Cursay
Open source · Local by default

Speak. Your words appear right here.

System-wide dictation for Ubuntu that keeps up with your thoughts—not your subscription. Hold one shortcut, speak naturally, and release to paste clean text wherever you are.

Install from GitHub View source

Ubuntu GNOME on Wayland MIT licensed

Ready CTRL + SPACE
LATEST DICTATION

Let’s move the release forward, keep the privacy boundary clear, and make the next step obvious.

Professional Local Whisper Smart polish · optional
FreeNo subscription
LocalWhisper on your machinebase.en · CPU INT8 · ~150 MB download
System-wideAcross desktop apps
OpenMIT licensed
01 / The whole interaction

One gesture between thought and text.

No floating recorder to manage. No artificial silence timer. You decide exactly when a dictation starts and ends.

  1. 01Focus any text field

    Browser, editor, chat, terminal, or document.

  2. 02Hold Ctrl + Space

    Speak naturally, including pauses and corrections.

  3. 03Release to paste

    Cursay transcribes, cleans, verifies, and pastes.

02 / Local means local

Your voice can stay on your machine.

Local Whisper is the default. Transcripts and searchable history stay in your Linux account, temporary audio is deleted after transcription, and remote services are always optional. Smart polish is off by default and only uses the text endpoint you configure.

Read the security model
AudioDeleted after transcriptionLOCAL
HistoryYour account, your databasePRIVATE
Smart polishOff until you enable itOPTIONAL
ShortcutApproved through WaylandNARROW
PasteClipboard verified firstSAFE
03 / Useful by default

Clean text without surrendering control.

Transcription and polishing are separate choices. Use deterministic local cleanup, or opt into a language model for a fuller rewrite.

01SpeakAudio stays local by default
02Transcribefaster-whisper · base.en · CPU
03CleanLocal spacing, casing, and fillers
04 · OPTIONALSmart polishYour compatible text endpoint
A

Four writing modes

Professional and Casual clean prose locally, Code translates spoken punctuation, and Raw preserves the transcript.

B

Safe automatic paste

Cursay reads the clipboard back and confirms the new transcript before it sends a single keystroke.

C

Private history

Search past dictations and see useful local insights without uploading your words to an analytics service.

D

Smart polish, when you want it

Enable an OpenAI-compatible text endpoint for genuine rewrites. Keep it off for local deterministic cleanup only.

Ready when you are

Give your keyboard a break.

Cursay is free and open source. Install it per-user on Ubuntu, then approve one global shortcut.

INSTALL
git clone https://github.com/shadoprizm/cursay.git
cd cursay
./install.sh