Selection Assistant

The Selection Assistant eliminates repetitive copy-pasting. Highlight text anywhere to summon the inline action bar: translate, explain, summarize, polish, or bring text straight into chat.

Quick Summary

The Selection Assistant detects highlighted text across any macOS application and summons an inline quick action bar directly beside your cursor. It enables instant translation, summarization, explanation, text polishing, and follow-up Q&A without switching application focus or copying text to the clipboard manually.

Applicable Scenarios

• Reading & Research Translation: Select foreign-language paragraphs in Safari, Chrome, or Preview to read an instant translation without opening a separate dictionary or translation tab.
• Code & Stack Trace Explanation: Highlight error messages, compiler warnings, or unfamiliar code snippets in Xcode, VS Code, or Terminal and click Explain or Ask in Chat.
• Writing & Communication Polishing: Highlight draft emails, Slack messages, or documentation notes in place and click Polish to refine grammar, tone, and conciseness.

Prerequisites & Compatibility

Requirement	Specification	Notes
Operating System	macOS 15.0 (Sequoia) or later	Apple Silicon (arm64) and Intel (x86_64)
Application Version	SpotAsk v0.1.0+	Clipboard-assisted selection enhanced in v0.2.8+
Required Permissions	macOS Accessibility (Cross-app text access)	Configured in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility
Hardware Architecture	Universal binary	Native performance across M-series and Intel Macs
Security Context	Standard accessibility text selection	Blocked in secure input fields by macOS sandbox

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Enable the Assistant: Open Settings (⌘ + ,) > Selection Assistant, or use deep-link spotask://settings/selection-assistant.
2. Grant Accessibility Permission: Toggle on Selection Assistant. When macOS prompts for accessibility access, open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility and enable SpotAsk.
3. Choose Trigger Mode:
   • Show quick actions (recommended): Displays the floating action bar next to your selection.
   • Run default action: Immediately triggers your preferred preset (e.g. Translate or Explain) upon text selection.
4. Trigger Actions:
   • Automatic trigger: Highlight text in any supported application and pause for the configured wait delay (default: 0.8 seconds).
   • Manual shortcut trigger: Highlight text and press ⌥ + ⇧ + Space to summon the action bar immediately without delay.
5. Execute Action: Click Ask in Chat (speech bubble icon) to enter chat with the text pre-filled. Left-click a prompt such as Translate or Explain, or choose it from the overflow menu, to open an isolated floating window; right-click the button to ask in the main chat. Settings can swap those two clicks. External Ask buttons are unchanged.

Visual Proof

Figure 1: The Selection Assistant presents floating inline quick actions (Translate, Explain, Summarize, Polish, Ask in Chat) immediately beside highlighted text across macOS apps.

Known Limitations & Boundaries

• Secure Input Fields: Passwords, credentials, and secure text fields (such as Terminal sudo prompts or password managers) cannot be read by macOS Accessibility for privacy and security protection.
• Custom UI Frameworks: Certain applications (such as Zotero's built-in PDF viewer or non-native canvas apps) do not report standard Accessibility boundaries; enable Clipboard-assisted selection in Settings for these apps.
• Empty & Whitespace Selections: Selections containing zero characters or only blank spaces do not trigger the action bar.
• Screen & Audio Privacy Boundary: SpotAsk reads only the currently highlighted text string upon trigger; it does not record keystrokes, capture background screen contents, or track window history.
• Permission Revocation: If macOS Accessibility permissions are revoked, SpotAsk cannot inspect cross-app text and displays an inline recovery guide linking directly to System Settings.

Enable it

1. Open Settings > Selection Assistant.
2. Enable Selection Assistant.
3. Authorize Cross-app text access when prompted.
4. Choose a Trigger mode.

SpotAsk requests this permission only when you enable the feature. It uses the permission to read text you select; it does not monitor your whole screen.

flowchart TD
  A{Cross-app text access?}
  A -->|Denied| B[Open System Settings from the recovery message]
  A -->|Granted| C{Trigger mode}
  C -->|Run default action| D[The default prompt runs on the selection]
  C -->|Show quick actions| E[Use the action bar or the selection shortcut]
  class A entry
  class C decision
  class B,D,E outcome

Open Settings in SpotAsk

Opens the Selection Assistant page in SpotAsk. If SpotAsk is not installed this link does nothing — open it by hand instead: SpotAsk menu bar icon → Settings... → Selection Assistant, or press ⌘ + , to open Settings. Direct link: spotask://settings/selection-assistant

Trigger modes

Run default action sends the selected text directly to the default prompt you choose.

Show quick actions displays the action bar next to the selection. You can toggle text labels beside icons, drag buttons in the interactive 1:1 preview stage to reorder them, or fold lower-frequency actions into a secondary ... menu to keep the bar compact.

• Ask in Chat icon: A dedicated speech bubble icon appears at the start of the action bar. Clicking it opens the question window with the selected text filled in and a blank line ready for your follow-up question. This can be toggled in Settings > Selection Assistant (enabled by default).
• Built-in prompts, custom prompts, and enabled External Ask targets follow in the bar. Left-click a prompt, or choose it from the overflow menu, to open a floating window that answers only that selection. Right-click the same button to ask in the main chat. Settings can swap those two clicks. From the window you can pin it, copy the answer, or continue in the current conversation. While the window is focused, copy, retry, pin, zoom, and settings use the same shortcuts as the main chat.

Output delivery: Copying and in-place replacement

SpotAsk adapts its delivery depending on whether you use the isolated floating window or the main conversation, and whether the source application is read-only or editable:

• Read-only contexts (Safari, Chrome, Preview PDF): Underlying text nodes cannot be modified via Accessibility APIs. Left-clicking an action opens the floating window adjacent to the selection; click Copy all (⌘ + C) to place the result on your clipboard.
• Editable drafts in floating mode (Notes, Mail, TextEdit): Left-clicking an action (e.g. Polish or Translate) streams the refined text into the floating window. Click Copy all and press ⌘ + V to replace your draft. Standard macOS Undo (⌘ + Z) immediately reverts the change if needed.
• Editable drafts in main chat mode: When routing a selection to the main conversation (via right-clicking an action preset or clicking Ask in Chat), assistant response rows display an Insert into selection button (arrow.down.doc). If the target application and selection range are unchanged, clicking this button writes the generated content directly into the draft using macOS AXSelectedText. If the selection range or focus shifted in the interim, SpotAsk safely blocks the write and displays a "Selection changed" notification.

For a step-by-step walkthrough of translating in Safari and polishing in Notes, see the Selection Assistant use case.

Automatic display

In Show quick actions mode, turn on Show quick actions after selecting text to avoid pressing the shortcut each time.

Use Auto-show apps to control where it appears:

• All apps: show in every app that exposes selected text.
• Whitelist: show only in selected apps.
• Blacklist: hide in selected apps.

The default delay is 0.8 seconds. Set Wait from 0 to 3 seconds so the actions do not appear while you are still selecting.

Clipboard-assisted selection

Some apps (such as Zotero's PDF reader) report selected text to macOS Accessibility with missing spaces or shifted boundaries. For these apps, enable Clipboard-assisted selection in Settings > Selection Assistant and choose which apps it applies to.

Selections in those apps are still detected the usual way, and nothing is copied while the action bar waits for you. The copy happens when you use an action: SpotAsk copies the selection with the app's standard Copy command, reads the accurate text from the clipboard, and immediately restores your previous clipboard content.

This feature is off by default. It never copies when nothing is selected, and apps not on your list continue using normal Accessibility reading.

Manual trigger

The selection shortcut works even when automatic display is off. The default is ⌥ + ⇧ + Space.

What can go wrong

• Empty selections do not trigger SpotAsk.
• Secure input fields cannot be read.
• Some apps do not expose selected text to macOS Accessibility; SpotAsk will tell you when that happens.
• If permission is denied, the app shows a recovery message with a link to System Settings.

Related: Prompts, Troubleshooting