A lightweight macOS app for voice transcription that stays out of the way: a quote mark in the menu bar, a translucent panel while recording, and finished text wherever the cursor sits. One shortcut (⌥Space by default, configurable) starts and ends a recording; the transcript lands on the clipboard and is pasted into the focused text field. Esc cancels. Three engines to choose from: Whisper through the OpenAI API, Whisper on-device with a local MLX model, or Apple's own on-device speech models.
The menu bar mark shows the current state: ” idle, a red dot recording, … transcribing. Unlike system dictation, nothing is gone after the paste: every transcript is kept in a searchable History window, with running totals for words, audio time, and API cost.
With Homebrew:
brew install --cask lmc4s/tap/verseOr grab Verse-x.y.z-arm64.dmg (Apple Silicon) from the Releases page.
The app is not signed or notarized, so on first launch right-click the app and choose Open, or allow it under System Settings > Privacy & Security. On first use, macOS will also ask for Microphone access, and for Accessibility if auto-paste is on.
OpenAI API — requires an API key and internet. Files are sent to OpenAI's servers.
Local MLX — runs on your Mac, offline, no API key needed. Apple Silicon only. The app manages its own Python environment and pulls models from Hugging Face on first use.
Default model: mlx-community/whisper-large-v3-turbo. Any compatible model from mlx-community works — swap it in Settings.
Apple Speech — macOS's own on-device speech models (macOS 26 or later). Offline, no key, no model download beyond what the system fetches once. Fast and accurate for clear speech in supported locales; Whisper remains the stronger choice for noisy audio and less common languages.
- macOS (Apple Silicon required for the local engine)
- Node.js 18+
- Python 3, Homebrew or system (local engine only)
npm install
npm startnpm run distOpenAI: open Settings from the menu bar icon, paste your API key, select OpenAI as the engine.
Local MLX: open Settings, select Local MLX, click Install. The first transcription also downloads the model weights (1–3 GB depending on the model).
Auto-paste: the first time Verse pastes into another app, macOS asks you to allow it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. Until then it falls back to clipboard-only.
Settings and transcript history are stored in Electron's user data directory (~/Library/Application Support/Verse).
macOS has built-in dictation (the 🎤 / F5 key) that types at the cursor and runs on-device on Apple Silicon. For a quick sentence of clear English it is fast and accurate. Verse covers different ground:
- Whisper holds up on accents, background noise, technical vocabulary, and about 100 languages (Apple's dictation supports roughly 30 locales).
- A choice of engine — OpenAI's API or a fully offline local model — and the model itself is swappable.
- Every transcript is kept: searchable history with word, duration, and cost totals, one click to copy again.
- A visible recording panel with cancel, a shortcut of your choosing, and the same behavior in every app.
Verse has no telemetry or accounts; the DMG is a packaged build of this repository. Audio is recorded only while a recording is active. The Local MLX engine runs entirely on-device; the OpenAI engine sends audio to OpenAI for transcription. Settings and history are plain JSON files in the user data folder.