The wh command controls the Local Whisper service and exposes local utilities for recording, transcription, text-to-speech, history, diagnostics, updates, and configuration.

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Service lifecycle

wh                  # Status and help
wh status           # Service status, PID, grammar backend, uptime, and recovery state
wh start            # Launch the service
wh stop             # Stop the service
wh restart          # Restart and rebuild Swift UI if sources changed
wh build            # Rebuild Swift UI app
wh log              # Tail service log
wh version          # Show version
wh uninstall        # Remove Local Whisper

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Engines and grammar

wh engine                 # Show current engine and list available engines
wh engine parakeet_v3     # Switch to Parakeet-TDT v3
wh engine qwen3_asr       # Switch to Qwen3-ASR
wh engine whisperkit      # Switch to WhisperKit

wh backend                # Show current grammar backend and list available backends
wh backend apple_intelligence
wh backend ollama
wh backend lm_studio
The CLI switch restarts the service. The macOS menu bar can switch engines and grammar backends in place.

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Recording and transcription

wh listen                 # Record until silence, then print transcription
wh listen 30              # Record up to 30 seconds
wh listen --raw           # Raw transcription, no grammar

wh transcribe recording.wav
wh transcribe --raw audio.wav

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Text-to-speech

wh whisper "hello"
wh whisper --voice af_bella "hello"
echo "hello" | wh whisper
Text-to-speech uses Kokoro MLX in process after the model is installed. No local TTS server is required.

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Replacements

wh replace
wh replace add "gonna" "going to"
wh replace remove "gonna"
wh replace on
wh replace off
wh replace import rules.csv
Imports accept CSV, TSV, TOML-style "spoken" = "replacement", or arrow-style spoken -> replacement files.

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History and diagnostics

wh stats
wh export
wh export --format json --out ~/Downloads/history.json
wh export --format txt --limit 50

wh config
wh config edit
wh config path
wh doctor
wh doctor --fix
wh doctor --report
wh update
Diagnostic reports redact local transcript and config contents. They are designed to be safe to include in private support or issue reports.