Help, right where the writing happens
Select a passage, describe how it should change, and review the rewrite in the document before you keep it. The help stays next to your words, and the final call stays with you.
Start from the words you want to change
The Writing Assistant works on a selection in an editable note. Highlight a passage, then call it up whichever way your hands already are.
The draft covers every option we tried, in the order we tried them, which makes the recommendation hard to find.
Right in the Bubble Menu
Click Writing Assistant in the Bubble Menu that appears over your selection, and the inline prompt opens below it.
One shortcut
Press Cmd/Ctrl + J with text selected.
Or the Command Bar
Run Writing Assistant from the Command Bar like any other command.
Shipping weekly kept us honest, but it also meant the changelog read like a diary.
Always about a selection
The Writing Assistant needs selected text. If nothing is selected, Octarine asks you to select text first.
Say what should change, in plain words
Type a direct instruction into the inline prompt. Shorter, clearer, fixed, restructured: describe it the way you would to an editor sitting next to you.
- Send when it reads right
- Press Cmd/Ctrl + Enter to send the request.
- Stop or step away
- Stop generation while it is running, or press Esc to close the prompt.
- Choose the model
- Use the model menu in the prompt's footer. It is the same model picker as Ask Octarine.
Notes from the planning call.
offsite in spring, march venue booked. need room for 14, check budget before friday, someone owns the agenda
See every change before it's yours
The rewritten text appears in place with its changes highlighted. Nothing is silently discarded: the rewrite stays reviewable until you accept or undo it.
Notes from the planning call. Dates first, logistics after.
We should probably think about moving Let's move the offsite to the spring, because the venue we looked at is already fully booked in March and it would be hard to find another one that works few others work for everyone.
This release is basically all about making things faster and also a little bit more reliable in a lot of different ways.
Your favourite edits, one keystroke away
Type / in the prompt to search your custom slash commands. Choosing one runs its saved prompt against the current selection.
- Write them once
- Create and manage commands in Settings → AI → Slash Commands.
- They live with the workspace
- Octarine stores them in .octarine/ai/slash_commands.json inside the workspace, so they can sync with it.
Bring the AI you already use
Connect a cloud provider, a CLI account, or a local model once in Settings, and the Writing Assistant can rewrite with it.
Accounts, API keys, or custom endpoints
Use your Codex, Claude Code, or OpenCode CLI sessions, add an API key for a built-in provider, or point Octarine at any OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible endpoint.
Keep requests on your computer
With a cloud provider, the prompt and selected text go to that provider. Use Ollama, LM Studio, or another local endpoint to keep model requests on your own machine.
When the edit needs more than one passage
The Writing Assistant is built for focused rewrites. For anything wider, hand the work to Ask Octarine.
Skill-guided edits
The inline prompt doesn't attach skills. Select the passage, choose Add to Ask Octarine in the Bubble Menu, then attach the skill to the Ask Octarine draft.
Workspace-wide work
For workspace-wide questions, multi-note context, web search, or changes that create and move files, use Ask Octarine.
Questions
The Writing Assistant is included with Octarine Pro. The full reference lives in the docs.
Start writing with 
Octarine.
A fast, private Markdown workspace for capturing ideas, shaping notes, and keeping your writing in files you control.