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Audio & Voice AI

Voxtype

Voxtype is an open-source Linux desktop dictation application written in Rust. It captures speech through push-to-talk or toggle recording, transcribes it using a selectable speech-recognition engine, and types the result at the cursor or places it in the clipboard.

Explore the practical guide ↓

Independent OpenViST project profile, based on linked sources.

Voxtype — OpenViST project profile in Audio & Voice AI.
OpenViST project illustration. See the linked sources for product details.
Understand the project

Practical overview

When it fits

Use Voxtype when you want hotkey-driven speech input in a Linux desktop workflow, or its separate meeting mode for continuous transcription and export.

Who it is for

  • Linux desktop users who want to dictate text into the application or field they are working in.
  • Users configuring Wayland compositor shortcuts for push-to-talk voice input.
  • People who want local speech-recognition engine choices and configurable text cleanup.
  • Users who need continuous meeting transcription, speaker attribution, and export formats.

Documented uses

  • Dictate a short passage and insert the transcription at the cursor.
  • Use toggle recording when holding a key is unsuitable.
  • Correct recurring mistranscriptions, use spoken punctuation, or pass recognized text through an optional post-processing command.
  • Transcribe longer meetings, review speaker-attributed output, and export it in a chosen format.
Before you choose

Requirements & limits

The repository identifies the project as open source under the MIT license. The README describes local transcription as the default and says there is no subscription or telemetry.

  • Voxtype documents nine transcription engines, with hardware paths that vary by engine, including CPU, AMD or NVIDIA GPU, and Intel OpenVINO options.
  • Wayland typing uses wtype and documents fallback output paths; X11 users can use the built-in hotkey path, which requires membership in the input group.
  • Hyprland, Sway, and River have documented press-and-release keybindings; KDE Plasma requires toggle mode.
  • Meeting mode is separate from push-to-talk dictation and offers speaker attribution plus Markdown, plain text, JSON, SRT, or VTT exports.
  • The project documents spoken punctuation, replacement tables, and optional LLM or shell-script post-processing.

Check current requirements in the official documentation. Source-based guidance does not mean OpenViST has run or independently tested this project.

Source-based practical guide

Build Voxtype from source on a Linux desktop

Compile Voxtype, prepare its Wayland typing backend and Whisper model, and configure a compositor shortcut.

Before you start

  • A Linux system using Fedora, Arch, Debian, or Ubuntu.
  • Rust and the build dependencies listed for the chosen distribution.
  • For the documented Wayland typing setup, the wtype package.

Steps

  1. Install the build dependencies for your distribution using the package command documented in the README.

  2. Build the application with the command below.

    Documented command
    cargo build --release

  3. Install wtype through your distribution's package manager for Wayland typing.

  4. Download a Whisper model with ./target/release/voxtype setup --download.

  5. Add the documented start-and-stop keybindings to your compositor configuration, then run ./target/release/voxtype.

Expected outcome

A source-built Voxtype daemon with a downloaded Whisper model and a compositor shortcut configured for push-to-talk dictation.

Guide limitations

  • The instructions shown are for a source build; the README recommends a pre-built package for most users.
  • Keybinding instructions vary by compositor. KDE Plasma uses toggle mode because KWin does not support key-release events.
  • The full dependency matrix for GPU backends is in the installation documentation.
Documentation 1 ↗
Source-based practical guide

Configure Voxtype for a Wayland compositor shortcut

Connect a compositor keybinding to Voxtype's documented recording start and stop commands.

Before you start

  • Voxtype installed and callable as voxtype.
  • Hyprland, Sway, or River, with access to its configuration file.

Steps

  1. Choose the matching compositor section in the Voxtype README.

  2. Add its documented start and release-to-stop commands to the compositor configuration.

  3. Run the Voxtype daemon with voxtype.

Expected outcome

The configured key combination starts recording and stops it on release, allowing Voxtype to transcribe and output the speech.

Guide limitations

  • The start/stop examples apply to Hyprland, Sway, and River; KDE Plasma requires toggle mode instead.
  • The guide assumes the application has already been installed.
Documentation 1 ↗
Evidence and transparency

Sources & review

Official repository ↗
Source record details
Source availability
Active
Sources checked
13 October 2026
Original website title
peteonrails/voxtype · Official homepage title · retained in its source language
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