Cue

The free alternative toCluely

🟡 Intermediate⏱️ ~15 min to installYou save €17/mo

Cue floats a small glass panel above everything, with three inputs: your screen, your microphone, and the meeting audio, meaning what the other person says. From there, you hit a shortcut and it helps you live: what do I answer to that, the follow-up questions to ask, the call recap, or the full solution to a coding problem captured on screen. All of it built to stay invisible when you share your screen. The difference with Cluely: it is open source, runs at home, and you plug in your own API key (OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini) instead of paying a subscription climbing to €128 a month.

1.4kView on GitHub ↗

Versus Cluely: the match

Price
Cue
€0, you pay your own tokens
Cluely
€17 to €128/mo
The model
Cue
Yours: OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini
Cluely
Theirs, imposed
Your audio and screen
Cue
Processed with YOUR key, under your control
Cluely
Pass through their servers

Cluely ↗

VS	Cue	Cluely ↗
Price	€0, you pay your own tokens	€17 to €128/mo
The model	Yours: OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini	Theirs, imposed
Your audio and screen	Processed with YOUR key, under your control	Pass through their servers
Platforms	macOS and Windows	macOS and Windows
Evolution	Open code, adapt it	Closed roadmap

How to install it (even from zero)

A desktop app to download, plus an API key to plug in and two system permissions to grant. Nothing hard, but follow the steps in order.

Paste this prompt into Claude (Code or Desktop)

It downloads the right version from the official repository, installs it and walks you through the API key:

Installe Cue sur ma machine (le copilote IA open source qui flotte au-dessus de l'écran, repo GitHub Blueturboguy07/cue) : télécharge la dernière release depuis github.com/Blueturboguy07/cue/releases pour mon système (le zip arm64 sur Mac Apple Silicon, le .exe sur Windows) et installe-la. Guide-moi ensuite pour brancher ma clé API (OpenAI, Anthropic ou Gemini) et pour accorder les autorisations demandées : le micro, et l'enregistrement d'écran sur Mac. Vérifie enfin que le panneau répond au raccourci d'assistance. Explique chaque étape simplement, je débute.

Review the GitHub repository and check whether it is safe to install given my machine and my infrastructure. Ask me as many questions as possible, using widgets, to clarify my request and be as precise as you can.

2
Grant the two permissions
On Mac: microphone and screen recording. That is what lets it see your screen and hear the meeting. On Windows, only the microphone is needed.
3
Try it on a fake meeting
Start a call with yourself, ask a question out loud and hit the shortcut. You will see the answer appear in the panel, and know exactly what it does before a real meeting.

What you actually do with it

The right argument, at the right moment

In a client meeting, an objection lands: you hit the shortcut and Cue suggests what to answer, based on what was just said. The other person sees nothing.

The recap without taking notes

At the end of the call, one button gives you the recap and the follow-up questions. You stay in the conversation instead of scribbling.

A coding problem solved on screen

An exercise or a piece of code on screen, one shortcut, and the full solution lands in the panel. Great for practising and understanding step by step.

Project health, at a glance

Before installing an open-source tool, one question matters: is the project alive? These scores are computed from public GitHub data. They are not made up.

31/100

Watch closely

Low-activity project: fine to try, don’t build your house on it.

Activity: 0
Maintenance: 60
Community: 55
Maturity: 40
Momentum: 0

The repo in numbers

GitHub stars: 1.4k
Forks: 314
Contributors: 20
Commits: 104
Project age: 0.2 yrs
Last commit: 38 d ago
Size: 1.7 MB
License: GPL-3.0

Built with

JavaScript 84.8%
CSS 8.4%
HTML 6.8%

Scores computed automatically from the GitHub API (last-30-days activity, update freshness, community size, project age). Refreshed daily.

Loucash’s take

7/10

Really good software, and the idea is clever: rather than paying Cluely between €17 and €128 a month for an imposed model, you get the same mechanics with your own API key, at the raw cost of your tokens. Two things to know before you start. First, the project is young: a few weeks old, one developer, so expect rough edges. Second, and it matters, invisibility in screen shares is NOT guaranteed: its own authors say so, and on recent Macs some capture tools see it anyway. And let me be blunt: using it to cheat in a proctored exam or a job interview may break the platform's rules, or even consent laws depending on where you are. Use it for your own meetings, your notes and your practice, not for what would come back to bite you.

It’s for you if: You do a lot of video meetings and want a discreet prompter running on your own API key.