custom Instruction. You can stack these: click "Shorten", then type "Make it funnier" to continuously edit your text.
Features
AI Rewriting
Clean up and polish your text with on-device AI. Choose between built-in modes like Improve, Clarify, or Shorten, or create your own custom action modes to perfectly match your workflow.
Privacy Mode
Working on something confidential? You can clear your history anytime or set strict limits on how many items are stored—or disable history entirely to ensure nothing is tracked.
Automatic Paste
When you hit Enter, your newly improved text replaces the original automatically. No extra steps — just type, rewrite, and move on.
Ultra-Lightweight
Our deeply optimized local model sips just ~300MB of RAM on Apple Silicon and provides blazing fast ~1500ms response times. It also supports Intel Macs!
Optimal Setup
Take ten minutes to set things up right, and SwiftPen will feel like an extension of your brain.
Custom Instructions
It's important to distinguish between Custom Modes (action buttons you create in Settings) and Custom Instructions (the interactive prompt bar shown right in the panel).
The Custom Instruction bar gives you surgical, on-the-fly control over your text without needing to set up a permanent button.
Specific Commands
1. One-Off Ad-Hoc Rewriting
Instead of clicking one of your action buttons (like Improve or Clarify), simply type what you want. "Make this sound professional but extremely friendly" — and SwiftPen will rewrite it exactly like that.
2. Follow-up Refinements
After using an action button, use the instruction bar to refine the result further. E.g., click "Fix Grammar", then type "Now translate this to Spanish."
Follow-Up Prompts (Stacking)
The coolest feature of the custom instruction bar is that it serves as a conversational follow-up to your previous actions.
- You select some text and click the Shorten mode.
- The text gets shortened, but it feels a bit too dry.
- In the Custom Instruction field, you simply type "Make it funnier".
- SwiftPen takes the *shortened text* and makes it funnier! You can keep stacking modes and instructions as long as you want.
Rewrite Modes
Transform your raw text into polished text with on-device AI. Choose from built-in Rewrite Modes or create your own custom actions.
How It Works
After selecting your text, the SwiftPen panel opens with your active Rewrite Modes. Click any mode to immediately process your text. Everything happens locally on your Mac — no APIs, no data leaving your device.
Default Rewrite Modes
SwiftPen comes with a set of default action buttons tailored to common writing tasks. You can edit their prompt instructions, reorder them, or turn them off in Settings.
Shorten
Make the text shorter and tighter while preserving key details.
Improve
Improve clarity and flow with light editing.
Clarify
Make the text clearer and easier to understand.
Translate Beta
Translate text faithfully and naturally to your chosen language.
Custom Modes (Action Buttons)
Custom Modes are like creating your own personalized action buttons. If you frequently need a "Professional mode", "Retail mode", or "Funny mode", head into Settings to add a custom generic mode and assign a specific instruction to it. This saves you from typing it manually in the Custom Instructions bar every time!
Use Cases
Real situations where SwiftPen saves you brainpower and time.
Email & Communication
Quick Email Replies
You have 47 emails to respond to. Manually typing and proofreading each reply perfectly takes 2-3 minutes.
2. Select it and press ⌘⌥K
3. SwiftPen turns it into a professional reply instantly.
Creative Work
First Drafts
Get words on the page without worrying about phrasing. Just dump your ideas into the document.
Professional Workflows
Sales & CRM
Jot fast notes directly into Salesforce or HubSpot fields and have them cleaned up automatically.
Legal & Healthcare
Fix formatting instantly. Enable Privacy Mode for client/patient information so data is wiped immediately.
Accessibility
Rest Your Hands
Write faster with fewer keystrokes. Spend less time fussing with backspace and grammar fixing. Let SwiftPen polish your text so you can save your hands for tasks that truly need them.
Tips for Professionals
Once you've got the basics down, here's how to make SwiftPen an invisible part of your workflow.
General Productivity Tips
Train Your Muscle Memory
The fastest SwiftPen users don't think about the tool — they just type and let the AI fix it. Practice until selecting text and pressing your shortcut becomes automatic.
Exercise: For one week, try to write very messily, and let SwiftPen correct it. By day 7, it'll feel native to your OS.
Complete Thoughts
Instead of editing word-by-word, write in full sentences or paragraphs and process them all at once.
Less effective: Running the shortcut on a single word multiple times.
More effective: Selecting the entire email draft and letting SwiftPen do the heavy lifting in one go.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Using it for Everything
Applying it to code snippets with lots of specialized syntax without setting up custom instructions first may erase symbols. Be mindful in code editors.
Not Setting Up Custom Instructions
If the model keeps rewriting your company jargon wrong, fix it once in settings instead of correcting it manually every time.
Ignoring the Learning Curve
The first few days feel new. By week two, you won't want to go back to editing text the hard way.
Privacy & Security
Your text never leaves your Mac. SwiftPen processes everything locally using a small AI model running right on your device.
How It Works
At no point do your keystrokes or original text leave your computer.
Permissions Explained
Accessibility (Required)
Analytics (Optional)
We collect anonymous usage statistics like error reports and session counts.
Text selections, rewrites, what you type, or any personal files whatsoever.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Quick Fix |
|---|---|
| Shortcut not working | Check Accessibility permission in System Settings. macOS has a brittle permissions system sometimes. Removing and re-adding SwiftPen often fixes it. |
| Model stuck downloading | Check your internet connection, or try restarting the SwiftPen app. Ensure you have enough disk space for the local language model. |
| App won't open | Confirm your Mac is running macOS 13.0 or later. Restart your Mac and redownload the latest version from our site. |
Fixing Permission Issues
If the shortcut suddenly stops responding even though the app is open:
- Open System Settings
- Go to Privacy & Security → Accessibility
- Find SwiftPen in the list
- Click the "-" minus button to remove it entirely
- Restart SwiftPen, and follow the prompt to re-add it
Still Need Help?
If you're stuck, please email us directly. We actually read and reply to all support requests.
support@vibefast.pro