Using GhostNote

Install it, grant two macOS permissions, connect an AI — or don’t — and you’re running. Here’s what actually happens at each step.

Install on macOS

Download GhostNote-macos.zip from the site, unzip it, and move GhostNote to your Applications folder. Then just open it — GhostNote is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it launches like any other Mac app. No security warning, no right-click-to-open workaround, nothing to approve in System Settings first. Uninstalling is the same as any other app: drag it to the Trash.

Requires macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon & Intel). Every update is checked against a published checksum and verified against our signature before it replaces anything already installed — an update that isn’t signed by us is refused outright.

First launch: two permission prompts

The first time you use GhostNote, macOS will ask you to allow two things under System Settings → Privacy & Security:

• Screen Recording — this is what lets GhostNote read what is on your screen, so it can answer a question about the thing you are actually looking at. It is used when you press the screenshot or Inspect hotkey, and for hearing call audio in Interview Mode. It is not what makes GhostNote invisible — that is a separate property of the window itself, and it applies whether or not you grant this.
• Accessibility — needed for two things: Inspect, which reads the text of the window in front of you directly rather than from a picture of it, and “type this for me”, which types an answer into whatever app you point it at. Global hotkeys do not need this, so if you skip it GhostNote still opens and answers — you just lose Inspect and auto-typing.

If you dismiss either prompt by mistake, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, enable GhostNote under both Screen Recording and Accessibility, and relaunch the app.

Connect an AI provider — or run one for free

GhostNote doesn’t resell AI access. You bring your own key from whichever provider you already use, and your usage is billed by that provider’s account, not by GhostNote. Add or change a key any time from Account Settings → API Keys — you only need one to get started.

• Claude (Anthropic) — get a key at console.anthropic.com.
• GPT (OpenAI) — get a key at platform.openai.com.
• Gemini (Google) — get a free key at aistudio.google.com. Gemini’s Flash tier has a genuine free tier, so this is the no-cost way to run a cloud model.
• Ollama (local) — install Ollama, pull a model (for example ollama pull llama3.3), then choose Local (Ollama) as your provider inside GhostNote. No key field, no cost, and nothing leaves your machine — GhostNote just talks to Ollama on localhost:11434. See the full offline guide for model options and the tradeoffs.

The hotkeys

GhostNote is triggered by two global hotkeys — a Screenshot hotkey and an Inspect hotkey. Press either one from inside any app, and GhostNote reads whatever is currently on your screen at that instant and sends it to whichever AI provider you’ve connected. There’s no continuous recording running in the background, and no keyboard or mouse logging in between — it only looks at your screen when you ask it to.

On your own monitor you see GhostNote’s window the whole time, and can adjust how transparent it is with a slider. Nobody else sees it at all — not as a black box, not as an outline. To anyone watching a screen share or recording, your screen looks completely normal.

What people actually use it for

Sales calls, client meetings, live support, interviews, and studying are the main uses people report — anywhere you want an answer without the other person seeing you look one up. It works the same way fully offline through Ollama if you’d rather nothing ever touch the network.

Good to know

• Is AI usage unlimited? Your message limits and costs are set by your account with whichever provider you connect — not by GhostNote. Most providers give free starting credits, and paid use is typically fractions of a cent per message.
• Do I need an account? Yes, a free account is required to download. Every account starts on Ghost Free — 15 minutes of use per month, resetting on the 1st — and upgrades to Ghost Pro or Ghost Lifetime for unlimited usage whenever you want. There are no separate license keys: signing in to the app with your username and password links your plan automatically.
• New computer? Message @ghostaidev on Discord with your account details. HWID transfers are free and usually done within a few hours.

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