Something new in Lyra this week

In Gmail and Outlook, hit Reply-All. A Lyra box opens in the draft. Say what you want in one line ,"yes let's do Tuesday 2pm, London time" and Lyra writes the full reply. Lyra is now screen and context aware.

Runs on your Mac. Nothing leaves.

Get Lyra

https://reddit.com/link/1v4c7al/video/gp94zfd41zeh1/player

Problem

Two shapes of writing tool exist today and neither fit how I actually write on my Mac. One is a separate chat window (ChatGPT, Claude) that needs constant copy-paste in and out. The other is a generic rewriter (Grammarly, Apple Writing Tools) that flattens everything to the same neutral voice, regardless of whether I'm messaging my wife or a client. Both interrupt whatever app I'm actually working in.

Comparison

vs Grammarly: Grammarly runs in the cloud and applies one house style everywhere. Lyra runs 100% on-device via llama.cpp with Metal, and builds a private local corpus of how you write to each specific person, so rewrites preserve your voice to that recipient instead of flattening it.

vs Apple Writing Tools: Apple's rewrite is generic, one-shot, and doesn't learn anything about who you're writing to. Lyra is ambient (fires when you pause), recipient-aware, and includes reply-assist in Gmail and Outlook that drafts replies in your voice to that specific sender.

Pricing

Free: 500 rewrites per month. Pro: $9.99 per month or $99 per year.

Link: heylyra.co.uk

About me / transparency (per Tier 2)

Solo dev based in London. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pratik-garg-11537825

Contact: pratik.garg@codestackconsulting.co.uk.

Privacy Policy: heylyra.co.uk/privacy.

Terms: heylyra.co.uk/terms.

Apple Silicon only, macOS 14+. Model runs locally: ~1GB on 12-19GB Macs (Qwen3-1.7B), ~3GB on 20GB+ Macs (Gemma 3B).

Happy to answer questions.

https://reddit.com/link/1v2kyb1/video/kf7rk4jhhleh1/player

Something new in Lyra this week
In Gmail and Outlook, hit Reply-All. A Lyra box opens in the draft. Say what you want in one line ,"yes let's do Tuesday 2pm, London time" and Lyra writes the full reply. Lyra is now screen and context aware.
Runs on your Mac. Nothing leaves.

https://heylyra.co.uk/

https://reddit.com/link/1v1xeo2/video/h5xlzyam4geh1/player

I'm a solo founder in London. Been building this for a year mostly for myself and figured I'd share since it's changed how much time I spend on messages every day.

The thing that was killing me: I don't spend most of my "writing time" writing. I spend it rewriting. I type a Slack message to my co-founder, read it back, delete half of it, retype it. Then I write an email to a client and do the same thing three times. By the end of the day I've probably written the same thought 40 times to get to the version I actually sent.

I tried the usual tools. Grammarly kept flattening every message into the same corporate voice — my Slack DMs sounded like memos. Apple's Writing Tools only work in Apple apps and give you generic rewrites. ChatGPT-in-a-tab works but requires 6 clicks per message and I'd rather stay in Slack.

So I built Lyra (heylyra.co.uk) ,a Mac app that fixes what I type in place, in any app.

How it actually works day-to-day:

• Sits in your menu bar, works in every text field (Mail, Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage, Teams, browsers, anywhere)
• Type, pause, and a small pill appears at your cursor with the rewrite
• Tab to accept, ignore to dismiss and never blocks your flow
• Runs entirely on your Mac. No cloud, no account required to try it, no upload of anything you write

The part that took me a year to get right:

It learns how you write to each specific person. Messages to my co-founder come out short and lowercase because that's how I actually talk to him. Messages to a client come out measured and full-sentence because that's how I talk to them. I didn't configure any of that Lyra just picked it up from what rewrites I accepted over time.

What it's actually saved me:

Ballpark 30-45 minutes a day of the rewrite tax. Not huge on any single day but adds up across a week.

Being honest about where it's weak:

• The per-recipient thing needs about 20-30 accepted rewrites per person before the voice really locks in. Slow burn, not instant magic.
• Apple Silicon only (M1+), macOS 14+. Intel is out.
• I'm solo , I'm also the entire support team. Upside: feedback lands directly and gets fixed within days.

Do you think something like this would make you productive on mac?

https://reddit.com/link/1uy38cp/video/ufs4wl5hildh1/player

https://preview.redd.it/yhwp5fv3ildh1.png?width=1972&format=png&auto=webp&s=fcf230bb9a5322e4d1143eef8429a4ec8a0b9112

Everyone knows the big names: Notion, Todoist, Obsidian, Raycast, Things, etc.

But I'm always more interested in the small tools that quietly improve your day:

• The menu bar app you can't live without
• The shortcut/automation that saves you hours
• The tiny utility that fixed an annoying workflow
• The underrated app you recommend to everyone

What's one productivity app or tool that has genuinely improved your workflow but doesn't get enough attention?

Looking for hidden gems.

I've been thinking about how many great Mac apps start from incredibly small frustrations.

Not "I need a new productivity system" problems, but things like:

• Why does macOS forget this setting?
• Why is there no native way to do this?
• Why does this menu/task/window behave like this?

Some of the best utilities I've discovered came from random recommendations solving very specific annoyances.

What's your personal "I can't believe macOS doesn't do this yet" problem?

Maybe someone here will build the next great Mac utility from the answers.

PS: it's amazing we have so many builders here who built a product to solve their pain points!

Posting here because I think it fits what this sub is about. I'm a solo founder in London and I've spent the last year building Lyra (heylyra.co.uk) ,a writing assistant that lives in your menu bar and fixes what you type across every Mac app: Mail, Slack, WhatsApp, browser, wherever.

The thing I keep bumping into with AI writing tools is the privacy framing. "We don't train on your data." "Enterprise-grade encryption." All of it still means the sentence you just typed to your accountant gets uploaded to a datacenter in Virginia and sits in someone's logs. I didn't want to write that promise because I didn't want to have to keep it. So Lyra runs the actual language model on your Mac , llama.cpp, Neural Engine, Metal GPU and there is no upload. Nowhere to send it, no endpoint to call. It just runs.

It also learns how you write to each specific person over time, so a message to your manager reads differently than one to your partner, without you configuring anything. Apple Silicon (M1+), macOS 14+. 500 rewrites a month free, then $9.99/mo or $99/year via Stripe if you want unlimited.

Genuinely curious how much the EU/on-device angle matters when you're picking software. Is it something you actively filter for, or more of a tiebreaker at the end?

After months of building nights and weekends, I'm launching tomorrow.

The problem I kept seeing: professionals chase people for documents over email every single day. CVs, signed contracts, proof of ID, photos. Always the same chaos. Email. Chase. Chase again. Wrong format. Repeat.

I built OneRequest to fix it. One link. Your recipient uploads everything you asked for. You get notified the moment it's done.

A few things I learned building solo:

• Shipping something imperfect beats waiting for perfect every time
• Your first 10 users teach you more than 10 months of building

Launching on Product Hunt tomorrow at 8am London time.

Would love feedback from this community before it goes live - what's missing? What would make you actually use this?

👉 Try it free: onerequest.app

👉 Follow on PH: https://www.producthunt.com/products/onerequest?launch=onerequest

See you tomorrow 👀 onerequest.app

Built OneRequest -one link to collect documents, photos, files, custom information from anyone. Recipient doesn’t need an account. You see who’s submitted, who’s stalling, one click to chase.
Think Calendly but for collecting things instead of scheduling meetings.
Not sure if this is a real problem or something people just accept as part of email. That’s what I want roasted.

https://onerequest.app

Be brutal.