AIPointer ⦿ in Skales vs. standalone - which one is for you?

Hold a key - or wiggle your cursor - and a translucent box appears over whatever app you are in. Type or speak a question about what you are pointing at, get the answer in place. That is AIPointer ⦿, and if you have seen Google's "AI Pointer" concept or any of the Magic-Cursor-style assistants, you already know the idea: the pointer becomes the prompt.

The difference: AIPointer is free, local-first, and it exists twice. Here is how to choose.

The standalone app (aipointer.app)

A tiny, focused tool from the same maker as Skales. Install it on any machine and you get the overlay: screen context, quick answers, hand-off to nothing - it IS the whole app. Perfect if you want exactly one feature with zero footprint, or want to give a minimal AI helper to someone who does not need a full agent. Get it at aipointer.app.

AIPointer inside Skales

Built into the desktop app (Settings → Appearance → AIPointer ⦿) - and this is where it grows extra abilities, because the whole Skales brain sits behind it:

• Any model, including local. The standalone uses its own configuration; inside Skales, AIPointer runs on whatever you run - Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek or a fully local Ollama model. Offline quick-ask is a real thing.
• It knows you. Your name, language, active projects, your memory. Answers come with context the standalone cannot have.
• It writes things down. Save what you see straight to your todos, calendar, notes and memory.
• One click to full chat. When a quick answer is not enough, the conversation moves into Skales chat with the context intact - and from there it can become a background goal.

The honest recommendation

If you only want the overlay: standalone. If you already run Skales (or want an agent anyway): the built-in version makes the standalone unnecessary - same gesture, more brain, zero extra install.

Both are free. Skales takes 30 seconds to install, the overlay is one toggle away.