Lumo for macOS
Translate, polish, and summarize text anywhere on macOS with your own LLM
provider.
Lumo is a lightweight menu-bar app for everyday text work. Open it with a global
shortcut, paste from the clipboard, or trigger it from
PopClip when you select text in another app.
Results stream into a native macOS window, stay in history, and can be read
aloud.
What you can do
- Translate, polish, and summarize text without opening a chat app.
- Start from anywhere with the menu bar, a global shortcut, the clipboard,
on-screen text via OCR, or an optional PopClip action.
- Bring your own provider: OpenAI, Anthropic (Claude), any OpenAI-compatible
endpoint such as DeepSeek or local Ollama, or Apple's on-device model (no API
key needed).
- Keep the workflow native with streaming output, history, text-to-speech,
and a menu-bar app that stays out of the Dock.
Demo
Lumo can be opened directly from the menu bar, a global shortcut, the clipboard,
or an optional PopClip action.
Features
- Three text actions: translate, polish, and summarize.
- Multiple ways to start: menu bar, a configurable global shortcut, an empty
window that can paste and translate the clipboard with one keystroke,
screen-area OCR, or PopClip selection actions.
- Screen-area OCR: drag-select any text on screen and recognize it locally
with macOS Vision — no network — then send it straight into Lumo.
- Multiple providers: OpenAI, Anthropic (Claude), any OpenAI-compatible
endpoint (DeepSeek, local Ollama, etc.), and Apple's on-device Foundation
Models — which run entirely on-device with no API key, network, or cost
(requires an Apple Intelligence–capable Mac on macOS 26+).
- Streaming output via Server-Sent Events — results appear token by token.
- Smart target language: detects whether the input is Chinese and picks the
target language accordingly (both directions are configurable).
- Translation history with a master-detail browser.
- Text-to-speech for reading results aloud.
- Menu-bar only (
LSUIElement) — no Dock icon, stays out of the way.
- Automatic updates via Sparkle — Lumo checks
in the background (and on demand from the menu bar) and installs new versions in
place, so the one-time quarantine clear below never has to be repeated.
Requirements
- macOS 26.0 or later (the app adopts the Liquid Glass design)
- An API key for your chosen LLM provider
- Optional: PopClip for selection-based
actions
Install
Install the macOS app
Download Lumo.zip,
unzip it, and move Lumo.app to /Applications. The app is unsigned, so clear
the quarantine flag once before the first launch:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Lumo.app
On first launch it runs as a menu-bar item — look for it in the status bar, not
the Dock.
From then on Lumo keeps itself up to date: it checks in the background, and you
can trigger a check yourself from the menu bar via 检查更新…. Updates are
verified by signature and installed in place without re-triggering quarantine —
so you only ever run the xattr command this one time.
Configure
Open the app from its menu-bar item and set, in Settings:
| Setting | Notes |
|---|
| Provider | OpenAI, Anthropic, or OpenAI-compatible |
| Base URL | Defaults per provider (e.g. https://api.deepseek.com) |
| Model | e.g. an OpenAI / Claude / DeepSeek model name |
| API key | Stored per provider |
| Target (from 中文) | Language to translate into when the input is Chinese |
| Target (other) | Language to translate into when the input is not Chinese |
| Shortcut | Optional global hotkey for opening a new translation window |
Note on the API key: because the app is unsigned, it stores the API key in
its own UserDefaults (plaintext) rather than the Keychain — an unsigned
binary has no stable code identity for the Keychain to bind an "Always Allow"
grant to, so the Keychain would prompt on every launch. This is the accepted
trade-off for a local personal tool. The key is not stored in the PopClip
extension.
Use
Use Lumo in whichever way fits the text you are working with:
- From the menu bar: open a new translation window, paste or type text, then
run translate, polish, or summarize.
- From a global shortcut: assign a shortcut in Settings and open Lumo from
any app.
- From the clipboard: open an empty translation window and press Tab
when the clipboard contains text.
- From PopClip: select text anywhere, then click 翻译, 润色, or
总结 in the PopClip bar.
The result streams into the window and is saved to history.
Optional integrations
PopClip
If you use PopClip, install
Lumo.popclipext
to send selected text to Lumo in one click. The extension is only a trigger; the
native app still handles the provider, API key, model, streaming result, and
history.
Roadmap
Lumo moves in small, shippable steps. The current focus is the
v0.2.0 — UX milestone, all on
the translation result window:
Ideas and bug reports are welcome in the
issue tracker.
Development
Repository layout
Lumo.popclipext/ PopClip extension (trigger only)
Config.json Extension manifest + the "App URL Scheme" option
translate.js Builds the lumo:// URL for each action
mac-app/ Native macOS app (Swift, SwiftUI + AppKit)
project.yml XcodeGen project spec
Lumo/ App sources (models, services, views, URL routing)
Build from source
Building from source requires XcodeGen
and Xcode 26 or later. The Xcode project is generated from project.yml (it is
not committed). From mac-app/:
brew install xcodegen # if you don't have it
cd mac-app
xcodegen generate # creates Lumo.xcodeproj
open Lumo.xcodeproj # then build & run the "Lumo" scheme in Xcode
Dev vs. production builds
The project defines two coexisting build configurations so a dev build doesn't
clobber the release one:
| Config | Bundle ID | App name | URL scheme |
|---|
| Release | com.iuhoay.lumo | Lumo | lumo:// |
| Debug | com.iuhoay.lumo.dev | Lumo Dev | lumo-dev:// |
Distinct bundle IDs and URL schemes keep their settings isolated and prevent
LaunchServices from routing the scheme to the wrong build. Point the PopClip
extension at a build with its App URL Scheme option (lumo or lumo-dev).
License
MIT © iuhoay
