Local-first macOS dictation

Qwen Dictation

Hold Right Ctrl, speak, and Qwen Dictation types into the app you are already using.

Star on GitHub Install

Developer MVP. A GitHub star helps other local-ASR Mac users find it.

Qwen Dictation social preview
Works in any text field

Use push-to-talk dictation in editors, browsers, chat apps, mail, and developer tools.

Local by default

Qwen3-ASR runs on your Mac. Audio is not sent to a cloud API by the default engine.

Vocabulary-aware

Register names and specialist terms so Qwen can bias recognition at commit time.

Three focused ASR modes

Qwen streaming is the default. Qwen Original keeps the model's rolling output closer to its native behavior. Nemotron MLX is available for fast local experiments on Apple Silicon.

The dashboard stays intentionally small: Qwen streaming, Qwen Original, and Nemotron.

Qwen Dictation menu bar preview

Developer install

The current build is a developer MVP for macOS. Install from source, grant Microphone and Accessibility permissions, then run the menu-bar app.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jhoshim89/qwen-dictation/main/install.sh | bash

The installer uses Homebrew, Python, PortAudio, and a local Hugging Face model download.

Built for daily typing

Right Ctrl works as a hold key, Right Option works as a toggle, and the HUD keeps the current listening state visible without taking over your screen.