Source & Specifications

Source Code

The source code for Red Ink, along with many sample files and full documentation, is published and maintained on GitHub and has been freely accessible since its launch in February 2025 by VISCHER (see here). The repository will shortly be transferred to the account of LawDigital Ltd. here.

With this source code and an IDE (e.g., Visual Studio Community or Pro), you can easily build your own copy of Red Ink without relying on our installer.

The source code is open and you can amend it 

The license permits you to make your own modifications to the source code. If you want to propose us changes, let us know directly or via GitHub.

Technical Specifications

  • The add-ins have English user dialogues, but can process texts, tables, etc. in all the languages supported by the respective LLM
  • The add-ins have been developed as COM (or VSTO) add-ins for Word, Excel and Outlook (‘classic’ only) in VB.Net and are installed with an installer (available here); the add-ins have an update function that will let them check for updates on this site (it can be reconfigured)
  • The main version of Red Ink currently runs (only) on Windows; there is, however, also a “web” version that runs on MacOS, the “new” Outlook and all modern versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint, including web-based; its feature set is reduced and it requires a back-end server
  • For certain additional functions (context menus, keyboard shortcuts, using the AI function of Red Ink from within your own Excel applications), the installation of helper add-ins in VBA (macros) for Word and Excel is required; however, Red Ink can also be used without (the only features that depend on the VBA helper add-ins are the context menus in Word and Excel, the key shortcuts and the Excel API)
  • The source code of the add-ins is accessible as stated above and has in total more than 150’000 lines of executable code; the compiled code is digitally signed by VISCHER Ltd. or us for security reasons; the third party libraries used are declared in the license and in the source code; we have only used libraries that are open source (or distributables from Microsoft) and have a certain user base
  • API access is via a https request (i.e. the transmission is encrypted)

“Hats off to you for the interim commits—it’s amazing how much code you’re maintaining.” R.K.

  • Red Ink can be installed in various ways; most users and organizations let their users install the add-ins (each version is installed separately) via the download server on this website directly by users; the add-ins are installed in their context; however, it is also possible to pre-install Red Ink in an image or to have an own download server set up; the add-ins contain an integrated updating feature that is configured for this website); unstallation is easily possible at any time using “Add & remove programs” in Windows
  • We offer two versions of the add-ins: A preview version that always has the latest features and fixes, and a general audience version that follows some time after the beta test version; each user/organization can chose which version to use
  • The add-ins can be extensively configured via a readable and editable, text-based configuration file – right down to the prompts they use for their functions; the configuration can be centralised or carried out by the users themselves (it is possible to have local configuration file copies or for certain parameter local overrides); some user specific configuration values (and memory) are stored within the local application
  • The Excel add-in has its own API that can be accessed by other Excel files (this makes it very easy to implement AI functions in other spreadsheets; see the example at the end)
  • The API keys or private keys (for OAuth 2.0) can be protected with a light encryption; the encryption key can either be hard-coded in the source code (for those who compile it themselves) or stored in the registry (we recommend to restrict access to the registry)
  • Users do not need to log in. While you could technically enforce user authentication at the endpoint level or provide individual API or OAuth 2.0 credentials, our experience shows this is unnecessary; endpoints are typically configured not to cache or store data; therefore, the main risk is endpoint overusage or abuse, which, if it becomes an issue at current cost levels, can be controlled by other means
  • There is no logging or user access management (this has to be implemented separately, e.g., at the endpoint level); should logging become a requirement within our user base, we will implement it
  • The browser extension requires a Chromium browser (Edge, Chrome, Firefox); Red Ink appears there in the context menu, provided it is not blocked by the respective application
  • The transcription function is currently based on the Vosk open-source models and the Whisper models from OpenAI and the cloud-based speech services of Google, OpenAI and Microsoft; no audio data is stored for legal reasons, but audio files can also be transcribed
  • The Google Text-to-Speech API or OpenAI’s text-to-speech models are used  used to generate speech (e.g. for creating podcasts and audiobooks) (requires a corresponding account)
  • Red Ink uses various text files, primarily with “.txt” or “.json” extensions, to store prompts, scripts, and similar content for its features (e.g., Prompt Library, DocCheck scripts, Find Clause Library, Data Extractor Library, File Renamer Library); Red Ink supports both central (e.g., network directory) and local (e.g., user’s %appdata% directory) versions of these files; the installation package includes samples, and the relevant paths are set in the “redink.ini” configuration file
  • External information and database services with a JSON REST API can be connected; Red Ink offers extensive options for configuring queries and processing responses; these services, along with any alternate AI models, are configured in text-based files, for which the installation package provides samples; you can also use MCP sources by importing the necessary information into the config file used by Red Ink
  • Red Ink supports agentic use of models (i.e. tooling) calling
  • For running Inky AutoPilot, Red Ink Web and InkyMobile you need a separate back-end server or virtual machine
  • Red Ink Web is a reduced feature-set version of Red Ink that also runs on MacOS, the “new” Outlook and Web-versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint

Further information, in particular on functionality, can be found in the Red Ink user manual here.

If you want to test Red Ink, use our collection of sample documents and worksheets with our testing script, which you can download here.