A dictation app for Linux that keeps your voice on your machine.

Koegaki waits in the background, in the system tray on desktops that show one. Wherever the cursor is, in a browser, a mail client, a document or a chat, hold your shortcut and speak. When you release it, Koegaki pastes the text where you were typing. If it cannot press the paste keys, it leaves the text on the clipboard for you to paste with Ctrl+V and tells you so.

The default shortcut is Ctrl+Alt+K and you can change it. Hold it to talk, or use toggle mode and press once to start and once to stop.

Debian 12 or Ubuntu 22.04 or newer, on a 64-bit Intel or AMD processor (x86_64). Koegaki for Linux is a deb package, so there is no build for distributions that do not install deb packages, or for Arm processors. The model runs on the CPU, so no particular graphics card is needed.

Download the package, then install it with apt from the folder you saved it in. apt installs anything else Koegaki needs alongside it.

sudo apt install ./Koegaki-1.15.3-amd64.deb

To check the download before you install it, run this in the same folder. It prints the file name and OK when the file is the published package.

echo "1ed48e7bcf849c9d85dd826bc54981b9adc9df670adadd5ac4bb2f2fdee129c8  Koegaki-1.15.3-amd64.deb" | sha256sum --check

Paste access is set up when you install. Koegaki pastes by pressing Ctrl+V for you through a virtual keyboard, so the package lets the person signed in at the computer send key presses that way. It can send key presses, never read them. Pasting works straight after installing, with no need to log out, and removing the package takes the access back.

Keyboard access is your choice. Koegaki has two ways to notice your shortcut. Where your desktop has a shortcut dialog for apps, as KDE Plasma does, Koegaki can ask it to watch for the shortcut and never sees your keyboard at all. Otherwise you can let Koegaki read your keyboard. It asks when you set up the shortcut, never at install, and your system asks for an administrator's password at that moment. Koegaki compares each key with your shortcut in memory and forgets it; nothing it sees is saved or sent anywhere. You can turn keyboard access off in Settings at any time.

Settings shows whether paste access and keyboard access are ready, and names the command that fixes either one when it is not. If paste access is missing, for example because the package's setup step could not finish, this sets it up again:

sudo /usr/libexec/koegaki/koegaki-device-access repair

Koegaki for Linux checks for a new version when it starts. Install and restart asks for your password, installs the new version and opens it. If it cannot, it shows the download and the one command to install it yourself. Your settings, history and downloaded models stay as they are.

sudo apt remove com-vishutdhar-koegaki

Removing the package takes back paste access and any keyboard access you gave Koegaki. Your settings stay in ~/.config/koegaki, and your history, licence and downloaded models in ~/.local/share/koegaki, so a reinstall picks up where you left off. Delete those two folders to remove them too.

Koegaki transcribes with Parakeet Ultra · on-device (CPU). The model downloads once on first launch, and from then on dictation works with no internet connection at all. When an app update brings a new speech model, that model downloads once, in the background, while the current one keeps working. That background download waits while your computer is on a connection NetworkManager treats as metered, which you can set for a phone hotspot. Your audio and your text stay on your machine. Nothing is uploaded and there is no server on our side to upload to.

A multilingual speech model and an optional cleanup model are separate downloads, and they run on your computer too.

Koegaki costs $30 once. Every feature is included, updates are free for life, and one licence covers the Linux, Windows and Mac versions on up to 10 of your own computers. Try everything free for 30 days first.

Write to support@freedom-terminal.com. Say which distribution and desktop you use, and what Settings shows for paste access and keyboard access.