Hey HN, I built Yoink AI to solve my biggest frustration with AI tools: they constantly break my workflow. I was tired of copy-pasting between my apps and a chatbot just for simple edits.
Yoink AI is a macOS app that brings the AI to you. With a simple hotkey (⌘ Shift Y), it works directly inside any text field, in any app. If you can type there Yoink can write there
Key Features: - Automatically captures the context of the text field you're in, so you dont have to manually prime it
- Create custom voices trained on your own writing samples. This helps you steer the output to match your personal style and avoid generic, robotic-sounding text
- Yoink doesnt just dump text and run. It delivers suggestions as redline edits that you can accept or reject, keeping you in full control.
It's less of a chatbot and more of a collaborative writing partner that adapts to your workflow, not the other way around.
There's a free tier with 10 requests/month and we just launched a pro trial, which will get you 100 requests for the first 7 days to try it out!
I'm here to answer questions and would love to hear what you think - like all early stage start ups, feedback is always deeply appreciated
Wowfunhappy2 days ago
How are you able to do this with all of Apple's restrictions? I know there's the accessibility API, but since Mojave the user needs to manually grant permission to do control each individual target app, is that what they need to do for Yoink?
jasonjmcghee2 days ago
Can't speak to Yoink but I built a project a year or two ago that did something similar. I used a stupid simple method - input simulation (using the fantastic enigo library). And if you want context, you can simulate select all + copy, and access via clipboard. Similar if you want to replace, etc.
https://github.com/jasonjmcghee/plock
The goal of this project was to just be able to pipe / run arbitrary commands from any text context. But, that lined up well with LLMs usage.
unstatusthequo2 days ago
$20/mo is too much IMHO. Is this providing as much value as a ChatGPT Plus subscription? No. How about $20 one time and let me bring my own API keys? I get that MRR is so so sweet. But it's not necessary for so many things.
293984j293842 days ago
Totally this. I already pay for ChatGPT Plus and like it. Forcing their "own" AI for another $20/month is a nonstarter.
bofadeeza day ago
Agree. A lifetime license is the only model that makes sense for a wrapper. I wouldn't even pay $5/mo.
mkh-11012 days ago
Very clean website, i love it.
CameronBanga2 days ago
Just as a first initial thought, when I think of Yoink for Mac, I think of this popular tool: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yoink-better-drag-and-drop/id4...
At first I thought Yoink was making a new AI tool, not that this was a brand new thing.
byintesop2 days ago
Hey everyone, founder of Yoink here. Thanks for checking out the post! I'm really excited to hear what you think, and I'm genuinely open to all feedback the good, the bad, and the ugly.
We're really early, and all feedback is always deeply appreciated as many of you would know!
sealosa2 days ago
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