ReadyRunner

April 25, 2023
 Getting Started with ReadyRunner

ReadyRunner is a new ChatGPT alternative app for desktop. It's built by the same two-person team behind Flinto. We built ReadyRunner because we find AI chat (namely ChatGPT) very useful, but we craved a sleeker UI in the form of a desktop app.

You can ask ReadyRunner almost anything, using natural language. ReadyRunner can:

  • Help you write about any topic, in any style
  • Edit your writing
  • Translate between nearly any languages
  • Give instant answers to questions
  • Write code for you
  • Teach you about nearly any topic
  • Chat casually about any topic, get things off your mind

ReadyRunner also has a ScratchPad feature which lets you include a text or code document in your chat, which the AI can edit, or answer questions about.

ReadyRunner UI

To make a better chat experience, we made an app that runs on desktop (Mac or Windows) so you can access it instantly from anywhere on your system using a keyboard shortcut. This completely changes the way you use AI chat because you can start typing as soon as you think of something.

ReadyRunner also works in your web browser, allowing you to access it from anywhere.

We designed ReadyRunner primarily for productive work. It doesn't have goofy features or a fake personality.

Here are some of the other design details featured in ReadyRunner:

Responses stream in from the top of the chat window, which makes it much easier to read the messages as they are streaming in from the AI without the text shifting around.

There's a dot next to messages that are being included in your assistant's memory, giving you more clarity into what context the assistant has.

A "wipe memory" button lets you clear the memory, starting a fresh topic without any previous context which might lead to confusion.

Responses are formatted in markdown enabling things like bulleted lists, tables with data, syntax-highlighted code etc.

The message input automatically expands as you type, allowing you to more comfortably type long messages.

ScratchPad: AI Text Editor

During a chat, you can open a ScratchPad, which is a text document that appears on the right side of the window. Text here can be seen by the Assistant. You can ask questions about the text, or ask for changes. The AI can update the text for you, so you can request changes or original writing.

When a ScratchPad is open, the AI will assume you are talking about the ScratchPad text most of the time, so to resume regular chatting, hide the ScratchPad. You can re-open it later as needed.

The ScratchPad requires GPT-4, so you will need a ReadyRunner subscription which supports that model.

Learn more in the dedicated ScratchPad blog post.

Prompt Management System

ReadyRunner features a prompt library feature which allows you to manage a set of persistent prompts. When active, your chosen prompt will be inserted before your messages, so the assistant has the correct context. This could be something like "Summarize all messages" which will prompt the AI to respond to each message with a summary, so you don't need to explain what you want each time. Other examples of useful prompts include:

  • You are a Javascript expert
  • Translate all messages to Chinese
  • Reply with bullet-point lists only
  • You are a Minecraft expert

These types of prompts can clarify the AI's expected behavior. If you ask "How do you make bread" with the Minecraft prompt active, it will know you are asking how to make bread within the game of Minecraft. If you ask for some code with the Javascript prompt active, it will know which language to use.

AI Models

ReadyRunner uses the same powerful OpenAI models that power ChatGPT, GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. You can use ReadyRunner for free and get 10 GPT-3.5 messages per month. Subscriptions are available to unlock more messages and the more powerful GPT-4 model.

ReadyRunner Subscriptions

ReadyRunner is easy for anyone to use. Download the app and enjoy 10 free GPT-3 messages per month, then upgrade to a paid subscription to expand your message amount.

Because the more powerful GPT-4 model is much more costly to run, the models are separated, and you get a different allowance of GPT-3 and GPT-4 messages. You can choose which model to use for each message to manage your usage.

You can view the pricing within the app, or in this ReadyRunner Pricing post.

Using AI chat carefully

It's also important to understand the limitations of AI chat tools. They aren't perfect, and do provide incorrect replies sometimes. You can get them to say offensive and impolite things. However, with some understanding and practice, AI chat tools like ReadyRunner can scale your abilities, making you more efficient. We have a full post about using AI chat carefully. Here's a few quick tips:

  • The most useful tasks are ones that can be easily verified, for example, "Give me a list of animals whos names start with the letter A" is something you can easily verify
  • Be aware that responses nearly always sound plausible, even if they are incorrect
  • Use caution when using AI chat in place of web search. You can get instant answers, but don't rely on them being always accurate
  • The more common a topic is, the more likely the assistant is to give good answers, more obscure topics may lead to made up answers
  • The ReadyRunner assistant currently does not access the internet to create answers, it cannot open URLs for you even if it pretends it can
  • The ReadyRunner assistant can't reliably answer questions about ReadyRunner, or about it's own abilities