sys2txt 0.1.1.post1

Record system audio and transcribe to text using AI

System audio to text

Record system audio and automatically transcribe to text using ✨AI✨.

Overview

sys2txt is a command-line tool that records your system audio (via PulseAudio/PipeWire monitor sources) with ffmpeg and transcribes it locally using Whisper. It supports both:

• On-demand: Record until you stop, then transcribe once
• Live-ish: Segment the recording every N seconds and transcribe each segment as it’s created (prints continuously)

You can use either the openai-whisper (Python) reference implementation or the faster-whisper engine if installed. The tool auto-selects faster-whisper when available for better speed on CPU and especially GPU.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu with PulseAudio or PipeWire (default on modern Ubuntu)
• ffmpeg
• Python 3.9+ (recommended)

Install

1. System packages

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y ffmpeg python3-venv python3-pip

2. Create a virtual environment and install sys2txt

cd sys2txt
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

This installs both faster-whisper (for speed) and openai-whisper (reference implementation). The tool auto-selects faster-whisper when available or falls back to openai-whisper.

Quick start

Record and transcribe once (press Ctrl-C to stop recording):

sys2txt once --model small.en

Live segmented transcription (prints ongoing transcript every 8s by default; Ctrl-C to stop):

sys2txt live --model small.en --segment-seconds 8

Useful flags

• --source <pulse_source_name> - Explicit PulseAudio/PipeWire source (e.g., alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo.monitor)
• --list-sources - List available Pulse sources and exit
• --model <size> - tiny|base|small|medium|large-v2 (default: small)
• --engine <auto|faster|whisper> - Force a specific engine (default: auto)
• --language <code> - Force language code (e.g., en). Omit to auto-detect
• --output <path> - Write final transcript to a file (in live mode, appends)
• --duration <seconds> - (once mode) Record fixed duration instead of waiting for Ctrl-C
• --segment-seconds <n> - (live mode) Segment length in seconds (default: 8)
• --timestamps - Print timestamps alongside text

Examples

Record 30s of system audio from the default monitor and transcribe:

sys2txt once --duration 30 --model small --output transcript.txt

Use a specific PulseAudio source:

sys2txt once --source alsa_output.usb-Focusrite_Scarlett.monitor --model base

Live mode with shorter latency and timestamps:

sys2txt live --segment-seconds 5 --timestamps

Force the reference openai-whisper engine:

sys2txt once --engine whisper --model base

Transcribe an existing audio file:

sys2txt once --input recording.wav --model small

Just want one-liners (no sys2txt)?

Find the default sink and its monitor source:

pactl get-default-sink
pactl list short sources | grep monitor

Record 30s of system audio from the default monitor to a WAV at 16 kHz mono (good for Whisper):

ffmpeg -hide_banner -loglevel error -f pulse -i "$(pactl get-default-sink).monitor" -ac 1 -ar 16000 -t 30 out.wav

Transcribe with openai-whisper CLI:

whisper out.wav --model small --task transcribe --language en

Tips and troubleshooting

• If you get silence, ensure you are using the monitor source for your output device (the name ends with .monitor). Use --list-sources to view options.
• Make sure the application you want to capture is playing through the same output sink as your default sink. You can manage routes with pavucontrol.
• PipeWire systems expose PulseAudio-compatible sources, so -f pulse in ffmpeg still works.
• For better performance on CPU, use faster-whisper with model base or small. For the best accuracy, use medium or large-v2 (these are heavier).
• GPU acceleration for faster-whisper requires a compatible ctranslate2 CUDA wheel. Set SYS2TXT_DEVICE=cuda to enable it. If not available, it will run on CPU.

Development

Install with development dependencies:

pip install -e ".[dev]"

Run unit tests:

python -m unittest discover -s tests -p "test_*.py"

Format and lint code:

ruff format src/
ruff check src/