All tests run on an 8-year-old MacBook Air.

All results from shipping 7 Mac apps as a solo developer. No sponsored opinion.

Every app has an AI button now. Most of them are annoying. Here's how I approach AI UI in my Tauri apps.

The problem with most AI UI

The bad pattern: a prominent "Ask AI" button that's always visible, always tempting users to click it, and produces results that take 3 seconds to load with a full-screen loading state.

The result: users click once, wait, get a mediocre response, and never click again. The button becomes visual noise.

What works: contextual, fast, optional

Contextual: the AI button appears near the content it analyzes, not in a toolbar. In HiyokoLogcat, the "Diagnose" button appears next to each log entry. In HiyokoHelper, the analyze button appears next to the clipboard content. The button makes sense where it lives.

Fast feedback: show something immediately. Even if the full response takes 2 seconds, stream the first tokens within 200ms. The user sees progress.…