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
- Get a free Gemini API key at aistudio.google.com
- Install the extension in Raycast dev mode:
npm install
npm run dev
- Open Raycast → search "Translate" → enter your API key when prompted
- (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
