Ciel
A small native macOS launcher for apps and window commands. Open it, type, and press Return.
Website: cielmac.app
Ciel uses Swift and AppKit. It runs locally, with no account, server, or analytics. Its only network request is the speech model download you start in Settings. The interface stays black in both macOS light and dark appearance. Its icon is an original Monet-inspired cloud painting.
Results appear after you type. Clearing the input returns to the empty box.
Build and install
Ciel is available as source. A notarized download is not available yet.
Requires an Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later and a Swift 6 toolchain. Apple's Command Line Tools are sufficient for local builds. Full Xcode is optional.
git clone https://github.com/mauriciopolvora/ciel.git
cd ciel
bash scripts/build.sh
bash scripts/install.sh
open ~/Applications/Ciel.app
The scripts create dist/Ciel.app and install it in ~/Applications. Quit the installed launcher before an update. If its menu bar icon is hidden, use Activity Monitor to quit it. Installation saves the previous app under .build/backups.
Local builds use an ad-hoc signature. They are not notarized public releases. macOS window access may need approval again after a rebuild. See the release guide for Developer ID signing, notarization, and distribution.
Use
The default shortcut is Control–Option–Space. Existing users keep their saved shortcut. Change it in Settings.
| Key | Action |
|---|
| Type | Search apps and window commands |
| ↑ / ↓ | Select a result |
| Return | Run the selected result |
| ⌘1 … ⌘9 | Run one of the first nine results |
| Tab / Shift–Tab | Change search category |
| Escape | Close Ciel |
| ⌘, | Open Settings |
The launcher opens with a focused, empty input. It has no placeholder, symbols, or suggestions. Results and the category button appear only after you type. Hold Command to reveal result shortcuts. Click the category button to switch between All, Apps, and Windows. The empty launcher is 68 points tall. It expands to fit search results. App icons and window outlines identify each result.
Search supports prefixes, abbreviations such as vsc, typing errors such as safrai, accents, and multiple words in any order. Exact matches take priority over usage history. Successful app launches and window commands update local ranking for future searches. The empty launcher stays blank.
Drag the empty input, or the border around a populated search, to move Ciel. White guides divide the usable display at one-quarter, one-half, and three-quarters. Nearby guides brighten. Release within 24 points to snap the input center to a guide. Hold Option to place it freely. Guides disappear when you release the mouse. Ciel remembers each display’s position across reopening and restart.
The cloud icon in the menu bar provides Settings, Keyboard Guide, Window Shortcuts, Rescan Applications, About, License Notices, and Quit. Launch at login is optional in Settings.
To hide the cloud icon, turn off Settings → Show menu bar icon. This takes effect immediately and stays off after restart. Open the launcher and press Command–Comma to return to Settings and show the icon again. You can also open Ciel from Applications if the launcher shortcut is unavailable.
Window commands
App search works without Accessibility access. Window commands require it. Choose Ciel Settings → Allow Access, then enable the installed Ciel app in macOS privacy settings. Focus the window you want to change, then open Ciel. Ciel retains that target window.
Commands include halves, quarters, three fourths, maximize, almost maximize, center, restore, minimize, and moving between displays. Set optional global shortcuts in Window Shortcuts. Press Escape to cancel recording. Press Delete to clear a window shortcut. Conflicts leave the previous shortcut in place.
Center Three Fourths uses 75% of the usable width, with equal left and right margins.
Maximize fills the usable screen. It does not enter macOS full screen. Almost Maximize uses 90% of the usable width and height. Center preserves size unless the window exceeds the screen. Restore swaps the last two window bounds. Moving between displays preserves relative position and size. Displays are ordered left to right, then top to bottom.
Some apps enforce minimum sizes or reject resizing. Ciel reports these limits. Full-screen windows and moving between Spaces are not supported.
If macOS shows access enabled but Ciel reports no access after a local rebuild, quit Ciel, remove the old launcher entry from Accessibility (Device Control and Data Access on newer macOS), add ~/Applications/Ciel.app, enable it, and reopen Ciel. A stable Developer ID certificate avoids the ad-hoc identity change.
Speech to text
Ciel turns speech into text on your Mac with the Parakeet Ultra model. Turn on Settings → Speech to text, choose Download next to Speech model, and set a dictation shortcut. Hold the shortcut, speak, and release, or tap it once to start and again to stop. A small pill at the bottom of the screen shows the level and the words Ciel hears while it listens. Ciel transcribes as you speak, so the text pastes into the front app soon after you stop. Without window access, it copies the text to the clipboard instead. macOS asks for microphone access the first time you dictate.
The dictation shortcut can be a single key: right Command, right Option or fn. Press it alone while recording the shortcut. A single key needs window access, and it never starts dictation as part of another shortcut, such as right Command and C. To use fn, set System Settings → Keyboard → Press 🌐 key to to Do Nothing.
The model is a 550 MB download. Ciel checks its size and SHA-256 against pinned values before using it, and resumes an interrupted download. It is stored in ~/Library/Application Support/app.mauriciopolvora.ciel/Models. Remove deletes it. Speech runs on transcribe.cpp with Metal.
Privacy and resource use
Preferences and launch history are stored in the app.mauriciopolvora.ciel defaults domain. The app catalog is cached at ~/Library/Caches/app.mauriciopolvora.ciel/apps.json.
The only network request is the speech model download, and it starts only when you choose Download in Settings. Dictated audio stays in memory on your Mac and is never saved or sent anywhere.
Ciel has one resident process. It scans standard application folders and nested app folders up to five levels deep. Recursive filesystem events trigger background updates after app changes. Wake and volume changes also refresh the catalog. An unchanged scan does not rewrite the cache or rebuild launcher rows. Bundle changes invalidate affected icons. Icon retrieval and drawing run outside the main actor, with bounded work and cache limits. Window commands run on a serial background executor. There is no recurring idle timer.
Search and keyboard selection do not wait for animation. Pointer hover uses a 120 ms transition. Reduce Motion and the animation setting disable motion. Reduce Transparency uses an opaque surface. Increase Contrast strengthens boundaries. Ciel uses native text editing and accessibility labels.
Development
bash scripts/check.sh
Native UI checks open temporary windows. They run only under a separate bundle identifier, so they keep your Ciel preferences unchanged. Unit tests need no Accessibility access. Run bash scripts/check.sh --unit-only for checks that do not open windows. The window check moves only its own temporary test windows. It needs Accessibility access for the app that runs check.sh, such as your terminal. Without access it is skipped locally, and CI fails.
Sources/Ciel: the testable CielApp library, with AppKit UI, catalog, hotkeys, window controller, and settings.Sources/CielMain: the app executable entry point.Sources/Ciel/Diagnostics: explicit native launcher, catalog, and window checks.Sources/CielCore: search, usage history, app discovery, window geometry, and speech model state.Sources/CielBenchmarks: release search benchmarks with JSON reports and configurable budgets.Tests/CielCoreTests: discovered Swift Testing tests for core behavior.Tests/CielAppTests: launcher state, icon loading, catalog, window adapter, and performance budget tests.Resources: app metadata, artwork, and dependency notices.scripts: build, install, checks, and notarized release packaging.site: the cielmac.app landing page, a static Cloudflare Worker. Deploy it with cd site && npm ci && npm run deploy.
Format Swift files with swift format format --in-place --recursive Sources Tests scripts/GenerateIcon.swift Package.swift. The local check script and GitHub CI enforce the shared .swift-format settings.
Swift 6 checks actor ownership and values that cross worker boundaries. Search and native performance reports are saved under .build/performance. For benchmark options and measurement limits, see the architecture plan.
See contributing, design system, and verification.
License
MIT. Search uses FuzzyMatch 1.4.0, licensed under Apache 2.0. Speech uses transcribe.cpp 0.4.1 and the bundled ggml, miniz, and Silero VAD code, all under MIT-style licenses. The Parakeet Ultra model is by Moondream, post-trained from NVIDIA parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v3, and licensed under CC BY 4.0. These licenses are included in Resources/ThirdPartyNotices.txt and the app bundle. See artwork provenance for the icon source.
