hyprwhspr

Native speech-to-text for Linux - Fast, accurate and private system-wide dictation

instant performance | Cohere / Parakeet / Whisper / Gemini / ElevenLabs / REST API | stylish visuals

Supports Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE and more

hyprwhspr.com

531586476-2570002a-391b-4e73-b449-2c6b99ea1303.mp4

---

• Built for Linux - Native AUR package for Arch, or use Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/openSUSE
• Local, very fast defaults - Instant, private and accurate performance via in-memory models
• Latest models - Cohere Transcribe? Turbo-v3? Parakeet TDT V3? Latest and greatest
• GPU memory efficient - Limit or zero memory usage easily, more for other local models
• onnx-asr for wild CPU speeds - No GPU? Optimized for great speed on any hardware
• Translation - Translate non-English to English with a single config
• REST API or websockets - Secure, fast wires to top clouds like Gemini, ElevenLabs
• Themed visualizer - Visualizes your voice, will automatch Omarchy and Noctalia themes
• Word overrides and prompts - Custom hot keys, common words, and more
• Multi-lingual - Great performance in many languages
• Long form mode with saving - Pause, think, resume, pause: submit... Bam!
• Auto-paste anywhere - Instant paste into any active buffer, or even auto enter (optional)
• Audio ducking 🦆 - Reduces system volume on record (optional)

---

Why hyprwhspr? There are a lotta dictation apps. This one is built ground-up for the highest-end machines: a recent Nvidia card gets the best possible accuracy and speed, and everything else runs as well as the hardware you bring. Actively maintained, fully featured, works on anything with Wayland.

---

Quick start

Prerequisites

• Linux with systemd (Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, etc.)
• Requires a Wayland session (GNOME, KDE Plasma Wayland, Sway, Hyprland, Niri)
• Waybar or Noctalia (optional, for status bar)
• gtk4 + PyCairo (optional, for visualizer)
• NVIDIA GPU (optional, for CUDA acceleration)
• AMD/Intel GPU / APU (optional, for Vulkan acceleration)

Install

Arch Linux

On the AUR:

# Install for stable
yay -S hyprwhspr

# Or install for bleeding edge
yay -S hyprwhspr-git

Then run the interactive setup:

hyprwhspr setup

Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE

curl -fsSL https://hyprwhspr.com/install.sh | bash

Installs dependencies, clones to ~/.local/share/hyprwhspr/src, and walks you through setup.

Manual install

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/goodroot/hyprwhspr.git
cd hyprwhspr

# Install dependencies for your distro
./scripts/install-deps.sh

# Run interactive setup
./bin/hyprwhspr setup

Setup then walks you through:

1. ✅ Configure transcription backend (Cohere Transcribe, Parakeet TDT V3, Whisper, REST API, or Realtime WebSocket)
2. ✅ Download models
3. ✅ Configure themed visualizer for maximum coolness (optional)
4. ✅ Configure bar integration for your shell -- Waybar or Noctalia (optional)
5. ✅ Set up systemd user services
6. ✅ Set up permissions
7. ✅ Validate installation

First use

Ensure your microphone of choice is available in audio settings!

1. Log out and back in (for group permissions)
2. Press Super+Alt+D to start dictation - beep!
3. Speak naturally
4. Press Super+Alt+D again to stop dictation - boop!
5. Bam! Text appears in active buffer!

What you'll see while recording: on layer-shell compositors (Hyprland, Sway, niri, KDE) the animated mic OSD overlay -- on Noctalia / Omarchy it auto-matches your live shell theme; on GNOME/Mutter you may need to make additional changes. See Themed visualizer for details.

Any snags, please create an issue.

Updating

# Arch: update via your AUR helper
yay -Syu hyprwhspr

# Other distros: re-run the installer
curl -fsSL https://hyprwhspr.com/install.sh | bash

# Either way, setup is idempotent if you need to re-run it
hyprwhspr setup

CLI commands

• hyprwhspr setup - Interactive initial setup
• hyprwhspr config - Manage configuration (show / show --all / edit / secondary-shortcut)
• hyprwhspr model - Manage models (download / list / status / unload / reload)
• hyprwhspr record - External hotkey control (start / stop / toggle / cancel / capture / status)
• hyprwhspr status - Overall status check
• hyprwhspr validate - Validate installation
• hyprwhspr test - Test microphone and transcription end-to-end
• hyprwhspr keyboard - List/test keyboard devices (list / test)
• hyprwhspr waybar / hyprwhspr noctalia - Manage bar integration
• hyprwhspr mic-osd - Enable/disable the mic OSD (enable / disable / status)
• hyprwhspr systemd - Manage systemd services
• hyprwhspr uninstall - Remove hyprwhspr and user data

Documentation

For full configuration and customization, see the Configuration guide.

• Minimal configuration
• Recording modes -- toggle, push-to-talk, auto, long-form
• Custom hotkeys -- key support, secondary shortcuts, Hyprland bindings
• Backends -- Cohere Transcribe, Parakeet, Whisper, REST API, Realtime WebSocket
• GPU resource management -- unload/reload model to free VRAM
• Audio and visual feedback -- visualizer, audio feedback, ducking
• Text processing -- word overrides, filler words, symbol replacements
• Paste and clipboard behavior -- paste mode, per-app paste keys, non-QWERTY, auto-submit
• Integrations -- Waybar, Noctalia, Hyprland bindings, external hotkey systems
• Troubleshooting

Getting help

• Check logs: journalctl --user -u hyprwhspr.service
• Troubleshooting covers common issues
• Still stuck? Create an issue - logs helpful!

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file.

Contributing

Start with an issue - happy to help! Pull requests best begin there too.

If you want, compute credits from opub.dev are always welcome!

---

Built with ❤️ in 🇨🇦