Vaani — Voice to polished text, right at your cursor
Description: Vaani is a macOS menu bar app that transcribes your speech with OpenAI Whisper and polishes it with Claude AI. Hold a hotkey, speak, and polished text appears at your cursor.
Keywords: macOS dictation, AI voice typing, whisper dictation mac, claude ai dictation, voice to text mac, menubar dictation

macOS menu bar app

# Voice to polished text,
right at your cursor.

Hold a hotkey, speak naturally, release — ready-to-send text appears wherever your cursor is. No app switching. No copy-pasting.

$ curl -sSL …/install.sh | sh

Requires Python 3.10+ · macOS 12+ · OpenAI & Anthropic API keys

1 Hold `Alt` and speak
→
2 Release to process
→
3 Polished text at cursor

Features

## Built for people who write a lot

Best-in-class transcription meets best-in-class enhancement — under your own API keys.

⌨
Works everywhere
Terminal, IDE, browser, Slack, email, Notion — anywhere there's a text cursor.
‣
Your API keys
No middleman servers. API calls go directly from your machine to OpenAI and Anthropic.
▸
One-line install
Install with a single curl command. Updates with pip. Fits in your dotfiles.
≈
Neural VAD
Silero VAD trims silence with a neural network. Works on whispers and noisy environments.
✎
Custom prompts
Override any mode with your own prompt files. Add `context.txt` with your name and writing style.
↺
Hot-reload config
`~/.vaani/config.yaml` is watched for changes. Edit and save — no restart needed.
ℝ
Encrypted history
Transcription history stored in a local SQLite database with AES-256 encryption.
⋅
Keychain storage
API keys stored in macOS Keychain — never written to disk in plaintext.

Pipeline

## From voice to polished prose in ~2 seconds

Every step runs in the background. The menu bar icon shows your current state.

🎤
Mic capture
sounddevice
→
⎜
VAD trim
Silero VAD
→
▴
Gain norm
RMS-based
→
✎
Transcribe
Whisper API
→
✨
Enhance
Claude Haiku
→
⏵
Paste
pynput

Enhancement modes

## Match your tone to the context

Switch modes from the menu bar. Each mode sends a different system prompt to Claude.

Minimal
Least changes possible. Fix grammar, remove filler words, preserve your original wording.
Professional
Formal rewrite for business emails, reports, and async communication. No contractions.
Casual
Friendly, conversational tone. For Slack, DMs, and informal writing.
Code
Code-aware formatting, shell command recognition, and code generation from speech.
Funny
Witty, humorous rewrite that still delivers your core message.

Override any mode with your own prompt file in `~/.vaani/prompts/modes/`

Comparison

## Where Vaani fits in

Same output quality as subscription tools — at a fraction of the cost.

Tool | Price | AI Enhancement | Custom Prompts | Your API keys
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Vaani | ~$0.50/mo API costs | ✓ 5 modes + custom | ✓ File-based | ✓
Wispr Flow | $15/mo | ✓ Context-adaptive | ✗ | ✗
SuperWhisper | $8.49/mo or $249 | ✓ Multi-model | ✓ GUI-based | ~ Optional
Whisper Dictation | Free | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ Local only
macOS Dictation | Free | ✗ | ✗ | —

Privacy

## No Vaani servers. Ever.

All cloud calls go directly from your machine to OpenAI and Anthropic under your own account.

Audio
Sent to OpenAI
Under your API key. Subject to OpenAI's data retention policy.
Transcribed text
Sent to Anthropic
Under your API key. Subject to Anthropic's data retention policy.
API keys
macOS Keychain only
Never written to disk in plaintext. Stored in the system credential store.
History
Local SQLite + AES-256
Stored on your machine. Encrypted with Fernet. Nothing leaves your disk.

## No subscription. No servers. Just your voice.

API costs run ~$0.50/month at typical usage. You own your keys.

Copy install command
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