Product overview

Local Whisper is speech-to-text for the places you already type. On macOS, you start recording with a global shortcut, speak, and get cleaned text copied or pasted into the active app. On mobile, you record in the Flutter app and use native keyboards to bring Local Whisper actions into other text fields.

Core workflows

Workflow	What happens
macOS dictation	The Python service records microphone audio, processes it, transcribes it with the selected engine, optionally cleans it with the selected grammar backend, applies replacements, and writes the result to clipboard or cursor.
Selected-text transforms	Keyboard shortcuts copy selected text, send it through the grammar backend as proofread, rewrite, or prompt-engineer mode, then return the result to the clipboard.
Text-to-speech	`Option+T` or `wh whisper` sends text to Kokoro MLX, streams audio playback, and lets you cancel with `Option+T`, Esc, or a new recording.
Mobile recording	Flutter records and manages history, modes, model packs, and settings. Native iOS and Android code owns microphone, keyboard, and platform-specific speech bridges.

What stays local

Recording, audio cleanup, transcription, replacements, text-to-speech, history, and backups run locally. Grammar correction runs on-device, localhost, or a private LAN server you configure. Setup, model downloads, updates, and repair commands can use the network.

Data locations

Data	Location
Runtime config	`~/.whisper/config.toml`
Models	`~/.whisper/models/`
History and audio backups	`~/.whisper/`
IPC socket	`~/.whisper/ipc.sock`
CLI command socket	`~/.whisper/cmd.sock`

Design constraints

Keep transcription local or localhost.
Do not add cloud speech fallback.
Preserve lazy loading for non-selected engines, grammar backends, and model families.
Keep mobile model packs on device after download.
Keep macOS UI and Python IPC contracts in sync.

Start

Product

Reference

Core workflows

What stays local

Data locations

Design constraints

​Core workflows

​What stays local

​Data locations

​Design constraints

Core workflows

What stays local

Data locations

Design constraints