mouthpipe

On-device speech-to-text for macOS. Hold a key, speak, release — transcribed text is pasted at your cursor.

Powered by whisper.cpp (Metal-accelerated) with zero cloud dependencies. All processing happens locally on your Mac.

Features

• Hold-to-record — hold your shortcut key, speak, release. Transcribed text is pasted instantly at your cursor position.
• Fully local — runs entirely on-device using whisper.cpp with Metal acceleration. No network calls, no API keys, no cloud.
• Single binary — one static executable, no runtime dependencies. Install and go.
• Live TUI — full-screen terminal interface with waveform visualizer, status indicators, and transcription history.
• Configurable shortcut — press s in the TUI to choose your trigger key (right/left Command, Control, or Option).
• Output modes — press b to switch between paste-at-cursor, copy-to-clipboard, or buffer-only.
• Audio source selection — press a to pick your input device (built-in mic, USB mic, etc.).
• Custom vocabulary — add domain-specific words to improve recognition accuracy. Fed to Whisper as an initial prompt.
• Transcription history — press h to browse, copy, or delete past transcriptions. Full log stored as JSONL.
• Hallucination filtering — automatically detects and suppresses common Whisper hallucinations (silence loops, repetitive output).
• Themes — ocean (default) and vapor color themes.

Install

curl -fsSL http://files.anuna.io/mouthpipe/latest/install.sh | bash

Or build from source:

git clone https://codeberg.org/anuna/mouthpipe.git
cd mouthpipe
cargo build --release
cp target/release/mouthpipe /usr/local/bin/

Setup

1. Accessibility permission — System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility. Grant access to your terminal app.
2. Microphone permission — Granted automatically on first recording.
3. Whisper model — Downloaded automatically on first run (~1.5 GB). Stored at ~/.mouthpipe/models/.

Usage

mouthpipe # Start listening
mouthpipe --key <key> # Set shortcut key and start (e.g. --key ctrl)
mouthpipe add <word/phrase> # Add to custom vocabulary
mouthpipe rm <word/phrase> # Remove from vocabulary
mouthpipe vocab # List vocabulary words
mouthpipe log [-n N] # Show recent transcriptions (default 20)
mouthpipe --version # Show version
mouthpipe help # Show help

TUI Keyboard Shortcuts

Data Directory

All data is stored in ~/.mouthpipe/:

Requirements

• macOS on Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)
• Accessibility permission for global hotkey
• ~1.5 GB disk space for the Whisper model

Credits

Ported from blurt by @satyaborg — motivation was to add features and ship a portable binary.

License

MIT