macOS · OpenAI Whisper · Claude AI

Voice to polished text,
right at your cursor.

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

$ pip install vaani && vaani start

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

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

What makes it different

Built for developers who write a lot

The only pip-installable dictation tool that combines best-in-class transcription with best-in-class enhancement — under your own API keys.

⌨️

Works everywhere

Terminal, IDE, browser, Slack, email, Notion — anywhere there's a text cursor. No app focus required.

🔑

BYOK — your API keys

No Vaani servers, no middleman markup. API calls go directly from your machine to OpenAI and Anthropic.

📦

pip install vaani

The only dictation tool that fits in your dotfiles. Version-control it, install it on remote Macs, update with pip.

🧠

Neural VAD

Silero VAD trims silence with a neural network — not energy thresholds. Works on whispers and noisy environments.

📝

Custom prompts

Override any mode with your own prompt files. Add a context.txt with your name, role, and common terms.

⚡

Hot-reload config

~/.vaani/config.yaml is watched for changes. Edit and save — no restart needed.

🔒

Encrypted history

Transcription history is stored in a local SQLite database with AES-256 encryption. Nothing leaves your machine.

🔑

Keychain storage

API keys are stored in macOS Keychain — never written to disk in plaintext.

Enhancement modes

Match your tone to the context

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

Cleanup

Fix grammar, remove filler words with minimal rewrites. Preserves your original meaning.

Professional

Formal rewrite for business emails, docs, and async communication.

Casual

Friendly, conversational tone. For Slack, DMs, and informal writing.

Bullets

Converts your spoken thoughts into clean, organized bullet points.

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

Privacy

No Vaani servers. Ever.

All cloud calls go directly from your machine to OpenAI and Anthropic under your own account. There is no Vaani backend.

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 using the system credential store.

Transcription history

Local SQLite database

Stored on your machine. AES-256 encrypted with Fernet.

Comparison

Where Vaani fits in

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

Tool	Price	AI Enhancement	Custom Prompts	pip install	Your API keys
Vaani	~$0.50/mo API costs	✓ 4 modes + custom	✓ File-based	✓	✓
Wispr Flow	$15/mo	✓ Context-adaptive	✗	✗	✗
SuperWhisper	$8.49/mo or $249 lifetime	✓ Multi-model	✓ GUI-based	✗	~ Optional
Whisper Dictation	Free	✗ None	✗	✗	✓ Local only
macOS Dictation	Free	✗ None	✗	✗	—

Get started

Two ways to install

Both paths end at the same place: polished text at your cursor.

Recommended

pip install

For developers. Fits in your dotfiles, installs in one command, updates with pip.

$ pip install vaani

$ python -m spacy download en_core_web_sm

$ vaani start

Onboarding runs automatically on first launch — enter your API keys and grant permissions. Requires OpenAI and Anthropic API keys.

App bundle

Download .dmg

Standalone macOS app. Drag to Applications, then remove the quarantine flag.

Download for macOS

After dragging to Applications, run once in Terminal:

$ xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Vaani.app

Required because Vaani isn't yet notarized with Apple. One-time only.

Voice to polished text,right at your cursor.