Speak. It types.
Murmur is a tiny, open-source dictation app for macOS. Hold right ⌘, talk, release — your words land wherever your cursor is. Transcribed entirely on your Mac.
Try it right here — hold ⌘ on your keyboard, or press & hold the key below
Push to talk
Three moves. Zero windows.
Hold right ⌘
Anywhere — Mail, Slack, your editor, a browser. A small waveform appears at the bottom of your screen.
Speak
Parakeet listens locally. Changed your mind? Press Esc. Keyboard shortcuts still work while you hold.
Release
Your words are pasted right at your cursor — and your old clipboard is politely restored afterwards.
Small app, sharp edges filed off
Everything you need. Nothing else.
Private by default
NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B runs on-device via Core ML. Audio lives in memory, gets transcribed, gets discarded. Nothing ever leaves your Mac.
Bring your own cloud
Already pay for ElevenLabs? Switch the engine to Scribe, paste your API key, done. 90+ languages.
25 languages, offline
Parakeet v3 covers 25 European languages locally. Or pick the English-only v2 for maximum accuracy.
True push-to-talk
Right ⌘, right ⌥ or right ⌃ — your pick. Esc cancels, accidental taps are ignored, and ⌘-shortcuts keep working.
Polite pasting
Text arrives via a synthetic ⌘V, and whatever was on your clipboard before is restored right after.
Genuinely minimal
A menu bar icon and a floating capsule HUD. Plain Swift & SwiftUI, one dependency, make install and you're done.
Install
One line. Or one drag.
Requires macOS 14+ (Apple Silicon). Pick your flavor:
$ brew install --cask daviddao/tap/murmur # optional — skip the Gatekeeper warning for this unsigned build: $ xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Murmur.app
No Homebrew? Download Murmur.dmg and drag Murmur into Applications · or build from source — it's ~1,500 lines of Swift you can audit in one sitting.
Murmur is a free community build and isn't notarized by Apple, so macOS warns on
first open — allow it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway
(or use the xattr line above).
Then grant Microphone + Accessibility and let the Parakeet model download once (~470 MB, cached).
Full guide in the README.