Goldfish
worthwhileProductContext-aware AI assistant that fits seamlessly into your Mac workflow, reducing the need to re-explain your work.
What it is
A macOS app that continuously learns the context of your work (files, emails, browsing) and provides an AI-powered writing assistant that you activate by pressing the Option key in any text field. It can draft replies, summarize threads, rewrite text, and recall details from your recent activity without manual context provision.
How it compares to the alternatives
Unlike ChatGPT or browser-based AI writing tools, Goldfish automatically populates context from your entire Mac activity, so you don't need to copy-paste or re-explain. It's more seamless than text expansions but less flexible than a full API integration. Compared to doing it yourself (e.g., a script that pipes clipboard to an LLM), Goldfish is polished and works out of the box across any app.
Devil's advocate — do you actually need this?
This is essentially a thin wrapper around an LLM with an always-on context collector. You could achieve similar functionality with a combination of Hammerspoon, a persistent clipboard manager, and a script to query an LLM. Privacy is a major concern: how does the app know your work? It likely reads your active windows, clipboard, and files, which could leak sensitive data. Many users may not trust a closed-source app with that access. Also, Mac has built-in text replacement and keyboard shortcuts; for many, the incremental benefit over a well-crafted set of snippets or a tool like Dash is small.
What would make it better
Open source the context management component to build trust and allow community auditing. Provide a transparent 'what it knows' panel where users can see and edit the stored context. Support local-only models (e.g., Llama) to guarantee privacy. Integrate with code editors and terminals to expand utility beyond text fields. Allow users to manually define context scopes (e.g., per project or app) to avoid over-collection.
The honest case for it
For knowledge workers who type a lot of emails, support tickets, or document feedback, Goldfish removes the friction of re-stating context that is already in your environment. If privacy is handled well (on-device processing, no cloud sync), it's a genuine productivity enhancer that feels like natural autocomplete for your entire work history.
Who it's for
Audience fit
Depth and leverage for a technical engineer who wants to understand it and level up their workflow — not just offload work.
Value for someone who wants a more capable tool without the technical depth — accessible, does-it-for-you.
Useful for quick communication tasks but not central to engineering work; vibe coders will appreciate the zero-effort contextual replies.