use Apple Intelligence as system-wide autocomplete

Apple Intelligence by itself does not add persistent ghost-text autocomplete to every third-party text field. Cotabby provides that system-wide interaction layer while using Apple's model runtime as the engine.

• A Mac supported by Apple Intelligence.
• macOS 26 or a later compatible release.
• Apple Intelligence enabled and available for your language and region.
• Cotabby with Accessibility and Input Monitoring permissions.

If the Apple Intelligence engine is unavailable, Cotabby's Open Source engine still works on macOS 14 or later using a local GGUF model.

1. 1. Install Cotabby. Use Homebrew or the latest signed disk image.
2. 2. Grant permissions. Accessibility inserts accepted text; Input Monitoring observes the acceptance keys.
3. 3. Open Settings. Select Apple Intelligence as the completion engine.
4. 4. Test a normal text field. Type in Notes or Mail and pause briefly for ghost text.
5. 5. Tune only if needed. Adjust completion length and context after testing the defaults.

Cotabby sends context to Apple's local Foundation Models API, not to a third-party completion server. Cotabby has no telemetry and does not save a transcript of your writing. It does not activate in password fields.

Screen context and clipboard context are optional. macOS requires explicit permissions because Cotabby works across application boundaries. See the complete security and permissions model.

Start with Apple Intelligence when supported. Switch to GGUF when you need a different language, model behavior, or more direct control over the speed and memory tradeoff.

Learn how system-wide suggestions behave in the broader AI autocomplete for Mac guide, or check whether your main editor appears in the compatibility matrix.