Question 1

How do I install Hintglass?

Accepted Answer

At launch, you download Hintglass.dmg from this site, open it and drag Hintglass to Applications. It needs macOS 27 on Apple silicon; until launch, you can join the waitlist.

Question 2

Which permissions does it need, and why?

Accepted Answer

Three, in Privacy & Security: Microphone to hear you, Screen & System Audio Recording for the meeting app and code, and Device Control and Data Access for the hold key. Allow the Microphone when macOS asks, or switch it on in System Settings and reopen; the other two you switch on in their panes, then quit and reopen Hintglass.

Question 3

How do I connect my AI provider?

Accepted Answer

In Settings → Connection, pick your Host, check the Model, paste your Key, click Save to Keychain, then click Test connection: a session starts only on a connection that has passed its Test. Tested on Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter and Ollama Cloud. Built to support them all.

Question 4

How do I build my profile from my resume?

Accepted Answer

In Settings → New profile from files, choose your resume and the job posting, type a Name and click Generate; it needs a connection that has passed its Test. Hintglass sends the two files’ text once to your AI provider, writes the profile and selects it; read its files before your interview.

Question 5

How do I set the interview language?

Accepted Answer

In Settings → Interview language, pick the language the interviewer speaks, or keep Automatic (follows your Mac). If it shows “not installed”, click Install speech model: transcription runs on your Mac and needs Apple’s on-device model for that language.

Question 6

How do I set up web search?

Accepted Answer

In Settings → Search, choose a Service, Brave LLM Context or Ollama web search, save its key with Save to Keychain and click Test search. Ollama web search uses your Ollama Cloud key, so with Ollama Cloud as your host there is no second key to save.

Question 7

How do I start a session?

Accepted Answer

Choose Start session from the Hintglass menu in the menu bar. The panel under your notch then shows two meters, a clock and the word listening; if something isn’t ready, the panel says what to fix instead.

Question 8

How do I get an answer to a question?

Accepted Answer

Hold right ⌥ (Right Option) while the interviewer finishes the question, then let go. The answer streams into the panel under your notch: a short opening line first, then detail when it helps.

Question 9

How do I answer a coding question?

Accepted Answer

Press ⌥ ⌘ C (Option-Command-C) with the coding question’s window in front. Hintglass sends a screenshot of that window with the conversation and shows the approach and the code on a panel at the top right of that screen.

Question 10

How do I look up a fact mid-interview?

Accepted Answer

Press ⌥ ⌘ F (Option-Command-F) once the interviewer has asked. Their words go to the search service you chose, and the answer is one sentence with its source’s site and title named underneath.

Question 11

How do I clear or cancel an answer?

Accepted Answer

Press ⌥ ⌘. (Option-Command-Period). Each press does one thing: it cancels a code or search answer still working, otherwise dismisses the code answer, otherwise takes a finished answer off the panel.

Question 12

How do I use a key combination instead of holding a key?

Accepted Answer

In Settings → Trigger, set Mode to Key combination, then start a new session. Press ⌥ ⌘ S (Option-Command-S) to ask for an answer; this mode needs no Device Control and Data Access permission.

Question 13

How do I change the shortcuts?

Accepted Answer

In Settings → Trigger, click the button beside Send, Capture, Search or Cancel and press the new combination. It needs two modifiers, at least one of them Command or Control, and it applies at your next session start.

Question 14

Will the interviewer see it?

Accepted Answer

No. Hintglass is invisible on screen share and in screenshots, so they see your screen, never your answers.

Question 15

Does it work with Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Hintglass works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and any meeting app on your Mac: pick the one your interview runs in under Settings → Meeting app, and for Google Meet, pick the browser it runs in.

Question 16

How do I end a session?

Accepted Answer

Choose Stop session from the Hintglass menu. Stopping gives the shortcuts back to other apps, and changes to the trigger, the language, the profile, the connection and search take effect at your next start.

Question 17

How do I try it for free?

Accepted Answer

At launch, a session without a licence is free: the trial is one session of 20 minutes, the first one that runs. Hintglass is launching soon: join the waitlist to hear the day it lands.

Question 18

How do I subscribe?

Accepted Answer

At launch, you subscribe with Buy a licence in Settings → Licence, or Buy on this site, for USD 50 per month, plus tax where it applies. The page after payment shows your licence key.

Question 19

How do I activate my licence?

Accepted Answer

At launch, you click Open in Hintglass on the page after payment, or paste your key into Licence key in Settings → Licence and click Activate.

Question 20

How do I use it on another Mac?

Accepted Answer

At launch, you activate the same key on the other Mac in Settings → Licence, and free a place with Deactivate this Mac… on a Mac you no longer use.

Question 21

How do I manage or cancel my subscription?

Accepted Answer

At launch, you manage or cancel it with Manage subscription in Settings → Licence, and Hintglass keeps working until the end of the month you have paid for.

Question 22

I lost my licence key

Accepted Answer

At launch, if you lose your key, you email support@hintglass.app from the address you paid with, and we send your purchase page, which shows the key again, to that address only.

Question 23

How do I update Hintglass?

Accepted Answer

At launch, Hintglass checks for updates once a day and its menu offers “Install Hintglass x.y.z…” when one is ready; Check for Updates… checks at once, never during a session.

How to use Hintglass

Set up once