Agentastic turns speech into text anywhere on your Mac. There are two voice features: voice input into the launcher, and dictation that types into whatever app you're in.
Voice input (push-to-talk)
Speak your prompt instead of typing it:
- Hold
Space(default) for about half a second to start recording, release to transcribe into the launcher. - The transcription appears in the prompt field, where you can edit it or press Return to send.
Dictation (type anywhere)
Dictation drops formatted text straight into your current app — email, notes, chat, code:
- Hold the
Fn(Function) key for about half a second to start dictating, release to insert the text. - Under the hood this runs the dictation app (
/app:dictation), which is tuned for clean, formatted speech-to-text.
Both shortcuts are configurable in Settings → Preferences, and dictation has its own page in Settings → Apps.
Speech backends
Agentastic can transcribe with different engines. Choose one in settings:
| Backend | Where it runs | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Apple (default) | On-device | Uses macOS's built-in speech recognition. No setup. |
| Local Whisper | On-device | Runs a local Whisper model for higher accuracy and full privacy. Falls back to Apple if the model isn't installed. |
| NVIDIA Parakeet | On-device | A fast local model. Falls back to Apple if model files are missing. |
On-device backends keep your audio on your Mac — nothing is sent to the cloud for transcription.
Tips
- Speak naturally; the dictation app cleans up filler and adds punctuation.
- Use voice input when you want to talk to the agent, and dictation when you want to talk through it into another app.
- Pair dictation with a model default in Models & Providers (the dictation role) to control which model formats your speech.
Related
- Launcher Modes — all the ways to drive the launcher
- Keyboard Shortcuts — change the voice and dictation keys