暖簾

Noren

AI writing that sounds like you.
A macOS desktop app that learns your voice and weaves it into everything you write.

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What is Noren?

Noren extracts your unique writing voice from samples you provide, then uses that voice profile to generate text that sounds like you, not like a chatbot.

Weave - Write a prompt, get voice-matched output. Paste or inject directly into any app.

Chat - Conversational mode with full history and file attachments. Every response is filtered through your voice.

Extract - Feed in writing samples (emails, docs, tweets). Noren distills your tone, rhythm, sentence structure, and vocabulary into a portable voice profile.

Compare - See your voiced output side-by-side with generic AI output. The difference is the product.

How it works

Your writing samples → Voice extraction → Profile (core identity + format contexts)
                                              ↓
Your prompt + profile → LLM → Voice-matched output → Clipboard / Inject into app

The voice profile is a structured document that captures how you write, not what you write about. It travels with you across formats - emails, tweets, docs, Slack messages, adapting enforcement level (strict / guided / light) per use case.

Architecture

noren-app/
├── src-tauri/              Rust backend (Tauri v2)
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── main.rs         App lifecycle, command registration
│   │   ├── commands/       Tauri IPC commands
│   │   │   ├── generate.rs   Weave generation (voice-aware)
│   │   │   ├── chat.rs       Chat + conversation persistence
│   │   │   ├── extract.rs    Voice extraction orchestration
│   │   │   ├── profiles.rs   Profile CRUD + server sync
│   │   │   ├── settings.rs   Config, provider, hotkey management
│   │   │   ├── billing.rs    Subscription / checkout
│   │   │   └── living_profile.rs  Edit logging + profile evolution
│   │   ├── window.rs       Popup + main window management
│   │   ├── hotkey.rs       Global shortcut (Cmd+K default)
│   │   ├── accessibility.rs  macOS AX API (text capture, injection)
│   │   ├── clipboard.rs    Clipboard read/write
│   │   ├── keychain.rs     macOS Keychain for API keys
│   │   └── tray.rs         Menu bar tray icon
│   └── noren-engine/       Core library (extraction, generation, LLM clients)
│
├── src-frontend/           Svelte 5 + Tailwind v4 frontend
│   └── src/
│       ├── app.css         Design system (Japanese indigo palette, dark mode)
│       └── lib/
│           ├── components/
│           │   ├── Shell.svelte        Popup window shell
│           │   ├── MainShell.svelte    Main app window with sidebar
│           │   ├── GenerateView.svelte Weave interface
│           │   ├── ChatView.svelte     Chat with history + attachments
│           │   ├── ProfilesView.svelte Voice profile viewer/editor
│           │   ├── ExtractView.svelte  Voice extraction flow
│           │   ├── SettingsView.svelte Provider config, billing, hotkey
│           │   └── OnboardingView.svelte  First-run setup
│           ├── api/tauri.ts   Type-safe Tauri command bindings
│           └── stores/        Svelte 5 reactive state (subscription)

Stack

Design

The visual identity draws from Japanese indigo dyeing - the same craft tradition as the noren curtain.

• KON (紺) #1E3148 - deep indigo, primary
• HANADA (縹) #3B6B8A - mid indigo, secondary
• AIJIRO (藍白) #E8EDF2 - palest indigo, tints
• SHU (朱) #C44A2F - persimmon red, accent
• KINU (絹) #F6F1EB - unbleached silk, background
• SUMI (墨) #2B2725 - ink stone, text

Dark mode automatically matches macOS appearance via prefers-color-scheme.

Fonts: Fraunces (headings), Plus Jakarta Sans (body), JetBrains Mono (code).

Development

Prerequisites

• Rust (latest stable)
• Node.js 18+ or Bun
• Tauri CLI - cargo install tauri-cli
• Xcode Command Line Tools - xcode-select --install

Run

# Install frontend dependencies
cd src-frontend && npm install && cd ..

# Development (hot reload)
cargo tauri dev

# Production build
cargo tauri build

The dev build creates a popup window (triggered by global hotkey) and a main app window. The production build outputs Noren.app and a .dmg installer.

Release notes for macOS builds

The app bundles a Chrome native-messaging sidecar for Keychain access. Release builds need both of these files present:

• src-tauri/binaries/noren-keychain-host-aarch64-apple-darwin
• src-tauri/binaries/noren-keychain-host-x86_64-apple-darwin

They are now tracked in git and must stay in sync with src/bin/noren-keychain-host.rs.

If you need to rebuild the sidecars locally:

# Apple Silicon sidecar
cargo build --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml --bin noren-keychain-host --target aarch64-apple-darwin --release
cp src-tauri/target/aarch64-apple-darwin/release/noren-keychain-host src-tauri/binaries/noren-keychain-host-aarch64-apple-darwin

# Intel sidecar
rustup target add x86_64-apple-darwin
cargo build --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml --bin noren-keychain-host --target x86_64-apple-darwin --release
cp src-tauri/target/x86_64-apple-darwin/release/noren-keychain-host src-tauri/binaries/noren-keychain-host-x86_64-apple-darwin

Release build flow:

# ARM app + dmg
cargo tauri build

# Intel app bundle
cargo tauri build --target x86_64-apple-darwin --bundles app

If the Intel .dmg bundle step is unavailable or flaky, create it manually from the built .app:

mkdir -p src-tauri/target/x86_64-apple-darwin/release/bundle/dmg
cd src-tauri/target/x86_64-apple-darwin/release/bundle
hdiutil create -volname Noren -srcfolder macos/Noren.app -ov -format UDZO dmg/Noren_1.0.0_x64.dmg

Current public GitHub release assets expected by the website are:

• Noren_1.0.0_aarch64.dmg
• Noren_1.0.0_x64.dmg

After building, upload the matching DMGs to the v1.0.0 GitHub release with gh release upload ... --clobber.

Install (unsigned)

The app is not notarized with Apple. macOS will block it on first launch. After copying to /Applications, run:

xattr -cr /Applications/Noren.app

Then open normally.

Inference modes

BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) - Use your own API key with any supported provider. Keys are stored in macOS Keychain, never in config files.

Noren Pro - Managed inference through api.usenoren.ai. No API key needed. Includes server-side voice extraction and profile sync.

License

MIT