1. Getting Started

1.1 The Notch

Hover your mouse over the notch to open Alter.

On an external screen, you can hover anywhere except on the mic to open Alter.

1.2 Hotkey - Alter Quick Menu

Press your Alter Quick Menu shortcut to open Alter from anywhere.

You can configure the Alter Quick Menu in Settings > Shortcuts

1.3 Voice Command

Speech-to-prompt

Hold the mic icon to speak on your notch or use your speech-to-text hotkey to start a quick prompt using your voice.

You can configure the speech-to-text hotkey in Settings > Default. The currently active window will be selected by default for context.

Dictate

Click once on the mic icon on your notch to dictate a prompt, and click again to finish dictation.

The transcript of your recording is visible in the context of Alter.

Mouse Interaction

Text Selection

Select text anywhere to invoke the Alter Floating Menu.

The Alter Floating Menu only shows the system’s Alter actions.
Favorite system Alter actions will appear at the top of the menu instead of in their respective folders.

Right-Click

Right-click on a file or folder, then select Add to Alter to send it to Alter.

2. Chosing your language

You can choose your generation langue in the setting pannel

Settings > Defaults > Language

3. The Alter Window

3.1 General Concept

The Alter window is your gateway to improving productivity.
It is divided into three main sections:

1. Context
2. Prompt
3. Additional Selection

You can navigate within the Alter window using a mouse or the following keyboard keys:

• ←, ↑, → , ↓ to navigate between objects.
• Enter to select an object.

See the Prompt Box section for details on manipulating it using keyboard keys.

3.2 The Context Section

The Context section displays elements sent to Alter for reference.

You can send multiple context elements to Alter and mix different types, including:

• Files
  • Any files supported
  • Emails
• Text selection
• Audio Transcripts
• Youtube transcripts
• Folders
• Workspaces
• Applications
• Web pages

You can use the following key strokes to manipulate your context slection:

• Space Bar: add/remove selected context(s)
• Cmd+k: remove all the context
• Cmd+j: create a workspace with the selected contexts

Using your clipboard

You can paste the content of your clipboard Cmd+v to automatically add it to Alter’s context.

3.3 The Prompt Box

The Prompt Box is where the magic happens.
Start typing your prompt or an Alter Action title to send it to your LLM model.

• Use Enter to prompt with your actif model.
• Use Cmd+Enter to prompt using a web search (via Perplexity).
• Use Shift+Enter to do a line break.

To invoke an Alter Action, type any character in its title.

Prompt Box shortcuts:

• @: Add elements to the context.
• #: Show your history of Alter Conversation.
• >: Show your history of meeting transcriptions.
• /: List and choose your model.
• ?: Show the help menu.

Help menu

3.4 Conversation History

Managing Your Chat History

Access your conversation history by typing # in the prompt box or using the history feature in Alter.

Rename Conversations

You can rename a conversation by right-clicking an entry in the list. A contextual menu will appear, choose Rename

Tip: you can add tags like #personal to categorize chats and search quickly for all conversations matching one or more tags within the promptbox.

For example, typing the text below in the box, will search for #personal and #food:

# #personal #food

Export Conversations

You can now export entire conversations as markdown files for reuse with other tools or for documentation purposes. Just like Rename invoke the contextual menu by right-cliking a line:

1. Select Conversation: Find the conversation you want to export
2. Right-Click: Right-click on the conversation
3. Export: Select the “Export” option
4. Save: Choose where to save your markdown file

4. Choosing Your Generative Model

By default, Alter offers a variety of models, listed alphabetically by their hosting company.

You can also use your API key or use your local model.

4.1 Choosing your model

After opening Alter, just type / to show available models and select the model you want to use.

Chosing a favorite model

Select the star icon next to a model with your mouse to mark the model as your favorite.

When using your API key or a local model, these appear at the top under Custom.
All other interactions are routed through Alter Cloud.

4.2 Using Alter Cloud

By default, Alter is set up with /best , our internal model router, choosing the best model based on your query.


You can change the default model in Settings > Defaults > Model.

List of the models via Alter CLoud

Model with vision

Name	Context size
gemini-1.5-flash	1000000
gemini-1.5-pro	1000000
gemini-2.0-flash-001	1000000
claude-3-haiku-20240307	200000
claude-3-opus-20240229	200000
claude-3-5-sonnet-20240620	200000
claude-3-5-sonnet-latest	200000
claude-3-7-sonnet-latest	200000
chatgpt-4o-latest	128000
gpt-4o	128000
gpt-4o-2024-08-06	128000
gpt-4o-mini	128000
gpt-4-turbo	128000
pixtral-12b-latest	128000
pixtral-large-latest	128000
gpt-3.5-turbo	4191

Model without vision

Name	Context size
codestral-2501	256000
deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1	163840
deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3	131072
meta-llama/Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct-Turbo	131072
meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct-Turbo-128K	131072
deepseek-r1-distill-llama-70b	128000
llama-3.1-70b-versatile	128000
llama-3.1-8b-instant	128000
llama-3.1-sonar-large-128k-online	128000
llama-3.1-sonar-small-128k-online	128000
sonar	127000
sonar-pro	200000
qwen3-32b	131072
mixtral-8x7b-32768	32768
meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct-Turbo	32768
meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct-Turbo	32768
mistral-small-latest	32768
nvidia/Llama-3.1-Nemotron-70B-Instruct-HF	32768
Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct-Turbo	32768
Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct-Turbo-lora	32768
Qwen/Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct-Turbo	32768
mixtral-8x7b-instruct	16384
mistral-7b-instruct	16384
llama-3.3-70b	8192
llama-3.3-70b-specdec	8192
llama-3.3-70b-versatile	8192
llama3-70b-8192	8192
llama3-8b-8192	8192
llama3.1-8b	8192
meta-llama/Llama-3-70b-chat-hf	8192
meta-llama/Llama-3-8b-chat-hf	8192
Gryphe/MythoMax-L2-13b	4096

4.3 Using Your API Key

You can use your own API key to connect directly to your provider’s endpoint:

1. Go to Settings > API keys > Custom provider.
2. Enable Custom Provider
3. Pick your provider in the list

Once connected, a tick will appear next to Custom Endpoint.

Your provider’s models will be listed under the Custom section.

We only support OpenAI compatible endpoints meaning you can’t use your Anthropic API keys.

Here’s a list of the supported platforms for custom keys, based on the provided image:

1. Azure
2. Gemini
3. LM Studio
4. Mistral
5. Ollama
6. OpenAI
7. Open Router
8. Custom (Any OpenAI compatible endpoint)

Setting Up an Azure Endpoint in Alter

1. Enable Custom Provider: In Alter’s settings, enable the “Custom provider” option.
2. Choose Azure: Select Azure as your provider.
3. Enter Complete Chat Completion Endpoint URL: Provide the full chat completion endpoint URL, including the api-version parameter and the model name within the URL. For example: https://yourinstance.openai.azure.com/openai/deployments/your-model-name/chat/completions?api-version=2024-02-15-preview
4. Enter API Key: Enter your Azure OpenAI API key.

Important Considerations

• Complete Endpoint Required: Make sure to use the complete chat completion endpoint, as Alter extracts the model name from the URL.
• Model Name in URL: The model deployment name must be included in the URL path.
• API Version: The URL must include the api-version parameter.

Where to find your API keys

Provider	URL for generate an API Key
Google (Gemini)	https://aistudio.google.com/app/apikey
Mistral	https://console.mistral.ai/api-keys/
OpenAI	https://platform.openai.com/api-keys

4.4 Locally using Ollama or LM Studio

To use Alter with local models (via Ollama or LM Studio):

1. Go to Settings > API keys > Custom provider.
2. Enable Custom Provider
3. Pick Ollama or LM Studio in the list of provider

Once connected, a tick will appear next to Custom Endpoint.

Your local models will be listed under the Custom section.

5. Core Features

5.1 Interacting with Your Apps

Appsense - Understanding Your Mac

Unlike traditional screen capture methods, AppSense reads actual data directly from macOS applications, allowing Alter to access information beyond what’s visible on your screen.

Current Application

Alter will automatically suggest using the active window as context.
Click Current Application below the prompt. Or press ↓ and Enter.

5.2 Follow mode

Follow Mode is a core feature of Alter that enables real-time synchronization of data from your active applications, documents, and files during chat sessions.

How It Works

Follow Mode continuously monitors the state of applications and files you’re working with, providing Alter with comprehensive context about your current workflow at each turn of your conversation.

This allows you to work or browse pages and have a conversation always in sync with what you’re doing.

A great example is working on a landing page copy: While you make changes and have Alter as your Marketing Coach, Alter sees the changes you made without the need for you to explain what you did.

Using Follow Mode

1. Add the applications or documents you wish to include to the context list
2. Start your chat session - Alter will automatically track the state of the selected applications
3. Ask questions, even if that content isn’t currently visible on screen
4. Interact with the selected apps or updates the documents
5. Keep chatting, Alter knows what you changed.

5.3 Interacting with Files and Folders

You can add files to Alter as context.

Drag-and-Drop Support

Drag and drop files or folders onto Alter’s notch icon, or use Right Click > Add to Alter.

Supported File Types

1. Document Files: .xlsx, .docx, .pdf, .txt, .md, .org, .rtf.
2. Image Files: .jpg, .png, .heic, .gif, .tiff, .svg.
3. Web Content: .html, URLs, dragged text.
4. Email Content: .eml, Apple Mail messages.
5. Audio Files: .mp3, .wav, .m4a, .aac, .flac.
6. Code Files: Common programming languages, configuration, shell scripts.
7. Special Handling: Directory drops, OCR for images and PDFs, text encoding detection.

When dropping an image file, use a model with vision capability.

Video: How to Chat with Files and Folders from Finder

Quick talk about starting conversations with files and folders from the Finder

5.4 Automatic Transcription

When adding audio or video files, Alter automatically transcribes them for you.

Automatic Transcription Features:

• Instant Processing: Audio and video files are transcribed automatically when dragged into Alter
• Parallel Transcription: Drop multiple files simultaneously for batch processing
• Both Audio and Video: Works with audio files (.mp3, .wav, .m4a, .aac, .flac) and video files
• Interactive Content: Once transcribed, you can ask questions about the content (e.g., “What did Steve say in his speech?”)

How to Use:

1. Drag and drop your audio or video file(s) onto Alter’s notch icon
2. Transcription begins automatically - no manual action required
3. View the transcription by clicking on the file in your context
4. Start asking questions about the content immediately

5.5 Workspaces

Workspaces are a powerful feature in Alter that allow you to save, organize, and automatically refresh collections of folders, files, and apps for efficient AI-assisted workflows. Think of workspaces as intelligent folders that maintain context across your chat sessions.

How Workspaces Work

Workspaces create an indexed map of your selected resources, enabling Alter to:

• Retrieve only the most relevant files for your queries
• Deliver faster, more accurate responses
• Reduce processing costs
• Handle large folders and codebases efficiently

Programming languages supported within Workspaces

1. C
2. C++
3. C#
4. Elixir
5. Go
6. Java
7. JavaScript
8. Lua
9. PHP
10. Python
11. Ruby
12. Rust
13. Scala
14. Swift
15. TypeScript
16. Zig

Creating a Workspace

• Drag and drop contexts to merge as a Workspace: You can combine folders, files, apps.You can hold shift while clicking to select multiple items before dropping them together

Alternativelly, you can also use the following key strokes to manipulate your context selection:

• ←, ↑, →, ↓ to navigate between objects.
• Space Bar: add/remove selected context(s)
• Cmd+k: remove all the context
• Cmd+j: create a workspace with the selected contexts

Rename and edit a Workspace

Click on the workspace name to customize it (e.g., “Project Research” or “Development Environment”)

You can also remove elements from the Workspace and disabled or enable follow mode for apps.

Follow mode makes Alter retrieve the latest context of the app followed at each turn of the conversation.

Video: How to Use Workspaces?

We talk about Workspaces, a feature where you can save folders, files and apps that are synced and refreshed at each step of your conversation.

5.6 Interacting with a YouTube video

When visiting a YouTube video page:

• Alter will notify you with an option to summarize the video.
• The video’s transcript will be added to your context window, even if you ignore the notification

This works only if the Youtube video has a transcribe available

Video: How to Chat with YouTube Videos

Quick video showing how to start a chat with a Youtube video using push-to-command or the notch.

5.7 Alter Actions - Workflows

General Principle

Alter Actions are advanced prompts configured with triggers and instructions.
Default actions are organized in folders.

Create Your Actions

You can create actions via:

• Action Editor: Accessible from the menu bar.
• Prompt Box: Invoke “Create > Alter Action” and specify your requirements.

Built-in actions cannot be edited but can be duplicated.

Bespoke Model Selection

You can now assign specific AI models to individual Alter Actions, giving you precise control over which model handles each workflow.

Why Use Bespoke Models?

Privacy-First Workflows: Use local models for sensitive tasks while keeping cloud models for general queries.

Specialized Performance: Assign fast, tool-optimized models like Qwen3 for automation tasks while using creative models for writing.

Cost Optimization: Use lightweight local models for simple tasks and reserve powerful cloud models for complex operations.

How to Set Up Bespoke Models

1. Open Action Editor: Click the three dots in the Alter window and select “Action Editor”
2. Select Your Action: Choose the Alter Action you want to customize
3. Access Advanced Settings: In the action details, find the “Advanced” section
4. Choose Model: Select the specific model you want this action to use
5. Save Changes: The action will now always use your chosen model

Use Cases

Local Privacy Actions: Create actions that always use local models for sensitive data processing, even when your default is a cloud model.

Tool-Optimized Actions: Assign Qwen3 or other tool-friendly models to actions that interact with your calendar, send messages, or automate workflows.

Creative vs. Analytical: Use different models for creative writing tasks versus data analysis or code generation.

Fallback Strategy: You can still choose “Best” routing to let Alter automatically select the optimal model for each action.

6. Dictation

Alter’s dictation capabilities go far beyond simple speech-to-text conversion, offering intelligent voice commands and advanced text transformation features.

6.1 Modes

Speech-to-Prompt (Hold to Speak)

Perfect for quick voice commands and queries:

• Hold your configured hotkey (default: Fn key) or mic icon
• Speak your command naturally
• Release to process immediately
• Your text selection or the currently active window is automatically selected for context

Dictation Mode (Click to Start/Stop)

Ideal for text input, by default :

• Click once on the mic icon to start dictation
• Speak your content
• Click again to stop and process
• Perfect for drafting emails, documents, or longer prompts

By default, dictation over 2 minutes is treated as a meeting. If you dictate for longer than that, you can go to Settings > Dictation to change this behavior.

6.2 Voice-Powered Text Transformation

Transform any selected text using voice commands:

1. Select text anywhere on your Mac
2. Hold the record button (or Fn key)
3. Speak transformation commands such as:
   • “Rewrite in friendly tone”
   • “Create counter arguments”
   • “Add my thoughts: [your input]”
   • “Make this more professional”
   • “Translate to Spanish”

This feature works system-wide with any text selection, making it incredibly powerful for editing documents, emails, or any text content.

6.3 Language Settings

Automatic Language Detection

When set to “Automatic,” Alter detects the language you’re speaking and processes it accordingly. Auto-detecting doesn’t work with all languages and depends on the underlying engine chosen. Try setting your language if you have accuracy issues or get no results.

Custom Word Recognition

Add technical terms, company names, and industry-specific vocabulary to improve recognition accuracy:

• Navigate to Settings > Dictation > Dictionary
• Add words separated by commas
• Particularly useful for acronyms, proper nouns, and technical terminology

6.4 Processing Options

Choose how Alter processes your voice input:

1. Cloud Processing - Highest accuracy and fast using cloud-based speech recognition
2. Local (Apple) - Uses Apple’s on-device speech recognition for privacy
3. Local (Whisper) - Uses OpenAI’s Whisper model locally for maximum privacy, can be very fast depending on the model chosen

6.5 Configuration

Global Voice Hotkey

• Default: Fn key
• Customizable: Set any key combination in Settings > Dictation > Shortcut
• Hold behavior: Speech-to-prompt mode
• Single tap: Dictation mode

Clipboard Integration

When enabled, dictated text is automatically copied to your clipboard for easy pasting into any application.

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7. Meetings

Alter provides professional-grade meeting transcription with advanced features like speaker identification, searchable transcripts, and 100% offline processing.

7.1 Automatic Meeting Recording

Smart Meeting Detection

Alter automatically detects when you join meetings on:

• Zoom
• Google Meet
• Microsoft Teams
• Other conferencing platforms

During online calls, Alter suggests recording via a subtle notification.

When a meeting is detected, Alter displays a notification giving you the option to record or skip.

Auto-Record Settings

• Enable: Settings > Dictation > Auto Record Meetings
• Meeting Threshold: Define minimum recording length (default: 120 seconds)
• Notification: Option to skip recording if notification appears

Navigate to Alter’s settings and select the “Dictation” tab to find the “Auto Record Meetings” toggle. Once enabled, Alter will automatically detect when you join meetings. When you enter a meeting, Alter will display a notification giving you the option to skip recording. If you do nothing or click the X on the notification, the meeting will be recorded automatically.

Manual Recording

You can also manually start and stop meeting recordings:

• Start recording: Click the mic icon on the notch. It will turn into a red recording button
• End recording: Click the red button to stop

The mic will animate during transcription

Speaker Search & Identification

• Perfect speaker identification for all meeting participants
• Search by speaker: Find specific contributions from any participant
• Speaker-specific insights: Track who said what throughout the meeting

7.2 Edit And Search Transcripts

Edit Transcript Content

• Modify transcriptions: Correct any recognition errors
• Edit titles: Rename meeting transcripts for better organization
• Update summaries: Customize meeting summaries to highlight key points

Advanced Search Capabilities

Search across all your transcripts by:

• Titles: Find meetings by name
• Content: Search within transcript text
• Speakers: Find contributions from specific participants
• Summaries: Search meeting summaries and key points

7.3 Timestamps Navigation

Enhanced Navigation

• Timestamp support: Jump to specific moments in recordings
• Visual timeline: Navigate through long recordings efficiently
• One-click audio navigation: Click timestamps to hear specific segments

Meeting Reports & Analysis

Generate comprehensive meeting reports with:

• Action items: Automatically extracted tasks and follow-ups
• Key decisions: Important conclusions and agreements
• Speaker contributions: Summary of each participant’s input

7.4 Video Demonstrations

Speaker Search And Editable Transcripts

Learn about Alter’s advanced transcription features with 100% offline processing:

Perfect Speaker Identification

See how Alter identifies and tracks different speakers in your meetings:

7.5 Accessing Your Transcripts

File Location

All recordings and transcripts are stored locally at: ~/Library/Application Support/Alter/Transcripts

You can directly open the folder by going into your Settings > Dictation.

All your transcripts are also available directly in Alter.

Transcript Management

• Open in Finder: Access transcript files directly
• Search interface: Use Alter’s built-in search to find transcripts
• Export options: Save or share transcripts as needed

Recovery Options

In case of unexpected app closure during recording, audio files can often be recovered from: /private/var/folders (search for files named “recording”)

You can find your recordings and your transcripts in ~/Library/Application Support/Alter/Transcripts

In the case Alter crashes, there is a fair chance you could find the audio file in the following folder: /private/var/folders and search for files called “recording”

7.6 Smart Notifications

Meeting Context Awareness

Alter provides intelligent suggestions based on your meeting activity:

• Start recording prompt when joining meetings
• Generate meeting report when stopping long recordings
• Action item extraction for follow-up tasks

Productivity Enhancements

• Meeting summaries: Automatic generation of key points
• Action item tracking: Extract and organize tasks from discussions
• Follow-up reminders: Integration with calendar and task management

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8. Integrations

Alter connects seamlessly with your Mac applications and external services to enhance your productivity. All local integrations are completely FREE and work offline, keeping your data private and secure.

8.1 Local Tools

Alter provides 17+ powerful local tools for free that integrate directly with your Mac applications. Unlike other AI chatbots, Alter actually controls your Mac through natural language commands.

How to Use Local Tools

1. Availability For FREE: All local tools are available to everyone for free

2. Tools Manager: Open Alter menu and click on Tools Manager

3. Enable one or more tools: In the Local Tools section, search and enable the tools you’re looking for, like Apple Calendar or Apple Maps.

4. Natural Commands: Simply ask Alter to perform actions with your apps

   • “Send a message to John saying I’m running late”
   • “Add a meeting to my calendar for tomorrow at 2 PM”
   • “Show me my unread emails”
   • “Find the contact for Sarah”

5. Privacy First: All local tools work offline and keep your data on your Mac

Note: You can toggle all tools on/off using the global toggle in the tool window (Settings > Tools).

Video Demonstration

Learn about the 17 powerful automation features including Messages, Calendar, Maps, and Contacts:

Core Mac Applications List

1. Productivity & Organization
   • Notes: access and manage your notes
   • Reminders: manage your reminders
   • Calendar: create, edit, remove and list events
   • Finder: list and open apps
2. System & Automation
   • Alter: use Quick Actions as tools, copy to clipboard and other expert use cases.
   • System Settings: send a system notification
   • Shortcuts: call your Apple Shortcuts using the last AI reply as entry
   • Script Editor: run an Apple Script
3. Web & Navigation
   • Maps: search for places and addresses, get directions and points of interest
   • Safari: web search powered by DuckDuckGo
4. Communication
   • Contacts: Manage and search your contacts
   • Mail: Draft emails
   • Messages: Send messages

8.2 Connect with 2000+ Services

Alter can also connect with over 2000 external applications and services like Linear, Notion or Google services (Gmail, Calendar) for advanced automation workflows.

Availability: Early preview for Yearly and Lifetime users

Video: Connect Alter with WhatsApp & thousands of Apple Shortcuts

See how to connect Alter with Apple Shortcuts, webhooks, WhatsApp, Make, N8N, Relay, and Zapier:

Popular integrations:

• Notion
• OpenAI
• Anthropic
• Google Sheet
• Telegram
• Google Drive
• Google Calendar
• Slack
• Salesforce
• HubSpot
• Zoho CRM
• GitHub
• YouTube
• And 2000+ more applications

8.3 Automation Workflows

Webhooks

• Set up webhook integrations for custom workflows
• Connect Alter with any webhook-compatible service
• Trigger external actions from Alter conversations

Apple Shortcuts Integration

• Connect with thousands of Apple Shortcuts
• Trigger Shortcuts from Alter using natural language
• Automate complex Mac workflows through Shortcuts

Quick Actions

Create custom actions that work with your integrations:

• Insert Quick Action: Automatically place AI replies into active apps
• Webhook Actions: Send data to external services
• Apple Script Integration: Run custom AppleScripts
• Form Builder: Create interactive forms with variables

Auto-Insert AI Replies & Custom Forms

See the Insert Quick Action and Form Builder features in action:

8.4 Setting Up Integrations

Accessing Integration Settings

1. Open Alter (your global shortcut or with your mouse)
2. Open the menu (three dots on the right)
3. Navigate to the Tools Manager entry
4. Enable/disable specific integrations as needed

Privacy & Security

• Local Tools: All data stays on your Mac - completely offline
• External Integrations: Make sure to enable only the tools you need from each integrations
• No Background Monitoring: Alter only accesses data when you request it

8.5 Troubleshooting Integrations

Common Issues

1. Tool Not Working: Check what parameters are required and do not hesitate to create custom prompts or add explainers to your profile to ground your tools usage.
2. Assistant not picking up the tools: Make sure the model you choose supports tools. We recommend “Alter - best”, Gemini 2.0 flash, Gemini 2.0-flash-lite, and Claude 4 Sonnet.
3. Apple Shortcuts: Ensure shortcuts are properly configured to take the last assistant message as an argument

Getting Help

• Ask Alter to explain how a tool is used once the tool is enabled.
• Join us on Discord to get help by the team and the community.

Pro Tip: Start with local tools to get familiar with Alter’s integration capabilities before setting up external services.

9. Alter Settings

The Alter settings window provides comprehensive control over the application’s functionality, appearance, and integration capabilities.

9.1 Accessing Alter Settings

When the Alter window is visible

1. Use the keyboard shortcut when the Alter window is open: cmd+,

or

2. click on the 3 dots on the main window /

When the Alter widow is not visible

Access it via the menu bar

Here’s a detailed breakdown of each section

9.2 Defaults

Quick access settings:

• Open notch keybinding (default: Alt+Space)
• Selection Button toggle for quick access when selecting text

LLM settings:

• Max Tokens: Set maximum text generation length (default: 2,048)
• Temperature: Adjust from deterministic to creative (default: 0.70)

6. Dictation

Shortcut

Global Keybinding Set a custom keyboard shortcut to trigger Alter’s voice features. If left empty, the Fn key will be used by default.

Behavior:

• Hold - Activates speak-to-command mode
• One tap - Starts dictation mode

Record Shortcut Click “Record Shortcut” to capture your preferred key combination.

File Management

Transcripts Directory Access your saved transcriptions and recordings through Finder. Click “Open in Finder” to navigate directly to where Alter stores your voice data.

Language

Dictation Language Set the primary language for voice recognition and transcription. When set to “Automatic”, Alter will attempt to detect the language being spoken.

Note: All voice features will use this language setting for processing transcriptions, including meetings.

Automation

Auto Record Meetings When enabled, Alter automatically starts recording when it detects you’re in a meeting.

Meeting Threshold Define how long a recording must be (in seconds) before Alter considers it a meeting rather than a quick voice note. Default is 120 seconds (2 minutes).

Keep Dictation in Pasteboard When enabled, dictated text is automatically copied to your clipboard/pasteboard, making it easy to paste into any application.

Dictionary

Custom Word Recognition Add words that you want Alter to better recognize during transcription. This is particularly useful for:

• Technical terms specific to your industry
• Company names and product names
• Proper nouns that might be misunderstood
• Acronyms and abbreviations

Format: Enter words separated by commas in the text field.

Processor

Speech Processing Engine Choose how Alter processes your voice input:

1. Cloud - Uses cloud-based processing for highest accuracy
2. Local (Apple) - Uses Apple’s on-device speech recognition
3. Local (Whisper) - Uses OpenAI’s Whisper model locally for privacy

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These settings help you customize Alter’s voice recognition and automation features to match your workflow and preferences.

9.4 Profile

Profile is a simple way to tell Alter who you are and how you want to work together. Context matters - when Alter knows more about you, it can skip the fluff and provide more helpful, targeted responses.

My Profile: Use this personalization section to:

• Tell Alter about yourself: Share your role, expertise, and background
• Share what you’re working on: Describe your current projects and goals
• Set your preferred communication style: Specify how you like to receive information
• Add explainers for tools: Detail how you want some tools to be used and provide technical references if needed (pairs of names and ids for example)

Why Profile Matters: When Alter knows you’re a developer who prefers concise technical answers, or a writer who wants creative brainstorming, it can adapt its responses accordingly. This personalization helps Alter understand your context and provide more relevant assistance.

Here’s a simple example:

My name is Samuel ROY, I’m the CEO of Alter, an AI assistant that understands your Mac. It’s the first AI assistant living in the macOS notch.  I bring vision and manage product development, I can code and do marketing tasks. I like my AI to output content in a genuine, friendly and direct tone. Humor and Internet culture is appreciated. 

When you use tools, you might need the following informations:
<DISCORD>
Guild ID: XXXXXXX
General channel: general
Private team channel: XXXXX
</DISCORD>

<GITHUB>
Alter app repo: XXXXX
Alter server: XXX
Alter website (alterhq.com): XXXX
</GITHUB>

• Generation Language: Select preferred language for outputs Note: Language selection affects generation only, not application interface

9.5 Appearance

Theme options:

• System (follows system settings)
• Light mode
• Dark mode Panel customization: Default Panel Position (e.g., top center)

Menu Font size (default: 16) Message Font size (default: 16)

Display notch toggle

9.6 Billing

9.7 Permissions

• Launch at Login: Toggle switch to control whether Alter starts automatically when the system boots up

Required Permissions

Alter will work at best when those permissions are enable

• Accessibility permissions

  • Purpose: Used to get selected text system-wide and to paste text anywhere
  • Status: OK
  • Action button: “Check Accessibility”

• SystemEvents permissions

  • Purpose: Used to interact with other applications
  • Status: OK
  • Action button: “Check SystemEvents”

• Screen Recording permissions

  • Purpose: Used to capture screen content
  • Status: OK
  • Action button: “Check Screen Recording”

• Microphone permissions

  • Purpose: Used to record audio input
  • Status: OK
  • Action button: “Check Microphone”

Disable analytics

We rely on analytics to improve Alter. However you are free to disable it if you prefer it

• Disable Analytics: Toggle switch to control analytics collection

9.8 External API keys

This is where you want to set up your API keys if you are using your own providers, for example, OpenAI, OpenRouter, or your local models.

Partners integration:

• Straico support
• Custom provider options

Provider configuration:

• Enable/disable custom providers

Provider selection (e.g., LM Studio)

List of providers:

• LM Studio
• Mistral
• Ollama
• OpenAI
• Open Router
• Custom (any OpenAI compatible endpoind)

9.9 Router

Alter can be used as a gateway to provide its cloud models to other tools in the same manner than OpenRouter.