Voice first
A wake word, push-to-talk and hands-free dictation from a small bar. Speech to text runs on your Mac.
⌃Hold to dictate into any app
⌃⌃Hands-free; ends when you stop talking
⌃⇧Tap to translate the selection
Free · MIT · macOS 13 and later
Dictate and translate
in any app.
Gwen is a bottom-bar for your Mac. Hold a key, speak, and the text is pasted where the cursor is. Tap another key to translate a selection. Speech to text and punctuation run locally; translation uses Apple's on-device framework. No account. MIT licensed.
Needs Accessibility for paste and key monitors. Gwen starts local Whisper on127.0.0.1:2022 when you run gwen setup, listen, or hud.
Notes
Local speech. On-device translation. Learned words that stay in ~/.gwen/. Free and open source.
DictateTranslateHey GwenPunctuateAny appMIT
How it works
Hold, speak, paste.
A small bar at the bottom of the screen. Your words become text where the cursor already is. Nothing leaves this Mac unless you turn on optional polish.
Hold ⌃
Speak while you hold Control. The bar shows levels and a live transcript as you go.
Let go
Local whisper finishes the pass. Punctuation and filler cleanup run on this Mac, then the text is pasted.
Or tap ⌃⇧
Translate the selection (or a recent copy) with Apple Translation on macOS 15 and later. Pick the language on the idle bar.
Features
Built for the words you type every day.
Dictation, translation and a few habits that make speaking into a Mac feel natural. No jobs, no agents, no dashboard.
Language on the bar
The idle chip picks where translation goes. Gwen remembers translateTo in app defaults.
Learned words
When you fix a paste, Gwen can keep the pair under ~/.gwen/ so the next time sounds right.
heard gwen → Gwen
kept in ~/.gwen/learned.json
Hey Gwen
A wake word starts hands-free dictation. Say her name, then talk; silence ends the pass.
Hey Gwen type a short note for later
Pasted Type a short note for later.
On your Mac
Local by default. Free forever.
Gwen is MIT licensed. Transcription uses a local whisper.cpp server. Punctuation and formatting stay on device. Translation uses Apple's Translation framework when you ask for it.
- No account. Clone the repo, build the HUD. Whisper installs and starts with Gwen — no manual server step.
- Prefs stay home. Config and learned words live under
~/.gwen/. - Optional polish stays off. Having an agent CLI on this Mac tidy each take is a setting, not the default.
$ ./bin/gwen build # compiles ~/.gwen/Gwen.app $ ./bin/gwen hud Launching Gwen HUD (⌃ dictate, ⌃⇧ translate). $ ./bin/gwen settings # Dictation · Language · Shortcuts · Capture
# ensures Whisper on 127.0.0.1:2022 (installs on first run) $ ./bin/gwen listen gwen listen: hold ⌃ to dictate, ⌃⌃ or Hey Gwen for hands-free. Ctrl-C to quit. # or: ./bin/gwen setup # install/start Whisper only
$ ./bin/gwen mock bar # scripted dictate → clean → paste $ ./bin/gwen mock translate $ ./bin/gwen mock punctuation # before/after samples in the terminal
Shortcuts
A few keys. The rest is speaking.
Hold ⌃
Dictate; let go to finish. The text is pasted where the cursor is.
⌃⌃ or Hey Gwen
Dictate hands-free; it ends when you stop talking.
Tap ⌃⇧
Translate the selection, or what you copied in the last minute.
Hold ⌃, tap ⇧ twice
Translate what you say into the language on the idle chip.
Tap ⌃
Stop whatever the bar is doing: nothing is pasted or started.
Menu → Settings
Dictation, translate target, shortcuts and capture prefs.
0accounts required
MITlicense
1bar at the bottom
0cloud transcription by default
Clone Gwen. Build the bar.
Runs on macOS 13 and later. Translation needs macOS 15. Grant Accessibility on first run. gwen listen (and setup / hud) starts local Whisper for you.
$ git clone https://github.com/mblancodev/gwen && cd gwen $ ./bin/gwen build # → ~/.gwen/Gwen.app $ ./bin/gwen hud
