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Quickstart

Once Scribe is installed, launch it from a terminal:

scribe

This starts the system tray icon. Press Record, speak, press Stop — the transcription lands in the focused window.

Scribe tray menu

Backend auto-selection

Scribe picks the first backend whose key / dependency is present, in order groq → openai → whisper-futo → whisper → vosk. So with GROQ_API_KEY set, scribe is equivalent to:

scribe --backend groq --model whisper-large-v3-turbo

See Backends for the full picture (streaming vs batch, model lists, when to pick which).

Overriding the defaults

You can override the backend / model or drop the tray entirely:

scribe --backend openai --model gpt-4o-mini-transcribe # OpenAI sweet spot
scribe --backend openai --model gpt-realtime-whisper   # OpenAI streaming
scribe --backend whisper --model small                 # local, no API key
scribe --frontend terminal                             # interactive TUI menu
scribe --record                                        # start recording immediately on launch (tray or terminal)
scribe --record --frontend terminal --mode file        # one-shot batched dictation → file
scribe --record --frontend terminal --mode file --stream  # streamed: chunks appended live as you speak
scribe --mode clipboard                                # copy to clipboard, no keystroke
scribe --mode terminal                                 # only print to stdout
scribe --mode file -o transcript.txt                   # append to a file (no keystroke / clipboard)

With --no-interactive (terminal frontend only), Scribe skips the interactive menu and starts recording right away — handy for scripted, one-shot transcriptions. See Output modes for where the transcript goes, and the CLI reference for every flag.

Getting an API key

Groq is the recommended cloud backend by default — extremely fast (by a wide margin compared to other cloud STT options, especially in Stream mode where the per-chunk roundtrip latency dominates the perceived speed), quite accurate, and the free tier is generous enough for everyday dictation. Sign up at console.groq.com, create an API key under Settings → API Keys, and export it as GROQ_API_KEY:

export GROQ_API_KEY=YOURAPIKEY

OpenAI with gpt-4o-mini-transcribe is another fast option (export OPENAI_API_KEY=...), and the local Whisper / Vosk backends need no key at all.

Biasing the recogniser

Bias the recogniser toward names, jargon, or a domain glossary with --prompt "free text hint" and --words word1 word2 ... (each also accepts a --prompt-file / --words-file companion):

scribe --prompt "Patient notes from a cardiology consult." \
       --words tachycardia bradycardia echocardiogram metoprolol

See Backends › Vocabulary biasing for what each backend does with them.