Thinking Tools Lab

Thinking tool · Write · Understand

Polyquill

A thinking tool for writing: a multi-panel lab where your drafts and AI collaborators work side by side.

In developmentmacOSFree · MIT

Free · MIT-licensed open source · source on GitHub

  • Two-pane live preview

    Draft and instructions on the left; the document streams in live on the right as the model writes. Both sides stay editable.

  • Panel sets

    Open several left/right workspaces side by side, each a separate collaborator with its own provider, model and conversation.

  • Panels that talk to each other

    In plain words: “Read panel set 2, include it in your work, and get panel set 3's critique.” Sets read, consult and delegate to one another.

  • A shared memory

    Turn on the shared workspace and every set's task, status and findings are kept on a common board the others can use.

  • Live sync

    Pause typing for 1.2 seconds and the draft is sent; keep writing while it works.

See it in action

Recorded on the author's Mac with the apps' real interfaces. All AI output is real, from a signed-in CLI (Kimi or Gemini); only the time spent waiting for the model was cut.

Two-pane live preview. In the panel set “Essay”, a starter draft sits on the left. The instruction is sent and Gemini streams the essay into the live preview on the right (“Answer arriving”), ending with the finished two-pane result.
Panel sets that talk and share a memory. Shared state is turned on and a second panel set, “Critic”, is added. Critic reads Essay and writes a critique; back in Essay, the essay is revised after reading Critic's critique. The Shared work status board then shows both sets as Done with their summaries.

Screenshots

Polyquill with the starter draft “Reading makes a full mind” on the left: thesis, notes with quotes from Bacon and Emerson, and an outline; the right pane is empty.
The starter draft in the Essay panel set.
Polyquill two-pane view: the starter draft on the left and the finished essay “Reading, Conference, Writing” on the right.
Draft and finished essay side by side.
Polyquill Critic panel set with a critique titled “Critique of Reading, Conference, Writing” listing three strengths.
The Critic set's critique of the Essay set.
Polyquill Essay panel set showing the revised essay after consulting the Critic set.
The essay revised after consulting Critic.
Polyquill Shared work status dialog: Essay and Critic both marked Done, each with its task, findings and work summary.
The shared memory board: both sets Done, with tasks and findings.

Runs on your own AI subscription

Polyquill does not include any AI account. It talks to the official command-line tools that you install and sign in to on your own computer, using your own subscription and quota:

  • ChatGPT (Codex CLI)
  • Gemini (Google Antigravity CLI)
  • Kimi (Kimi Code CLI)
  • Cursor (Cursor CLI)
  • Claude (Claude Code CLI, subscription login)

Requests go from your machine to your provider under your account. Nothing uses the author's accounts, no API keys are bundled or stored, and there is no Thinking Tools Lab server in between. What you can use depends on your provider plan.

English and Turkish

Switch the interface between EN and TR at any time. The same screen in both languages:

Polyquill showing the draft and the finished essay, with the interface in English.
English interface
Polyquill showing the draft and the finished essay, with the interface in Turkish.
Turkish interface (Türkçe)

Also included

  • Pick provider, model and thinking level per panel set.
  • Rich editing in both panes, with a Source view for Markdown or HTML.
  • Links open in side tabs: HTML, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, PDF and Markdown, previewed and edited on a local copy.
  • Web research through the provider's own tools, with links to sources.
  • Local projects as context (AGENTS.md / GEMINI.md respected), prompt templates and a custom system prompt.
  • Export to HTML, Markdown, Word, PDF, Excel and mind map; full screen, dark and light themes.
Platform
macOS 13 or later as a native app (AppKit + WKWebView). It can also be run from source in a browser on localhost (Node.js 22.19+).
AI
Central: the model you choose writes and revises the document; your own manual edits need no model call.
License
Free · MIT-licensed open source · source on GitHub
Language
Menus in English and Turkish, with a language switch. Built-in AI prompts are in English, available in Turkish, and fully editable or replaceable with your own.
Status
In development.

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