Hold a key. Speak. The words land where you were already typing.

A small daemon for Linux. Hold your hotkey, talk, let go — the transcript is typed into whatever window has focus. Nothing to switch to, nothing to paste.

View on GitHub Install it

hotkey

Hold the button, or the real Right Ctrl on your keyboard. Let go to hear back.

level

idle0.00 s

nvim ~/notes/inbox.md

-- INSERT --

backendwlr-vk · zwp_virtual_keyboard_v1

the app

One window: your settings, and everything you have said.

scribe@linux·●active·pipewire

~/.config/scribe/config.ini

hotkey

right ctrl

microphone

Scarlett Solo USB — analog stereo▾

model

gpt-4o-transcribe▾

api_key

sk-••••••••••••••••••••••[show]

kb_layout

us — qwerty▾

transcriptions/grep ▏12 files

$ tail -f session.log

09:14:03The uinput backend types below the compositor, so the layout has to match.

09:14:27Check whether graphical-session.target is actually active on this box.

09:15:11Dictating a commit message is the one place this pays for itself.

█

──────── recent sessions ────────

09:14blockers-on-the-auth-rewrite the uinput backend types below…47 w

08:51morning-standup three things landed overnight…112 w

08:32commit-message-draft fix the pre-roll gap on the first…29 w

scribe-menu — pick a mic by watching it move, set your key, read back past sessions. GJS · GTK4.

how it works

It transcribes in the cloud — your key, your account.

scribe runs no model on your machine. Each clip goes to OpenAI over your own API key and the words come straight back — the trip audio takes in any Whisper app. scribe keeps no copy of its own unless you switch history on.

The audio does leave your machine, so treat it like any web service: great for notes and commit messages, not the place for passwords.

get it running

Clone it and run the installer.

You need an OpenAI API key first — scribe will not start without one. Fedora, Debian/Ubuntu and Arch are handled.

shell

$ git clone https://github.com/ajr-khll/linux-transcription
$ cd linux-transcription
$ ./install.sh

It builds, adds you to the input group, seeds the config and enables the systemd user service. Log out and back in afterwards — group membership is only read when your session starts.

Hold a key. Speak. The words land where you were already typing.already typing.

One window: your settings, and everything you have said.

It transcribes in the cloud — your key, your account.

Clone it and run the installer.

Hold a key. Speak. The words land where you were already typing.