Beta version · 0.0.45

A toolbox for the text you just selected.

Bello Box lives in your menu bar. Select text in any app and a small toolbar appears next to it. Ask a configurable AI to fix the wording, rewrite, summarize, translate, or answer a question; capture screenshots or recordings from the same hover/click/drag overlay; generate a QR code; or run offline text tools — case conversion, encode/decode, pretty-print, hashes, and counts. Then copy the result or replace your selection in place.

Download Beta DMG Bring your own AI
macOS 13+ Bring your own AI key OpenAI, Anthropic & Codex app-server Light & dark themes
Warm Bello Box promotional artwork showing selected text, AI actions, QR code, and toolbox tools Bello Box popup beside selected text with the floating AI, QR, and text tools toolbar
Beta version

Bello Box is now listed publicly as a beta. It updates itself via Sparkle, and this build improves screenshot reliability on multi-monitor setups and capture diagnostics while provider compatibility and polish continue to improve.

How it works

1 · Select

Select text in any app — a note, an email, a code comment, a web form. A small Bello Box toolbar appears next to your selection.

or press ⌃⌥⌘B
2 · Pick a tool

Choose an AI action (or type your own instruction), capture a screenshot or recording, generate a QR code, or run an offline text tool. AI answers stream in live from your configured provider.

AI · Screenshot · Record · QR · Text tools
3 · Apply

Copy the result, or replace your original selection in place without leaving the app you were in.

Copy · Replace

Small enough to stay out of the way.

Bello Box starts as a compact toolbar next to your selection, then opens into a draggable popup when you need AI rewriting, QR generation, or offline text utilities. Screenshots and recordings now use one grey capture overlay: hover to highlight a window, click it, or press and drag to select a custom area. Screenshots stay there for inline annotation and finish with the checkmark.

Bello Box promotional illustration showing selected text, a compact floating toolbar, and a toolbox

Bring your own AI

OpenAI-compatible

Works with OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions or Responses API endpoints — including OpenAI, OpenRouter, Groq, together.ai, or local runtimes like Ollama and LM Studio. Set the base URL, request API, model, and key.

Anthropic-compatible

Talk directly to the Anthropic Messages API or a compatible gateway with an x-api-key header and your chosen model.

Your key, your prompt

Override the endpoint and model, edit the system prompt that shapes every transformation, load the model list from the endpoint, and verify it with a "say hi" connection test. Keys live in the macOS Keychain.

Or local Codex app-server

Already use Codex locally? Point Bello Box at the codex binary and it talks to codex app-server with your existing login and config — no API key required.

Built-in tools

Fix & improve

Fix spelling and grammar, improve clarity, make text shorter, or switch to a professional or friendly tone — each a single click.

Understand

Summarize a long passage, explain what something means, or translate it into natural English.

Custom prompt

Type a custom instruction for one-off transformations — reformat a list, draft a reply, tighten a sentence.

QR code

Turn a link, address, or any text into a scannable QR code. Edit the text live, then copy or save the image as a PNG.

Screenshots

Capture an area, window, screen, or scrolling page. Hover to highlight a window, click it, or drag a custom region; the editor remains in the dim capture overlay with arrows, highlights, blur/redaction, crop, and text. OCR runs only when requested from the screenshot editor.

Screen recording

Record an area, window, or screen from the same capture overlay, with a compact inline options bar for microphone, Mac audio, clicks, shortcuts, and privacy redaction. Review, save, copy, reveal, or discard the movie when recording ends.

Text utilities

Offline tools that need no AI: convert case, encode or decode Base64 / URL / HTML / Hex (auto-detected), pretty-print JSON and XML, hash with MD5 / SHA, sort and dedupe lines, and count words, characters, and model-aware tokens.

Requirements and current limitations

Before you start

Bello Box needs Accessibility access to read your selection and paste replacements. Screenshots and recordings need Screen Recording access, and recordings may also ask for Microphone and Input Monitoring depending on your selected options. You also bring your own AI endpoint and key. Designed for macOS 13 and later.

What beta means here

The core flow — select, ask, copy or replace — works today and is ready for broader testing. Provider compatibility, popup positioning, and polish are still improving as the beta gets real-world use.