What is this?
Parrot is on-device dictation for macOS: hold the fn key, speak, release, and your words appear at the cursor as text.
Parrot is on-device dictation for macOS: hold the fn key, speak, release, and your words appear at the cursor as text.Is this a regular Mac app or a terminal tool?Both: it ships as a Parrot.app you install from a dmg, and installing from the terminal also links a parrot command for setup, models and options.
Both: it ships as a Parrot.app you install from a dmg, and installing from the terminal also links a parrot command for setup, models and options.Do I need to install anything else before it works?No, nothing: Parrot only needs those two macOS permissions and downloads its own speech model on first start.
No, nothing: Parrot only needs those two macOS permissions and downloads its own speech model on first start.What if my fn key is already mapped to something else?If fn switches the input source or opens the emoji picker, run parrot doctor — it checks your permissions and fn setting and shows how to fix the conflict.
If fn switches the input source or opens the emoji picker, run parrot doctor — it checks your permissions and fn setting and shows how to fix the conflict.Will it run on my Mac?Only on Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 14 or newer; Intel machines and older macOS versions are not supported.
Only on Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 14 or newer; Intel machines and older macOS versions are not supported.Does anything I say leave my Mac?No. WhisperKit runs Whisper on the Apple Neural Engine via CoreML, so recognition happens entirely on-device, and the logs never contain what you said.
No. WhisperKit runs Whisper on the Apple Neural Engine via CoreML, so recognition happens entirely on-device, and the logs never contain what you said.Can I teach it my names and technical terms?Yes. Add them to ~/.config/parrot/dictionary.json and Parrot spells them your way; edits apply from the next dictation.
Yes. Add them to ~/.config/parrot/dictionary.json and Parrot spells them your way; edits apply from the next dictation.Can I swap in a bigger or multilingual model?Yes. parrot models list shows what is available, and parrot --model whisper-large-v3-turbo runs the larger multilingual model.
Yes. parrot models list shows what is available, and parrot --model whisper-large-v3-turbo runs the larger multilingual model.Does it keep itself up to date?Yes. Parrot is signed and notarized, so permissions survive updates, and it checks for new versions once a day; Check for Updates in its menu checks right away.
Yes. Parrot is signed and notarized, so permissions survive updates, and it checks for new versions once a day; Check for Updates in its menu checks right away.What can I tweak from the command line?Hide the recording pill with --no-overlay, or use --inject-mode type-unicode to type instead of paste so the clipboard is left alone; parrot install --launch-at-login starts Parrot with your Mac.
Hide the recording pill with --no-overlay, or use --inject-mode type-unicode to type instead of paste so the clipboard is left alone; parrot install --launch-at-login starts Parrot with your Mac.What are similar projects?lipflow, FluidVoice, SCM, better-voice, no-tipe-releases, phorminx, jot-gemini-transcribe-macOS, Handy
lipflow, FluidVoice, SCM, better-voice, no-tipe-releases, phorminx, jot-gemini-transcribe-macOS, HandyWhich topics is it in?menu-bar-app, coreml, dictation, on-device-ai, transcription, local-ai, whisper, menu-bar, speech-to-text, speech-recognition, privacy-first, macos-app
menu-bar-app, coreml, dictation, on-device-ai, transcription, local-ai, whisper, menu-bar, speech-to-text, speech-recognition, privacy-first, macos-app