Wave is a lightweight, native macOS dictation app focused on fast voice-to-text workflows with local transcription and minimal UI overhead. Speak with a global shortcut, transcribe locally with Whisper, and paste instantly into the active app.
Download the latest DMG from Releases.
Note: Wave is not code-signed. On first launch, macOS will block it. To open it:
- Right-click
Wave.app→ Open- Click Open in the dialog
Alternatively, run in Terminal:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Wave.app
Build the app:
make buildOpen:
open build/Build/Products/Release/Wave.appOr launch from Xcode:
- Open
Wave.xcodeproj - Select scheme
Wave - Run
- Toggle-style recording mode from settings
- Local/offline transcription with Whisper models
- Add optional text cleanup modes (punctuation, capitalization, concise cleanup)
- Add app-specific behavior profiles (different formatting for IDE/chat/docs)
- Add recent dictation history with one-click reinsert/copy
- Add quality presets for speed vs accuracy
- Add AI agent mode: speak natural-language instructions to write or edit selected text
For any feedback or assistance, join the Discord community.
For feature requests, bug reports, or help, you can also create a GitHub issue.
- whisper.cpp for local speech-to-text inference
- Sparkle for macOS update framework support
- Apple SwiftUI/AppKit ecosystem for native macOS app foundations
Contributions are welcome, including AI-assisted feature work.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for local setup, expectations, and validation checklist.