Simple utility to dictate prompt and save it to clipboard for coding agents

dictate.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Dictate: press Enter to start/stop recording, transcribes, pastes into Claude Code.
#
# Run in a separate terminal next to Claude Code.
# Press Enter to start recording, Enter again to stop.
# Transcribed text is copied to clipboard and pasted into the previous window.
#
# Usage:
#   dictate            # base model
#   dictate small      # whisper small model
#
# Dependencies: 
# brew install sox 
# pip install openai-whisper 
# or
# brew install openai-whisper

set -euo pipefail

MODEL="${1:-base}"

for cmd in rec whisper; do
  if ! command -v "$cmd" &>/dev/null; then
    echo "Missing '$cmd'. Install:"
    [ "$cmd" = "rec" ] && echo "  brew install sox" || echo "  pip install openai-whisper"
    exit 1
  fi
done

while true; do
  AUDIO_FILE="/tmp/dictate_$$.wav"

  echo ""
  read -r -p "Press Enter to record (q to quit)... " INPUT
  [[ "$INPUT" == "q" ]] && echo "Bye!" && exit 0

  # Start recording in background
  rec -q -r 16000 -c 1 -b 16 "$AUDIO_FILE" 2>/dev/null &
  REC_PID=$!

  echo "🎙 Recording... press Enter to stop"
  read -r

  kill "$REC_PID" 2>/dev/null
  wait "$REC_PID" 2>/dev/null || true

  if [ ! -s "$AUDIO_FILE" ]; then
    echo "No audio captured."
    rm -f "$AUDIO_FILE"
    continue
  fi

  echo "📝 Transcribing..."
  whisper "$AUDIO_FILE" --model "$MODEL" --language en --output_format txt --output_dir /tmp &>/dev/null

  TXT_FILE="${AUDIO_FILE%.wav}.txt"
  if [ ! -f "$TXT_FILE" ]; then
    echo "Transcription failed."
    rm -f "$AUDIO_FILE"
    continue
  fi

  TEXT=$(sed 's/^[[:space:]]*//;s/[[:space:]]*$//' "$TXT_FILE")
  rm -f "$AUDIO_FILE" "$TXT_FILE"

  if [ -z "$TEXT" ]; then
    echo "No speech detected."
    continue
  fi

  echo ""
  echo "📋 $TEXT"
  echo ""

  echo -n "$TEXT" | pbcopy
  echo "(copied to clipboard)"
done