oolong

oolong is a macOS desktop client for fast text translation, rewriting, and context-aware polishing through local AI CLIs such as codex exec and claude -p.

It is built for short daily writing workflows: paste text, choose a context, submit, copy the result, and keep recent work in history.

Highlights

• Context-based actions: configure reusable contexts for translation, native English polishing, release notes, or project-specific rewrites.
• Provider choice: switch between Codex and Claude from the app.
• Bilingual interface: switch the app UI, status messages, and default action labels between English and Chinese.
• CLI-powered output: run codex exec or claude -p locally instead of depending on a hosted app backend.
• Local history: keep recent input/output pairs locally with a configurable limit.
• Global shortcuts: bring oolong forward, or query the current clipboard contents from anywhere on macOS.
• macOS Service: install oolong.translate content for translating selected text from the Services menu.
• Proxy and timeout controls: inject proxy environment variables and avoid silent long-running provider calls.
• Release automation: tag-based GitHub Actions workflow builds macOS .dmg and .zip packages.

Settings

Settings are organized into focused tabs for day-to-day configuration and provider tuning.

Tab	What it controls
General	App language, history limit, provider timeout
Shortcuts	Open oolong and query clipboard text shortcuts
Provider	Codex/Claude executable path, model, Codex reasoning effort, Codex profile
Contexts	User-facing action labels and prompts
Proxy	http_proxy, https_proxy, all_proxy, and uppercase variants for provider processes

Development

pnpm install
pnpm dev

The browser preview uses a local mock API for UI work. The Electron app uses the real IPC and CLI execution path.

Build

pnpm build
pnpm package

Packaged macOS artifacts are written to release/.

Release

GitHub Actions creates a macOS release package when a version tag is pushed.

git tag v0.1.0
git push origin v0.1.0

The release workflow uploads .dmg and .zip artifacts from release/.

Unsigned macOS builds may show a Gatekeeper warning. Notarization can be added later with an Apple Developer ID certificate.

Notes

• Default Codex runs with model_reasoning_effort="low" for faster translation-style work.
• Codex prompts are passed through stdin and closed immediately to avoid hanging on pipe input.
• Provider arguments are intentionally whitelisted; arbitrary CLI arguments and permission bypass flags are not exposed.