You’re working on something. You have a file you need to email. Or upload to Drive. Or analyze with AI.

The normal workflow: Open browser. Navigate to Gmail. Click compose. Attach file. Type subject. Send. Five minutes gone for a 10-second task.

QuiKey fixes this. Right-click any file, pick a service, done.

What QuiKey Actually Does

QuiKey is a macOS app that puts your most-used services in the right-click menu. Select a file in Finder, right-click, and you’ll see options to:

  • Send to Gmail - Email files to yourself or anyone, with optional subject and body
  • Upload to Google Drive - Put files in Drive with one click, pick the folder
  • Analyze with ChatGPT - Send files to ChatGPT and ask questions about them
  • Analyze with Gemini - Same thing, but with Google’s AI
  • Convert to PDF - Turn documents into PDFs without leaving Finder

It also works with text. Select text in any app, right-click, and you can:

  • Analyze, translate, define, summarize, or explain it using ChatGPT or Gemini
  • Check grammar
  • Get instant AI-powered answers without copy-pasting into a browser

The key thing: you never leave what you’re doing. No app switching. No browser tabs. No interruption to your flow.

Setting It Up

Download QuiKey and open it. The first thing you’ll see is a setup wizard that walks you through:

  1. Google sign-in - This lets QuiKey send emails and upload to Drive on your behalf
  2. AI setup - Either sign in to ChatGPT/Gemini in the browser, or paste your API key
  3. macOS permissions - You need to enable QuiKey’s services in System Settings

That last step is important. macOS requires explicit permission for apps to add items to the right-click menu. QuiKey will guide you through it, but essentially you go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Extensions → Finder Extensions and enable QuiKey.

Once that’s done, you’re set.

Sending Files to Gmail

Right-click any file (or multiple files) and select “Send to Gmail.”

What happens next depends on your settings:

  • Automatic mode: File gets emailed to your default address immediately. You get a notification when it’s done.
  • Show dialog mode: A preview window opens where you can edit the subject, body, recipients, and labels before sending.
  • Save as draft mode: Email gets saved as a draft in Gmail so you can review it later.

Most people start with dialog mode until they trust the workflow, then switch to automatic for speed.

Pro tip: If you’re emailing files to yourself often (sending receipts to your “taxes” folder, saving articles for later), set up a default recipient and use automatic mode. It becomes a one-click operation.

Uploading to Google Drive

Same idea. Right-click, pick “Upload to Drive.”

You can configure:

  • A default folder (so files always go to the same place)
  • Whether to show a dialog to pick the folder each time
  • Optional comments on the uploaded file

The dialog shows you a folder tree so you can navigate your Drive structure. This is genuinely faster than opening Drive in a browser and dragging files around.

One nice touch: if a file is too big for Gmail’s attachment limit, QuiKey will offer to upload it to Drive instead and email you a link.

Analyzing Files with AI

This is where it gets interesting.

Right-click a file, pick “Analyze with ChatGPT” or “Analyze with Gemini.” A dialog opens asking what you want to know about the file.

Use cases that actually work well:

  • PDFs: “Summarize this contract” or “What are the key dates mentioned?”
  • Images: “What’s in this screenshot?” or “Extract the text from this image”
  • Code files: “Explain what this function does” or “Find potential bugs”
  • Spreadsheets: “What trends do you see in this data?”

The AI sees the actual file contents, not just the filename. So it can give meaningful answers.

You can choose between browser mode (uses your ChatGPT/Gemini session in a webview) or API mode (uses your API key directly). Browser mode is free if you have a ChatGPT Plus or Gemini subscription. API mode costs per request but is faster and more reliable.

Text Selection Services

Select any text in any app. Right-click. You’ll see QuiKey’s text services:

  • Analyze - General “what is this?” query
  • Translate - Translate to your configured language
  • Define - Dictionary-style definitions
  • Summarize - Condense long text
  • Explain - Simplify complex text
  • Grammar Check - Fix writing errors

Each one opens a small dialog with the AI’s response. You can copy the result or continue the conversation.

This is genuinely useful for:

  • Reading technical docs and needing quick explanations
  • Working with content in other languages
  • Editing your own writing

The Home Dashboard

When you open QuiKey’s main window, you see a dashboard showing:

  • Which services are enabled and working
  • Quick action buttons for common tasks
  • A drag-and-drop zone if you prefer that to right-clicking

The History tab shows everything you’ve sent - emails, uploads, AI conversations. You can reopen past AI conversations to continue them.

Configuring Services

In Settings, you can fine-tune each service:

Gmail settings:

  • Default recipient email
  • Subject line template (can include filename)
  • Body template
  • Default labels to apply
  • Send behavior (automatic, dialog, draft)

Drive settings:

  • Default upload folder
  • Comment template
  • Upload behavior

AI settings:

  • Browser vs API mode
  • API keys
  • Default prompts
  • Conversation preferences

Text selection:

  • Which services to show in the menu
  • Translation target language
  • Custom prompts for each action

Tips for Getting the Most Out of It

Start with what you do often. If you email yourself files constantly, set up Gmail with automatic mode. If you’re always uploading to the same Drive folder, configure that default. Don’t try to use everything at once.

Use the menu bar icon. QuiKey sits in your menu bar. Click it for quick access to the main window, or to drag files directly.

Keyboard shortcut for AI. If you analyze text frequently, the right-click menu is still an interruption. Consider setting up a system-wide shortcut to trigger QuiKey’s text analysis directly.

Check the history. If you forget whether you sent something or want to find an old AI conversation, it’s all in the History tab.

API mode for reliability. Browser automation is clever but can break when sites update. If AI analysis is part of your core workflow, API mode is more reliable (and usually faster).

What Problems This Solves

The real value isn’t any single feature. It’s eliminating the friction between “I want to do this thing” and “the thing is done.”

Before QuiKey: You think “I should email this to the accountant.” You open Gmail. You compose a new email. You find the file. You attach it. You write a subject. You send. Maybe 2 minutes if you’re fast.

With QuiKey: Right-click, Send to Gmail, type subject, send. 15 seconds.

That 90-second savings doesn’t sound like much. But if you’re doing these small tasks 20 times a day, you’ve bought yourself an extra 30 minutes. More importantly, you never broke focus. You never left your flow.

That’s what QuiKey is for. It’s not flashy. It’s just faster.

Getting Started

Download QuiKey from quikey.app. The free tier gives you enough to see if it fits your workflow. If it does, the pro tier removes limits and adds some extra features.

Questions? Email us or open an issue on GitHub. We actually read them.