# Show HN: Dictata – Local Whisper dictation with LLM cleanup > Source: > Published: 2026-08-15 00:58:34+00:00 **100% local** system-wide voice dictation for Windows, in native Rust. Press a global hotkey, speak, press again: the text is transcribed locally by [whisper.cpp](https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp) and pasted into the active application. No data ever leaves the machine. Current release: **v0.1.0** — see [CHANGELOG.md](/AntoineChatry/Dictata/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md). **Hotkey dictation**(toggle or push-to-talk), automatic paste into the active application, floating dock with waveform (configurable size, opacity and position).**Continuous mode (streaming)**: text is inserted as you speak, at every detected pause.** Silence skipping (VAD)**: optional whisper.cpp voice-activity detection on standard (non-streaming) dictation — less compute and fewer hallucinations on silence. Downloads a small (~2 MB) model on first use; toggle in Configuration.**Vulkan GPU transcription**(AMD/Intel/NVIDIA) or CPU — whisper-rs with the`vulkan` feature.**Audio sources**: microphone, system audio (WASAPI loopback) or a mix of both (meeting mode).** Output modes**: raw, or post-processing through a local OpenAI-compatible LLM (cleanup, email, message, list…), with customizable prompts.**Transcribe a file**(audio/video, History page) — any format handled by ffmpeg.- Custom **vocabulary and replacements** injected as the initial prompt. - Built-in **ggml model library**: download, delete, and hardware-aware recommendations (detected GPU/VRAM when running on Vulkan, CPU/RAM otherwise). **HuggingFace search**: install any ggml`.bin` model from a direct URL, a repo (`owner/name` ) or a keyword search.**fr / en / es interface**, dark theme, system tray icon, transcription history. - Windows 10/11. Linux is **not supported** in this release — see[LINUX.md](/AntoineChatry/Dictata/blob/master/LINUX.md)for what works, what does not, and why. [ffmpeg](https://ffmpeg.org/)in`PATH` (only for "Transcribe a file").- To build with GPU support: the [Vulkan SDK](https://vulkan.lunarg.com/)and the Visual Studio Build Tools (CMake + Ninja included). ``` cargo build --release ``` Build specifics: - **MAX_PATH workaround (Windows)**: whisper.cpp's`vulkan-shaders-gen` sub-project can exceed the Windows MAX_PATH limit (260 characters) and break MSBuild (FTK1011/C1083). If that happens, create a local (untracked)`.cargo/config.toml` pointing the build to a short path at a drive root: ``` [build] target-dir = "C:/wt" # any short path ``` The executable and its `config.json` then live in`\\` . - After a `cargo clean` , rebuild inside a Visual Studio environment with the Ninja generator: ``` VsDevCmd.bat -arch=amd64 && set CMAKE_GENERATOR=Ninja && set CMAKE_GENERATOR_INSTANCE= && set VULKAN_SDK= && cargo build ``` For a CPU-only build (no Vulkan SDK required): ``` cargo build --release --no-default-features powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\release-windows.ps1 -Variant both ``` Runs the tests, builds, and writes `dist\dictata--windows-x86_64[-cpu].zip` with its SHA-256. The zip contains only `dictata.exe` , `README.md` , `LICENSE` and `CHANGELOG.md` : no `config.json` is shipped (the app writes its own defaults on first run, and a development `config.json` carries personal data). The binary is self-contained — no DLL to ship alongside it; the Vulkan build uses the loader provided by the graphics driver. The executable carries its icon and version metadata, embedded by `build.rs` via `winresource` . The icon itself is drawn by a script rather than checked in as an opaque blob — edit the numbers and regenerate all sizes at once: ``` powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\make-icon.ps1 ``` `scripts/release-linux.sh` mirrors the packaging script, but has never been run — see [LINUX.md](/AntoineChatry/Dictata/blob/master/LINUX.md). - Launch the executable: the application lives in the system tray. - Open **Settings**(tray menu, or set the`DICTATA_OPEN_SETTINGS=1` environment variable at launch): pick a model in the Models page (built-in download), set the hotkey, language and audio source. - Place the cursor where you want to write, press the hotkey (default `Ctrl+Alt+Space` ), speak, press again.**Hold** for about half a second to cancel the current take — Escape is read globally, so a plain tap is left to the application you are typing into.`Esc` The configuration is read from `config.json` next to the executable, or from the directory pointed to by the `DICTATA_HOME` environment variable. The file must be UTF-8 **without BOM**. GPU: `gpu` config field — `"auto"` (default, uses Vulkan when available), `"cpu"` , `"vulkan"` , `"cuda"` . | Module | Role | |---|---| `main.rs` | Orchestration: states, hotkey, dock, transcription threads | `audio.rs` | cpal capture (mic / loopback / mix), 16 kHz resampling, ffmpeg decoding | `transcriber.rs` | whisper-rs wrapper (model loading, transcription) | `streaming.rs` | Continuous mode: pause-based chunking, progressive emission | `settings.rs` | Settings window (8 pages, egui) — presentation | `settings_logic.rs` | Settings business logic, testable without UI | `dock.rs` | Floating dock (waveform, states) | `modes.rs` / `llm.rs` | Output modes and local LLM post-processing | `models.rs` | ggml catalog, download/delete, HuggingFace search, paths | `i18n.rs` | fr/en/es translations (`tr()` ) | `config.rs` / `history.rs` / `paste.rs` / `hotkey.rs` / `tray.rs` / `hardware.rs` / `platform.rs` | Config, history, paste, global hotkey, tray, hardware detection, Windows integration | ``` cargo test ``` 64 unit tests (config, resampling, mixing, modes, settings logic, hardware rating, HuggingFace query parsing, audio-context sizing, history retention, cancel gesture, download safety…). A CLI example is provided: ``` cargo run --example transcribe -- # DICTATA_GPU=1 for GPU ``` Licensed under the **MIT License with the Commons Clause** — see [LICENSE](/AntoineChatry/Dictata/blob/master/LICENSE). **Free** to use, copy, modify, distribute and self-host, for personal or any other purpose.**You may not**: you cannot sell the software, or offer a paid product or service (hosting, SaaS, paywall, paid support…) whose value derives substantially from it.*Sell*it © 2026 Antoine Chatry.