whisper-key-local 0.5.3

Local faster-whisper speech-to-text app with global hotkeys for Windows

Whisper Key - Local Speech-to-Text for Windows

Global hotkey to start/stop recording and auto-paste transcription wherever your cursor is.

Questions or ideas? Discord Server

🎯 Features

• Global Hotkey: Press Ctrl+Win to start recording, Ctrl to stop
• Auto-Paste: Transcription inserted at your cursor via auto-paste
• Auto-Send: Press Alt to stop, auto-paste, and auto-send with ENTER keypress
• Offline Capable: No internet required after models downloaded
• Local Processing: Voice data never leaves your computer
• Voice activity detection: Prevent hallucinations, auto-stop accidental hotkey presses
• Configurable: Customize hotkeys, model, transcription actions, and audio settings

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Windows 10/11
• Microphone

Option 1: Download Portable App

1. Download the latest release zip
2. Extract the zip file
3. Run whisper-key.exe

Option 2: Install via pipx

Prerequisites:

• Python 3.8+ installed on Windows
• pipx installed (pip install pipx)

Install the application globally:

pipx install whisper-key-local

Add VAD support (prevents silence hallucinations):

pipx inject whisper-key-local git+https://github.com/TEN-framework/ten-vad.git@v1.0-ONNX

Run from anywhere:

whisper-key

Option 3: Development Installation

Prerequisites:

• Python 3.8+ installed on Windows

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/PinW/whisper-key-local.git
cd whisper-key-local

Install the dependencies:

pip install -e .

Add VAD support (prevents silence hallucinations):

pip install git+https://github.com/TEN-framework/ten-vad.git@v1.0-ONNX

Run the application:

python whisper-key.py

📦 Package Dependencies

• faster-whisper - Fast AI speech recognition
• numpy - Numerical computing support
• sounddevice - Audio recording
• global-hotkeys - System-wide hotkey detection
• pyperclip - Clipboard operations
• ruamel.yaml - Configuration file parsing (YAML)
• pyautogui - Key simulation for Ctrl+V auto-paste and auto-ENTER
• pywin32 - Windows API access for window management
• pystray - System tray integration
• Pillow - Image processing for system tray icons
• hf-xet - Cache management for Hugging Face models
• ten-vad - Voice Activity Detection to prevent silent hallucinations

🎮 Basic Usage

• Boot the app, the "tiny" model will download and start
• Press Ctrl+Win to start recording
• Speak into your microphone
• Press Ctrl to stop recording and transcribe
• The transcribed text is auto-pasted on your text cursor
• Alternatively press Alt to stop recording, auto-paste, and also send an ENTER keypress
• Right click the system tray icon to change models

Configuration

The app automatically creates a user settings file in %APPDATA%\Roaming\whisperkey\user_settings.yaml, where you can:

• Change whisper model size (tiny/base/small/medium/large)
• Hotkeys
• Configure automation (auto-paste, auto-ENTER)
• Voice activity detection
• And much more

🔧 Troubleshooting

• Check the log file app.log for detailed error messages
• Delete the user settings file in %APPDATA%/whisperkey/user_settings.yaml and restart to reset to defaults