jotbot 0.1.1

Push-to-talk voice dictation for macOS

Jotbot

Push-to-talk voice dictation for macOS. Hold a hotkey combo to record, release to transcribe and paste at your cursor.

Built for use with Claude Code and other CLI tools.

Features

• Real-time streaming with Deepgram Nova-2 (recommended)
• Batch transcription with OpenAI Whisper (fallback)
• Code-aware formatting with Claude Haiku (optional)
• Clipboard preservation - your clipboard is restored after pasting

Hotkeys

Combo	Action
Ctrl+Option	Record and transcribe (raw)
Cmd+Ctrl+Option	Record, transcribe, and format with Haiku (hold Cmd first)

Installation

pip install jotbot

Or with pipx (recommended):

pipx install jotbot

Setup

Run the interactive setup to configure your API keys:

jotbot --setup

This will prompt you to choose a transcription backend and enter your API keys:

• Deepgram (recommended): Real-time streaming, ~$0.0077/min - Get key
• OpenAI Whisper: Batch processing, ~$0.006/min - Get key
• Anthropic (optional): For Haiku formatting mode - Get key

Config is saved to ~/.config/jotbot/.env.

macOS Permissions

Your terminal app needs Input Monitoring permission:

System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring → Enable your terminal (Warp, iTerm2, Terminal.app, etc.)

Usage

jotbot

Then in any app:

1. Hold Ctrl+Option (or Cmd+Ctrl+Option for formatted output)
2. Speak
3. Release to transcribe and paste

How it works

• Audio: Records via sounddevice at 16kHz mono
• Transcription:
  • Deepgram Nova-2 (streaming, low latency) - recommended
  • OpenAI Whisper (batch, higher latency) - fallback
• Formatting (optional): Claude Haiku cleans up text, adds backticks for code identifiers
• Output: Copies to clipboard, simulates Cmd+V, restores original clipboard

Backends

Deepgram (Recommended)

• Real-time streaming transcription
• Persistent WebSocket connection (instant start)
• ~$0.0077/min

Whisper

• Batch transcription after recording ends
• Higher latency but very accurate
• ~$0.006/min

Development

git clone https://github.com/isaacgor216/jotbot.git
cd jotbot
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

License

MIT