PushToType

Hold a hotkey, speak, release — your words appear wherever your cursor is.

PushToType is a local, real-time speech-to-text tool for Linux. It transcribes your voice using a local Whisper model and types the result directly into whatever application has focus — no clipboard, no cloud, no API keys.

An open-source alternative to OpenAI's Whisper Flow, which has no Linux support.

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Features

• Works everywhere — types into any focused app: browsers, editors, terminals, search bars
• Local-only — faster-whisper runs on your GPU (CUDA) with automatic CPU fallback
• No cloud — no API keys, no network required after the one-time model download
• Fast — ~250ms from hotkey release to text appearing
• Configurable — TOML config file, interactive setup wizard, CLI flags
• Wayland + X11 — works on both display servers via evdev

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Quick Start

# Install
uv add pushtotype        # or: pip install pushtotype

# System dependencies (X11)
sudo apt install libportaudio2 xdotool

# Add yourself to the input group (required for hotkey detection)
sudo usermod -aG input $USER
# Log out and back in for this to take effect

# Run the setup wizard
pushtotype config

# Start
pushtotype

Hold your configured hotkey (default: right Ctrl), speak, release. Text appears at the cursor.

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How It Works

[Hold hotkey] → [Record audio] → [Whisper transcription] → [Type into focused app]
     evdev            sounddevice       faster-whisper           xdotool type

PushToType runs as a background daemon. A global hotkey listener (via evdev, reading directly from /dev/input/) fires a recording callback. When you release the hotkey, the audio is sent to faster-whisper for transcription, then xdotool type injects the text into whatever window is focused.

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Installation

Recommended: uv

uv tool install pushtotype

pip / pipx

pip install pushtotype
# or
pipx install pushtotype

From source

git clone https://github.com/danielgraviet/pushtotype.git
cd pushtotype
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

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System Requirements

Requirement	Notes
Linux	X11 or Wayland
Python 3.10+
libportaudio2	sudo apt install libportaudio2
xdotool	X11 only — sudo apt install xdotool
wtype + wl-clipboard	Wayland only — sudo apt install wtype wl-clipboard
input group	sudo usermod -aG input $USER
NVIDIA GPU	Recommended for speed — CPU works but is slower

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Configuration

Config file lives at ~/.config/pushtotype/config.toml. Run pushtotype config to create it interactively.

[hotkey]
keys = ["KEY_RIGHTCTRL"]

[audio]
device = "default"
sample_rate = 16000

[model]
name = "base.en"
device = "auto"
compute_type = "float16"

[feedback]
enabled = true
volume = 0.5

[output]
method = "auto"   # "auto", "x11", or "wayland"

Config priority (highest to lowest)

1. CLI flags (e.g. --model small.en)
2. Environment variables (e.g. PUSHTOTYPE_MODEL=small.en)
3. Config file (~/.config/pushtotype/config.toml)
4. Built-in defaults

Environment variables

Variable	Config key
PUSHTOTYPE_MODEL	model.name
PUSHTOTYPE_DEVICE	model.device
PUSHTOTYPE_AUDIO_DEV	audio.device
PUSHTOTYPE_FEEDBACK	feedback.enabled
PUSHTOTYPE_HOTKEY	hotkey.keys (comma-separated)

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CLI Reference

pushtotype                  Start the push-to-talk daemon
pushtotype config           Run the interactive setup wizard
pushtotype config --show    Print the current effective config
pushtotype devices          List available audio input devices
pushtotype test             Record 5 seconds and transcribe (verify setup)
pushtotype download [MODEL] Pre-download a Whisper model

Global flags:

-v, --verbose     Enable debug logging (shows per-step timings)
-q, --quiet       Suppress all output except errors
--log-file PATH   Write logs to a file
--model NAME      Override model (e.g. small.en)
--hotkey COMBO    Override hotkey (e.g. ctrl+shift+s)
--device INDEX    Override audio device index
--no-feedback     Disable start/stop beeps

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Troubleshooting

Permission denied on /dev/input/

You need to be in the input group:

sudo usermod -aG input $USER
# Log out and back in

xdotool not found

sudo apt install xdotool

Text doesn't appear in my terminal

Terminals use Ctrl+Shift+V to paste, but PushToType uses xdotool type which bypasses the clipboard entirely — it should work in all terminals without any special config.

CUDA not available

PushToType automatically falls back to CPU. Transcription will be slower (~1-3s per 5s of audio vs ~0.2s on GPU). Check pushtotype -v startup output to see which device is being used.

Model download fails / slow

Models are cached in ~/.cache/huggingface/hub/ after the first download. Pre-download manually:

pushtotype download base.en

wtype or wl-copy not found (Wayland)

sudo apt install wtype wl-clipboard

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Known Limitations

• English only (base.en model)
• No AMD GPU (ROCm) support
• Wayland session detection relies on XDG_SESSION_TYPE or WAYLAND_DISPLAY
• No GUI — terminal only

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Issues and PRs welcome.

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License

MIT