VocaBuilder

A Raycast extension that translates words and short text between languages via the Gemini AI API and saves a local translation history — helping you build vocabulary over time.

Features

• Translate words and text — translate a single word with part of speech and example sentences, or translate short text directly
• Multi-sense word translations — for ambiguous words, review up to 5 senses and save the one you want to keep
• Typo correction — misspelled word input is auto-corrected before translating, with a visual indicator showing the original input
• Translation History — browse, search, and manage all your saved translations
• Flashcards — review saved word translations with spaced repetition
• Configurable language pair — pick source and target from 17 supported languages (defaults to English → Ukrainian)
• Separate history per language pair — switching languages gives you an independent history and flashcard deck
• Clipboard suggestion — optionally prefill a safe single word from the clipboard when the command opens
• History export — export saved history as JSON, Anki-ready TSV, or Quizlet-ready TSV
• Saves accepted translations to local history automatically
• Debounced word translation, with manual submit for text input
• Graceful error handling for API issues

Setup

1. Get a free Gemini API key at aistudio.google.com
2. Install the extension in Raycast dev mode:

   npm install
   npm run dev
   

3. Open Raycast → search "Translate" → enter your API key when prompted
4. (Optional) Open extension preferences to change source/target language or enable clipboard suggestions on open

Commands

Command	Description
Translate	Translate a word or text to your target language
Translation History	Browse saved translations
View Flashcards	Review saved words with spaced repetition

Supported Languages

English, Ukrainian, Polish, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Czech, Swedish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Turkish, Russian, Belarusian

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
⌘ C	Copy translation
⌘ 1 → ⌘ 5	Pick a word sense and save it to history
⌘ ⇧ H	Open History (from Translate)
⌘ ⇧ T	Toggle source and target languages
⌘ D	Delete entry (from History)
⌘ ⇧ D	Clear all history
⌘ E	Export history as JSON
⌘ ⇧ A	Export word history for Anki
⌘ ⇧ Q	Export word history for Quizlet

Stack

• Raycast API
• TypeScript + React
• Zod for runtime validation
• Gemini gemini-2.5-flash-lite model
• npm

License

MIT