crwbar voice

crwbar voice is a local-first desktop transcription tool. Hold a shortcut, speak, and paste the transcription into the active app. Audio files can also be dropped into the app and transcribed locally.

This is mostly a personal fork of Handy. I added some features that i wanted:

• audio files and voice notes can be dropped onto the recording bar;
• a finished transcription can be copied to the clipboard automatically;
• microphone and file transcriptions are easier to distinguish in the history;
• the app has its own bundle identity, icon, tray states, and recording overlay.

The current fork has been built and tested on macOS. It inherits Windows and Linux build targets from Handy, but those versions have not been verified yet and should not currently be treated as supported releases.

This project is built on the complete codebase of Handy by CJ Pais. It is a refinement of that foundation with its own fixes, workflow changes, and visual direction not an independent rewrite. It uses its own name, bundle identifier, icon, wordmark, and tray assets, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Handy project.

Current status

The fork runs its own release line, currently 0.2.0, and is intended for direct GitHub distribution, not an app store. Automatic updates are intentionally disabled until this repository has its own signed release channel.

The app currently includes:

• global push-to-talk or toggle-to-talk transcription;
• local Whisper-, Parakeet-, and other compatible speech models;
• drag-and-drop audio transcription, including Ogg/Opus voice notes;
• transcription history with microphone/file filters;
• optional automatic clipboard copy and paste;
• a custom accent color for the interface and the recording bar;
• audio ducking that lowers other playback while recording;
• optional AI post-processing through a provider configured by the user.

Speech recognition runs locally. AI post-processing is the exception: when it is explicitly enabled, the transcription is sent to the selected provider.

I may add more optional writing or general tools later, for example, turning a rough transcription into an email, but that is not part of the current release.

Develop locally

Requirements: current stable Rust and Bun.

bun install
bun run tauri dev

Build the frontend or a desktop bundle with:

bun run build
bun run tauri build

On macOS, a locally built or unsigned GitHub app may require a one-time Gatekeeper confirmation and its own microphone/accessibility permissions. Those permissions belong to bar.crw.voice; existing Handy installations and their permissions are not changed.

Data compatibility

On first launch, crwbar voice can import existing data from the legacy com.pais.handy application-data directory. The original data is left in place. Large model files are hard-linked when possible to avoid duplicating several gigabytes; all mutable files use independent copies.

License and attribution

The application code remains available under the MIT License. Copyright and contribution history from the upstream Handy project remain intact. The crwbar voice branding and replacement assets in this fork are new and do not reuse the Handy artwork.