Guides · Last updated 20 October 2026

Get started with Hintglass

To get your first answer from Hintglass, a macOS menu-bar app for live video interviews, install it, connect your AI provider, build your profile, then start a session and hold right ⌥ while the interviewer finishes a question.

You need macOS 27 on Apple silicon and an API key for the AI provider you choose. Ollama on your own Mac takes no key.

From install to your first answer

1. At launch, download Hintglass.dmg from this site. Until then, join the waitlist to hear the day it is out.
2. Open Hintglass.dmg and drag Hintglass to Applications.
3. Open Hintglass from Applications. It lives in the menu bar as a waveform icon, with no Dock icon. Its menu has Start session, Open Setup…, Settings…, Check for Updates… and Quit.
4. Choose Settings… from the Hintglass menu. The first time, macOS may ask for Screen & System Audio Recording: Settings lists the apps that are running for Meeting app, and listing them needs it. Hintglass also hears the meeting app through it.
5. If macOS asks, open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording and switch Hintglass on. Until it is on, Meeting app shows only your last choice and “Couldn’t list running apps: …”.
6. If you switched it on, quit Hintglass from its menu and open it again. macOS gives Hintglass the permission only once it reopens. Then choose Settings… again.
7. In Connection, pick your Host. Tested on Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter and Ollama Cloud. Built to support them all.
8. Check the Model. It starts at the host’s default model where there is one; a session won’t start with it empty.
9. Paste your API key into Key.
10. Click Save to Keychain. The key goes to your login Keychain and is sent only to that host.
11. Click Test connection. It sends each kind of request a session sends, with a one-word prompt; each costs a few tokens. A session starts only on a connection that has passed a Test with exactly these settings, so test again after changing the host, the model, a reasoning level or the key.
12. In New profile from files, click Choose… beside Your resume and pick your resume. PDF, Word (.docx), RTF, HTML, Markdown or plain text.
13. Click Choose… beside Job posting and pick the job posting.
14. Type a Name for the profile.
15. Click Generate. It needs a connection that has passed its Test. Hintglass reads both files on your Mac, sends their text once to your AI provider and selects the new profile. Read the files it writes before your interview.
16. In Meeting app, pick the app your interview runs in, such as Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. For Google Meet, pick the browser it runs in. The list shows the apps running now, so open your meeting app first.
17. In Interview language, pick the language the interviewer speaks. Automatic (follows your Mac) uses your Mac’s language and region.
18. If the language shows “not installed”, click Install speech model. It downloads Apple’s on-device model, which transcribes both sides of the call on your Mac.
19. Choose Start session from the Hintglass menu. Hintglass asks for what it still needs now, before the session runs.
20. When macOS asks for the Microphone, allow it. The microphone hears you.
21. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Device Control and Data Access and switch Hintglass on. The hold key needs it, and no prompt can grant it. In Key combination mode (Settings → Trigger) it isn’t needed. Open Setup… in the Hintglass menu lists any permission still missing, Screen & System Audio Recording included, each with Open System Settings; switch each one on in its pane.
22. Quit Hintglass from its menu and open it again.
23. Choose Start session again. The panel under your notch shows two meters, a clock and the word listening. At launch, the first session that runs without a licence is free: one session of 20 minutes.
24. Hold right ⌥ (Right Option) while the interviewer finishes a question, then let go. The answer appears in the panel under your notch: a short opening line, then detail when it helps.
25. At launch, subscribe with Buy a licence in Settings → Licence. USD 50 per month, plus tax where it applies.

What leaves your Mac

Your audio never leaves the Mac: both sides of the call are transcribed on it. When you ask for an answer, the conversation’s transcript so far, from both sides, and your profile go to your AI provider. ⌥⌘C (Option-Command-C) adds a screenshot of the window in front of you, and ⌥⌘F (Option-Command-F) sends the interviewer’s words to the search service you chose. On Anthropic, Ollama Cloud and Ollama on your Mac, Hintglass also sends a warm-up in the background, even if you never ask: your profile, and on Ollama the conversation’s transcript so far, within a session’s first minute and then once or twice a minute, so the next answer starts faster.

Before the interview

• Wear headphones. Your microphone then hears only you, so Hintglass always knows which words are yours and which are the interviewer’s.
• Changes to the trigger, the language, the profile, the connection and search apply the next time you start a session.
• Hintglass works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and any meeting app on your Mac. Open it before you start the session, and the them meter on the panel moves as soon as the interviewer speaks.
• For ⌥⌘F, choose a search service in Settings → Search: see Set up web search in Hintglass.

Use Hintglass in a live interview →