German Assistant

A local AI-powered writing assistant that corrects language mistakes using AI models.

Select any text, press a keyboard shortcut, and receive grammar corrections instantly.

The assistant uses cloud AI when an internet connection is available and automatically falls back to a local Ollama model when offline.

Features

• Hybrid AI system (Google Gemini + local Ollama fallback)
• Fully offline capability
• Global keyboard shortcut for correction
• Works across desktop applications
• Preserves original meaning and vocabulary
• Provides explanations for corrections
• Structured JSON responses
• Multi-language ready architecture

Architecture

• Python
• uv for dependency management
• Ollama for local inference
• Google Gemini API for online inference
• Pydantic for structured outputs
• Tkinter for desktop popup UI
• Global hotkeys + clipboard integration

Setup

Install dependencies:

uv sync

Install Ollama: https://ollama.com/

Download a local model:

ollama pull qwen3:4b

Create a .env file:

GOOGLE_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Run the assistant:

uv run german_assistant

Usage

1. Highlight text in any application.

2. Press:

   CTRL + ALT + G

3. The assistant captures the selected text.

4. The best available AI backend is selected:

   • Google Gemini when internet is available
   • Ollama when offline

5. A correction popup displays:

   • corrected sentence
   • detected changes
   • explanations

Configuration

Settings can be changed in:

src/german_assistant/config.py

Example:

ollama_model = "qwen3:4b"

Any Ollama-compatible model can be used.

Privacy

Offline mode runs completely locally.

When using Google Gemini, selected text is sent to Google's API for processing.

Roadmap

• One-click replacement of selected text
• Improved popup design
• Support for additional languages
• User correction history
• Personalized language learning insights
• System tray application