Dictate in any app · Code

Voice typing in Terminal

Dictating into a terminal is genuinely risky, and worth understanding before you try. Typally types what you say straight into Terminal — hold a key, talk, let go — so you can dictate anywhere Terminal lets you type.

Written by the team behind Typally. Terminal's own features are described as accurately as we can — check them yourself before switching anything.
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In short

  • Terminal's own dictation: None. A terminal accepts characters and runs them when a return arrives.
  • What Typally does instead: sends keystrokes to whichever window is in front, so Terminal needs no plugin or setup.
  • Best used for: commit messages via git commit

Does Terminal have built-in dictation?

None. A terminal accepts characters and runs them when a return arrives.

Why dictate in Terminal at all?

The terminal is the one place where inserted text is not just text. Everything typed is a potential command, and there is no undo. It is also where commit messages and long here-documents get written, which are prose.

In practice people use it for: Commit messages via git commit, here-documents, SSH session notes, and long text in a terminal editor.

How to dictate in Terminal

Typally runs in the background and types into whatever window has focus, so there is nothing to install inside Terminal:

1

Install Typally

Windows or macOS, then sign in. No card for the free tier.

2

Click into the right box in Terminal first

Whatever has the cursor receives the text, so click the right place in Terminal before starting.

3

Press and speak

Hold, talk, release. Long passages are fine.

4

Read it before you move on

A dictated return executes whatever is on the line. At a shell prompt, a misheard word becomes a command you did not intend to run.

What Typally adds in Terminal

Typally has one strict rule in a terminal: only ever dictate inside an editor the terminal opened, never at a live prompt. A dictated return executes the line, and there is no undo. Inside your git editor writing a commit message it is genuinely useful; at a shell prompt a misheard word becomes a command.

What this looks like in practice

A developer keeps a hard rule: never speak at a prompt, only inside the editor git opens. Commit messages get longer and more useful, and nothing has ever been executed by accident.

One habit that makes it work better

Only dictate inside an editor the terminal opened — a commit message in your git editor, for instance — never at a live shell prompt.

What to watch out for in Terminal

A dictated return executes whatever is on the line. At a shell prompt, a misheard word becomes a command you did not intend to run.

Frequently asked questions

Is it safe to dictate into a terminal?

At a live prompt, no — a return executes the line. Inside an editor the terminal launched, yes.

Can I dictate a git commit message?

Yes, when your editor opens for it. That is the safe and useful case.

What about the terminal inside VS Code?

Same rules. It is still a shell that executes what it receives.

Try it in Terminal

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Also dictate in: Neovim · VS Code · GitHub · see all apps