How It Works
Press Cmd+Shift+Space
→
Speak
→
Press Cmd+Shift+Space
→
Text appears at cursor
Features
🔒
100% Local
All processing on your Mac. Your voice never leaves your device.
⌨️
Global Hotkey
Press Cmd+Shift+Space from anywhere. No special permissions needed.
🎯
Auto-Insert
Text appears at your cursor and copies to clipboard.
🌍
50+ Languages
English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, and more.
📁
File Transcription
Drag & drop audio files for batch transcription.
💾
History
All transcriptions saved with full-text search.
Quick Install
Run this in Terminal:
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/harshvardhaniimi/whisper-mac/main/install.sh | bash
Then right-click the app in Applications → "Open" (first time only)
Manual Install
- Download Kalam.zip and extract it
- Move Kalam.app to Applications
- Open Terminal and run:
xattr -cr /Applications/Kalam.app
- Right-click the app → "Open"
Why the Terminal step? macOS quarantines downloaded apps. This removes the quarantine flag—safe for open-source apps you trust.
Permissions Needed
- Microphone — For recording audio
Prompted on first recording
- Accessibility (optional) — For auto-inserting text at cursor
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility
Good news! The global hotkey (Cmd+Shift+Space) works without any special permissions. Accessibility is only needed if you want text auto-inserted at your cursor.
Uninstall
To completely remove Kalam:
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/harshvardhaniimi/whisper-mac/main/uninstall.sh | bash
Feedback Welcome!
This app was entirely vibe coded with Claude Code.
Found a bug? Have a feature idea? Open an issue or submit a PR!