Quick actions, and writing your own
Four actions are built in — Explain, Summarize, Translate and Improve writing — and you can write up to eight of your own, each just a name, an instruction and an icon.
A quick action takes the text you just captured and hands it to your AI model. Four are built in — Translate, Explain with AI, Improve writing and Summarize — and you can write up to eight more yourself. They all turn up in the same places: the ⋮ menu on Home, the Continue with panel after a capture, the reader's own ⋮ menu, every row in History, and the menu Ctrl+Alt+Q puts at your mouse.
You need Speakybara installed and running, and an AI model connected under Models › AI model — an OpenAI key, or a local one such as LM Studio or Ollama; the guide on connecting your own AI covers that.
Writing one of your own
Step 1
Try a built-in action first
Capture a piece of text and pick Explain with AI, Summarize, Translate or Improve writing from the Continue with panel that appears, or from the ⋮ menu on Home. Nothing else has to be set up, as long as an AI model is connected.
Step 2
Open Settings › Your own actions
That is where your own actions live. New action, at the bottom of the ⋮ menu on Home, opens the same form.
Step 3
Fill in a name, an instruction and an icon
Name the action, write what the AI should do with the captured text as an instruction, and pick one of 24 icons. Save it there and the action already works.
Step 4
Decide what happens to the answer
Read the result out loud is on; switch it off for an action that only writes. Also copy the result to the clipboard is off, except for Improve writing, which always copies. A shortcut of its own is optional, and there is none by default.
Step 5
Open Advanced options if you want more control
There you set Reply language, Length of the answer (short, normal or long), Model for this action, and Creativity (precise, balanced or creative). Send the instruction word for word drops the app's own rules and puts the captured text where you write {text}. Do not keep in history keeps this action's capture and answer out of the history file: they stay in memory until you close the app.
Step 6
Save it, and use it everywhere
A saved action stands next to Explain and Summarize wherever they already appear: Home, the reader, History and the Ctrl+Alt+Q menu. Editing and deleting happen back in Settings › Your own actions — the pencil opens the same form, the bin asks once.
Worth knowing
- Eight actions of your own is the ceiling.
- Ctrl+Alt+Q draws the frame first and asks afterwards: a menu at your mouse with read aloud, copy text, and every action you have, built in or your own.
- An action can be write-only: switch off Read the result out loud, switch on Also copy the result to the clipboard, and the answer lands on your clipboard without a sound.
If something goes wrong
Translate (with a target language), Explain with AI, Improve writing and Summarize. Read aloud and Copy text sit in the same menus, but they use no AI.
No. It uses whatever you connected under Models › AI model, unless you pick a different model for that one action under Advanced options.
Yes. Turn on Do not keep in history for that action under Advanced options, and its capture and answer stay in memory only, until you close the app.