🗝️ SilentKeys

Real-time, fully offline desktop dictation.

macOS-first, with experimental Linux and Windows builds.
Fast, private, and small. No cloud, no telemetry.

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📋 Table of Contents

• About
• Features
• Why SilentKeys?
• How It Works
• Quick Start
• Installation
• Roadmap
• Who Is This For?
• Contributing
• License
• Acknowledgments

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💡 About

SilentKeys is a local-first desktop dictation app that performs all audio capture and transcription locally on your machine. It is designed for everyday use on Apple Silicon Macs and remains under active development.

• Target Platform: macOS 14+ on Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4).
• Secondary Platforms: Intel macOS, Linux, and Windows builds are available via Cargo but are currently considered experimental.
• Resource Footprint (M-series Mac, release build):
  • Binary Size: ~10 MB (native engine)
  • Memory Usage: ~800–900 MB (with default quantized Parakeet model loaded)

Note

Status: Beta
Stable for everyday dictation on Apple Silicon Macs. Some features and configuration options are still evolving.

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✨ Features

• 🏎 Real-time Dictation: Types text directly into any application as you speak.
• 🔒 Offline Only: Audio and transcripts never leave your device.
• 🧠 High-Quality Models: Uses NVIDIA's Parakeet models running on ONNX Runtime, optimized for Apple Silicon.
• 🖥 macOS-First: Native feel with global push-to-talk, streaming output, and minimal latency.
• ⚙️ Rust Core: Built for performance, low latency, and stability.
• 🪶 Lightweight UI: Powered by Tauri v2 and Leptos (no Electron overhead).
• 🛡️ Zero Telemetry: No analytics, tracking, or background network calls.
• 🆓 Open Source: MIT licensed and free to use.

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🚀 Why SilentKeys?

Most dictation tools affect your privacy, transparency, or workflow. SilentKeys eliminates these compromises:

• Local Processing: All audio capture and transcription happen on-device.
• Transparency: The codebase is fully open source, allowing you to audit how your data is handled.
• Workflow Integration: Streams text into your existing tools (email, code editors, chat) without requiring plugins.
• Modern Stack: Built on Rust, Tauri, and ONNX Runtime for a lean, maintainable, and predictable application.

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🧩 How It Works

The speech engine uses Parakeet models via ONNX Runtime embedded in a Rust core.

1. Global Hook: A lightweight Rust daemon listens for the configurable push-to-talk shortcut.
2. Audio Capture: Captures high-fidelity audio from the system microphone using low-latency buffers.
3. Inference: Audio chunks are processed by the Parakeet model via ONNX Runtime.
4. Streaming: Silero VAD detects phrase boundaries to stream accurate partial transcripts.
5. Virtual Typing: The Enigo crate drives virtual keypresses to insert text into the focused window.

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⚡ Quick Start

Prerequisites

• macOS 14.0+ (Sonoma) recommended.
• Apple Silicon (M1 or newer).
• Rust Toolchain: Installed via rustup.

Running Locally

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/gptguy/silentkeys
cd silentkeys

# 2. Run in development mode
cargo tauri dev

Building for Release

cargo tauri build

The bundled application will be available at:
src-tauri/target/release/bundle/macos/SilentKeys.app

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🎙 Usage

1. Start Dictation: Press ⌥Z (Option+Z) to begin.
2. Speak: Speak normally; text will appear in your active application.
3. Stop: Press the shortcut again (or stop speaking) to finish the session.

Configuration

Preferences can be accessed via the UI to configure:

• Global Shortcut: Customize the hotkey.
• Streaming Mode: Toggle real-time text visualization (uses Silero VAD for phrase detection).
• Model Path: Manage the location of the ONNX model files (VAD model is auto-downloaded here).

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📥 Installation

Download

Official signed DMG builds and a Homebrew tap will be available soon.

Build from Source

To build from source, ensure you have the following installed:

1. Xcode Command Line Tools: xcode-select --install
2. Rust: curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
3. WebAssembly Target: rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown
4. Trunk: cargo install trunk
5. Tauri CLI: cargo install tauri-cli --locked

Then run:

cargo tauri build

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🛠️ Roadmap

Core

• Improve streaming behavior (VAD-based sequencing).
• Add local-only crash reporting (opt-in).

Performance

• Benchmark Parakeet vs. alternative ASR architectures.
• Optimize batching for long dictation sessions.
• leverage ONNX Runtime Execution Providers (CoreML, Metal).

Distribution

• Provide signed and notarized DMG releases.
• Create Homebrew tap (brew install --cask silentkeys).
• Implement automatic updates.

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🔐 Privacy

SilentKeys is private by default:

• No Cloud Services: All processing is local.
• No Analytics: No usage data or metrics are collected.
• No Auto-Updates: Release builds do not perform background checks.
• Offline Capable: Works entirely without an internet connection (after model download).

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🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Who Is This For?

• Privacy-conscious professionals (legal, healthcare, journalism).
• Writers and creators who prefer voice drafting.
• Accessibility users seeking a robust, offline-capable dictation tool.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on how to get started.

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🛡️ License

Licensed under the MIT License.

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⭐ Acknowledgments

• Parakeet: State-of-the-art ASR models.
• ONNX Runtime: High-performance inference engine.
• Tauri: For the lightweight application framework.
• Leptos: For the reactive frontend.

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SilentKeys
Dictation that stays on your machine.

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