Kiki - AI Powered Chat & Text Tools for Alfred
A New Alfred Workflow for Custom AI Text Presets. Interact with OpenAI and OpenRouter API's with Convenience and Efficiency
Do you have Alfred? I have been using Alfred for several years now, and it has become an indispensable app in my daily life. It's been almost a month since I came up with the idea for an AI workflow to use with its command bar and started working on it. For the past few months, I've been using my ToolVox AI Shortcut for most of my AI related tasks. Things like summarization, grammar fixes, translation, image generation, etc. It's really powerful and it has lots of features, but I have always felt it a bit slow on Desktop. It works great on iOS, but for some reason, it seems like MacOS seems to put an intentional brake on the performance of the Shortcuts app. So, I decided to try coding a workflow instead. In this edition of my newsletter, I'm excited to share with you the outcome of weeks of hard work: Kiki.
Go all the way to the bottom for the GitHub link, or keep reading for more info.
I am sure this could have been simpler. My coding skills are still super basic, but for some reason I have the tendency of trying to overdo myself with these tools. Still, I have learned that the average user prefers a simple and basic approach, at least to get started, and keeping that in mind I've divided the README into basic, intermediate, advanced levels, and ninja levels. I have also created a walkthrough video hoping to make this less intimidating.
Inspiration and Features
The initial idea came from ToolVox AI, as I mentioned earlier. Then I discovered a bash code that didn't seem too difficult. I began asking Chat GPT 4 for coding advice using TypingMind, and once I had the basic AI chat feature created, I continued getting code from within Kiki. So at least for coding you can be sure it's useful, as Kiki almost gave birth itself.
This workflow is specifically designed with the following features in mind:
Quick chats initiated from Alfred’s command bar: These chats start in the command bar of Alfred and continue as AppleScript dialogs.
Create and use presets for selected text or user input: Customize prompts, system role, temperature, and other settings per preset. This feature can help with grammar correction, translations, rephrasing, tone adjustment, smart text transformations, idea generation, and much more.
Chat initiation options with the use of modifiers from Alfred’s command bar: These options include selecting an alternative model, an alternative system role or "persona," pasting results in the frontmost window, and preserving or resetting existing context.
Easy continuation of previous conversations: Seamlessly continue previous conversations by using Alfred Universal actions on existing context files.
Trigger presets on text using hotkeys, snippets, or external triggers: Activate presets on text using hotkeys, snippets, or external triggers for faster results, without needing to use Alfred's command bar.
Markdown Chat: Enjoy the convenience of making AI requests directly in your preferred markdown text editor. Customize the chat settings through presets included on the header of your notes according to your preferences.
By the way, the logo of this workflow was created with Dall-e 3 in ToolVox AI and the name came from this Mexican movie I watched as a child. I always thought Kiki was a such a great name for a cute caterpillar character.
UPDATE
I recently posted an exciting update on Kiki. It now supports Claude, Offline Models, and Whisper AI! Check this video:
Give it a try!
I have tested a few other Alfred workflows for Chat GPT, and while Kiki may not utilize all the features of OpenAI's API as others do, it is still exceptional at performing its intended function: serving as a robust and efficient text tool for daily tasks. I may be biased, but I haven’t found any other workflow that does this better than Kiki :)
If you have Alfred I hope you give Kiki a try. If you have suggestions for improvement or find any bugs let me know and I'll do my best to address them. Updates, as usual, will receive a mention whenever available here, in my weekly newsletter.
If you find Kiki useful, I would be incredibly grateful if you could support me by buying me a coffee at THIS LINK. It would mean so much, really.
Thank you so much for reading guys!
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