aime

Project Overview

AIME is an open-source macOS Chinese input method built on RIME, using librime as its engine and Rime-Ice as the default schema. It stays local-first: composition, candidates and personal word frequencies all run on your machine with no input logs, ads or telemetry; AI translation and polishing work only when you invoke them, with native interfaces managing your typing habits.

Fresh Chinese, expressed freely.

Key Features

• RIME engine: driven by librime 1.17 with Rime-Ice by default, supporting full pinyin, double pinyin and your own dictionaries
• Local processing: composition, candidates and word frequency stay on-device, with no input logs and no analytics or crash reporting
• AI on demand: hold Option then press Space to translate, polish or run custom actions on text, using Apple on-device models or your own OpenAI-compatible endpoint
• Visual settings: 80+ common RIME options such as candidate count, fuzzy pinyin, simplified/traditional output and shortcuts managed graphically
• Emoji board: 1906 offline emoji in nine categories, digits switch categories and letters pick directly with continuous insertion
• Dictionary ecosystem: official online dictionary catalog with scheduled updates and integrity verification, plus any RIME-compatible subscription and one-click community schemas
• Appearance: color gallery with live preview, fonts, horizontal or vertical layout, corner radius and spacing, all customizable from any preset
• Squirrel migration: read-only import of existing configurations and word frequencies without touching the original directory, installable alongside Squirrel
• Phrases and stats: categorized quick phrases like phone numbers, plus optional on-device typing statistics
• Multi-Mac sync: merging word frequencies across Macs through the RIME sync directory, with one-click local backup export and restore

Target Audience

• Privacy-minded Mac users
• RIME players and heavy pinyin typists
• Users keeping custom dictionaries but dreading config files
• Writers who prefer quiet keyboard composition
• Expressions wanting on-demand AI polishing

Quick Start

1. Install via Homebrew or download the pkg from Releases
2. Add AIME under System Settings, Keyboard, Input Sources
3. Follow the first-run guide to choose full or double pinyin and try a sample
4. Enable dictionary auto-updates and AI features as needed

Core Advantages

• Open source, local-first: RIME's openness and freedom wrapped in native UIs with clear privacy boundaries
• Fewer config files: 80+ visual settings cover common RIME customization
• AI you command: text is processed only when you actively run an action

System Requirements

Item	Requirement
Operating system	macOS 26 or later
Chip	The app supports Apple Silicon and Intel
CLI tool	Currently Apple Silicon only

Notes

• Currently an early 0.1.x release; features iterate quickly
• Apple on-device AI depends on device, system settings and region, and is unavailable for mainland China devices or accounts; self-configured cloud endpoints need explicit permission and may charge
• AIME is an independent project, not a Squirrel fork, containing no GPL source from it; the installer as a whole is distributed under GPL-3.0 terms