Rephrase with Apple Intelligence

Scratch can rewrite the text you’ve selected without sending it anywhere. The model runs on your Mac through Apple’s Foundation Models framework, so the buffer never leaves the device.

Requires macOS 26 on Apple silicon with Apple Intelligence enabled in System Settings.

Turn it on

Open Settings → Intelligence and switch on Use Apple Intelligence for rephrasing. If your Mac can’t run the model, the toggle is disabled and Scratch explains why inline (older macOS, Intel, or Apple Intelligence turned off in System Settings).

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The rephrase pill

With rephrasing on, select any text in the buffer and a small floating pill appears above the bottom of the window. It is the only entry point — there are no slash commands for rephrase.

Four built-in tones live on the left as single-letter buttons:

Letter	Tone	What it does
T	Tighten	Make the selection more concise without changing meaning.
R	Refine	Rewrite in a more professional register.
S	Soften	Warm up the tone.
F	Fix	Correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation only.

After the tones, the pill shows a chip for each custom template you’ve defined, then a chat-bubble icon for a one-off custom rewrite.

Press Esc to dismiss the pill. The rewrite lands in a single edit, so ⌘Z reverts it cleanly.

One-off custom rewrites

Click the chat-bubble icon at the end of the pill to open an inline prompt. Type the rewrite you want — for example, “make this two bullets” or “translate to French” — and press Enter. Esc cancels.

The instruction is used once and discarded. Nothing is saved. Use a template instead when you want to re-run the same prompt.

Custom templates

You can define up to six saved rephrase prompts. Each one becomes a chip in the pill and runs entirely on your Mac.

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In Settings → Intelligence → Custom templates:

1. Click Add template.
2. Give it a short label (up to 32 characters). The label appears in the pill — keep it short so it reads cleanly there.
3. Write the instruction (up to 500 characters). Treat it like a system prompt: tell the model what to do and what to return.
4. Edits commit when you click out of the field or press Enter.
5. Delete removes a template.

A good instruction is direct and ends by stating the output shape. For example:

Rewrite the selection as a single-sentence summary. Preserve key nouns. Return only the rewritten text, no preamble.

Templates only appear in the pill when Use Apple Intelligence for rephrasing is on.

What stays on-device

The buffer text, the instruction, and the rewrite all stay on your Mac. Nothing about a rephrase is logged, transmitted, or included in crash reports or usage metrics. See privacy in the app for the full picture.