EchoType

Name: EchoType
Author: NoSleepLab

Find the paragraph you typed into a box that lost it, encrypted and searchable on your own Mac

Source only

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About EchoType

EchoType is meant to be Time Machine for your own typing. A CGEventTap captures keystrokes system-wide along with the timestamp, the active app and the window title, and the rule the design is held to is that nothing reaches disk unencrypted: AES-256-GCM through CryptoKit, a master password derived with PBKDF2, Touch ID after the first unlock. A global hotkey (Cmd+Shift+E) opens a search over the history, filterable by app or date and grouped into typing sessions. It is built to pause itself on password fields, skip any app you exclude, and delete anything older than the retention you set, 90 days by default.

Who it's for

Knowledge workers who want to recall anything they've ever typed.

What it does

System-wide keystroke capture via CGEventTap
AES-256-GCM encryption, applied before anything reaches disk
Touch ID unlock with Keychain biometric protection
Full-text search with global hotkey (Cmd+Shift+E)
Session grouping (30-sec gap = new session)
Auto-pause on password fields and excluded apps
Configurable data retention (default 90 days)
Export sessions as plain text or Markdown

Behind the build

Security was the hardest constraint. Keystrokes are encrypted in memory before writing to SQLite — the plaintext buffer is zeroed immediately after.

The database locks after 5 minutes of inactivity. Detecting secure text fields requires traversing the Accessibility tree to check kAXRoleAttribute on the focused UI element, which must happen synchronously on every keystroke without adding latency.

Information

Runs on: macOS · Menu bar
Status: Source only
Requires: macOS 13+

Source: Public on GitHub
Telemetry: None
Built with: Swift & SwiftUI

Stack: SwiftUICGEventTapCryptoKitSQLiteLocalAuthentication

Works well with

DesktopRecord
EchoType captures what you typed, DesktopRecord captures what you saw
Deadbolt
EchoType auto-pauses on protected apps, Deadbolt locks them

EchoType is source only, for now.

The code is public, but there's no packaged release yet. Build it from the repository today, or leave an email and hear when there's one you can double-click.

Tell me when it ships View source

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