Brief

Brief is a free macOS menu-bar app for reading long AI-generated text. Press Control-X on any window and Brief returns only the lines that change what you do next.

It works wherever you read: browsers, chat apps and terminals. On YouTube it reads the transcript. It shapes the output to the source: an answer for chats, ordered points for videos, and what changed plus what to check for pull requests.

Brief reads the focused window through macOS Accessibility only when you press the shortcut. It takes no screenshots and never writes replies for you. The text goes to the engine you choose, under your own credentials: your Claude or ChatGPT plan, an Anthropic API key, on-device Apple Intelligence, or a local extractive mode. There is no Brief account and no Brief server in between.

Requires macOS 26 or later on Apple Silicon. Made by Runbear.