Cotabby is a free and open-source AI autocomplete tool designed for macOS users seeking to enhance their typing experience across a wide range of applications. Operating as a menu bar app, Cotabby provides inline ghost-text suggestions in nearly any text field on the system, including popular apps such as Gmail, Apple Mail, Slack, Discord, iMessage, Notes, Notion, Obsidian, WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, Signal, Linear, Reddit, X, LinkedIn, and browsers like Safari, Arc, Firefox, and Google Chrome. The tool is intended for those who want AI-powered writing assistance that runs entirely on their own device, prioritizing privacy and eliminating the need for cloud-based processing or subscriptions.
Cotabby offers several features to streamline typing and writing tasks. It delivers autocomplete suggestions as users type, allowing acceptance of suggestions word-by-word with the Tab key or dismissal by continuing to type or pressing Escape. The tool also supports emoji autocomplete by typing a colon and a few letters, followed by Tab to insert the desired emoji. Autocorrect functionality is included to catch typos and awkward phrasing inline. Additionally, Cotabby provides macro expansion, enabling users to expand short triggers into frequently used text snippets. Users can configure the length of suggestions, feed Cotabby with custom writing instructions or style guides, and block the tool from operating in specific apps with a simple toggle. The appearance of suggestions, including color and opacity, is customizable to individual preferences.
The platform runs entirely on the user's Mac, supporting both Apple Intelligence on-device models and local GGUF models such as Qwen, DeepSeek, or Gemma. No data leaves the device; clipboard and screen context are accessed solely to inform suggestions and are never stored or transmitted. Cotabby requires macOS 14 or later, with Apple Silicon recommended, and models may require 1–5 GB of disk space. Installation is available via Homebrew or direct download, and updates are handled automatically. The tool requires Accessibility, Input Monitoring, and Screen Recording permissions to function within other applications but does not operate in password fields.
0 and does not require an account, subscription, or payment. Its open-source nature and local operation make it suitable for privacy-conscious users seeking a customizable, AI-driven autocomplete experience on macOS.
Cotabby is a Coding AI & assistants product. It focuses on enabling fast, private AI-powered autocomplete in any macOS app without sending data to the cloud. Cotabby is an open-source project aimed at macOS users and developers seeking local AI autocomplete. Cotabby is free to use. The product ships for the command line and macOS.
FuJacob builds and maintains Cotabby, and the product first shipped in 2026. The project is developed in the open on GitHub with 838 stars and 583 commits in the last 90 days. Across PulseGate's embedding index, Cotabby has few near neighbours, marking it as relatively distinct. Among its 7 catalogued features are AI autocomplete, macOS integration, and local inference. Cotabby is currently in beta.
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