Private, offline dictation built for KDE Plasma.
Kastword records your voice, transcribes it locally with Whisper, and places the result on your clipboard. It can optionally paste the text into the application you were using. Dictated audio and text are never sent to a cloud transcription service.
Warning
Kastword is early alpha software. This repository currently provides source code only—there are no supported binary releases or stable compatibility guarantees yet.
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- Local transcription: speech recognition runs on your computer using a model you choose.
- Tray-first workflow: start and stop dictation with a configurable KDE global shortcut, Meta+Z by default.
- Your microphone, your choice: follow the system default, select a specific device, or disable microphone access from the application. Kastword handles downmixing, resampling, and device hot-plug events without silently replacing a disconnected specific device.
- Manage models in the app: download, verify, resume, switch, inspect, or remove supported English-only and multilingual Whisper models.
- Useful anywhere: copy text to the clipboard, then paste manually or enable optional automatic paste on Plasma Wayland or X11.
- Configurable limits and output: choose the transcription language, recording limit, paste shortcuts, and global keyboard shortcut.
- Private by default: Kastword never saves recordings. Optional dictation history is off by default and, when enabled, is encrypted locally with its key protected by KDE Wallet. Kastword includes no usage tracking.
- Start Kastword and explicitly download a recommended Whisper model, or select a compatible model already on your computer.
- Focus the text field or terminal where you want the result.
- Press Meta+Z, speak, then press it again.
- Kastword transcribes the recording locally and updates the clipboard.
- Paste manually, or let Kastword send your configured paste shortcut when automatic paste is enabled and its helper is available.
The window can be opened or hidden from the tray icon. The tray menu can also start or stop dictation and quit the application.
Dictation remains disabled until both a valid model and an available audio input are selected. The Speech Models view shows model disk usage and can resume or retry interrupted downloads. If a specifically selected microphone disconnects, Kastword waits for it to return or for you to choose another input instead of silently switching devices.
- Microphone samples remain in process memory only until transcription completes. Recordings stop at the configured duration limit—five minutes by default—or a 256 MiB raw-audio ceiling.
- Raw audio is never written to disk. Transcription history is not written until you explicitly enable it; enabled history is authenticated and encrypted locally. See Encrypted dictation history.
- Transcribed text is placed on the desktop clipboard and primary selection. Clipboard managers, target applications, desktop services, crash dumps, and the operating system may retain it independently of Kastword.
- Runtime network access occurs only when you explicitly request a model download. Downloads use immutable HTTPS URLs and are activated only after size, format, and SHA-256 verification. Transcription itself remains offline.
- Downloaded models remain in per-user local storage under
~/.local/share/kastword/models/by default. Custom model files are trusted input parsed inside Kastword, so use models from sources you trust. - Automatic paste is disabled by default and relies on separately installed desktop helpers. See Automatic paste setup and security.
- Kastword refuses to run with elevated privileges and contains no telemetry.
The clear-transcription action removes Kastword's retained text and clears matching current clipboard selections. It cannot erase entries already retained by clipboard-manager history. Deleting a saved history entry affects Kastword's encrypted store only.
| Environment | Status |
|---|---|
| KDE Plasma Wayland | Manually exercised during development |
| KWrite | Dictation and automatic paste exercised |
| Konsole | Dictation and automatic paste exercised |
| Plasma X11 | Implemented but needs broader testing |
| Other distributions and desktops | Community testing needed |
Kastword is an independent project built with KDE technology; it is not currently an official KDE project or endorsed by KDE e.V.
There are no supported binary packages yet. On a supported development system, install the documented dependencies, then run:
make
make installLaunch Kastword from the application menu. Detailed build, run, packaging, uninstall, and contributor instructions are in the development guide.
- Full-size Large models require substantial disk space and memory.
- Paste reliability depends on the desktop session, helper, focus, and target application.
- Plasma Wayland automatic paste requires privileged input-device access configured outside Kastword.
- Plasma X11 and environments outside the tested Plasma setup need broader community testing.
- There are no supported binary packages or release builds yet.
- Automatic paste setup and troubleshooting
- Encrypted dictation history and its security boundaries
- Source installation and development
- Report a bug or request a feature
- License
Kastword is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. AppStream metadata is provided under CC0-1.0.
Third-party components retain their own licenses.