Murmur

Privacy-first voice dictation for macOS that runs completely offline

Quick Start • Features • Usage • Building • Contributing

🌐 Visit website

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Murmur is a native macOS application that transforms your voice into text instantly, right where you need it. Built with privacy as the foundation, all processing happens locally on your Mac using Apple's native Speech Recognition framework - no internet required, no data collection, ever.

Why Murmur?

In a world where most voice dictation services send your data to the cloud, Murmur takes a different approach: your voice never leaves your Mac. It's the dictation tool for those who value privacy, simplicity, and instant results.

Perfect for:

• 💻 Programmers or Vibe Coders
• 📧 Writing emails and messages
• 📝 Taking notes and documentation
• 💬 Chatting in messaging apps
• ✍️ Long-form writing and articles
• 🗣️ Anyone who thinks faster than they type

Features

• 🔒 100% Private: All processing happens locally on your Mac. Your voice never leaves your device. Zero telemetry, zero tracking, zero cloud services
• ⚡ Lightning Fast: Press-and-hold the right ⌘ key to record, release to auto-type. No delays, no menus, no friction - it just works
• 🎯 Universal Input: Works in any application on your Mac - browsers, email, Slack, VS Code, anywhere you can type text
• ✏️ Live Editing: Edit your transcription in real-time while still recording. Make corrections on the fly as you speak
• 🌍 Multi-Language: Supports English, Spanish, and Portuguese with Apple's native Speech Recognition for accurate results
• 📴 Works Offline: No internet required. Murmur works perfectly on airplanes, in coffee shops, or anywhere without connection

Quick Start

Download & Install

Option 1: Direct Download (Easiest)

# Download and install with curl (bypasses macOS Gatekeeper)
curl -L -o Murmur.dmg https://github.com/bruncanepa/murmur/releases/latest/download/Murmur-1.0.0.dmg
open Murmur.dmg
# Drag Murmur.app to Applications folder

Option 2: GitHub Releases

1. Go to Releases
2. Download Murmur-X.X.X.dmg
3. Open the DMG file
4. Drag Murmur.app to Applications folder
5. First launch: Right-click Murmur.app → "Open" (to bypass unidentified developer warning)

Option 3: Build from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/bruncanepa/murmur.git
cd murmur

# Build and run
./run.sh

First Launch

1. Grant Microphone permission when prompted
2. Grant Speech Recognition permission when prompted
3. Grant Accessibility permission when prompted (required for auto-typing)
4. Look for the waveform icon 🌊 in your menu bar
5. You're ready to go!

Note: Murmur is not notarized by Apple. On first launch, you may need to right-click the app and select "Open" to bypass the security warning. This is only needed once.

Usage

Quick Dictation (Recommended)

1. Click in any text field in any app (email, browser, notes, etc.)
2. Hold down the right ⌘ (Command) key
3. Speak naturally
4. Release the key
5. Your text appears instantly! ✨

Manual Mode

1. Click the menu bar icon to open the control panel
2. Toggle "Auto-type to active app" off for manual control
3. Use Start/Stop buttons or the right ⌘ key to record
4. Click Copy to copy text to clipboard
5. Paste anywhere with ⌘+V

Pro Tips

• Edit while recording: Click in the text field and make corrections - Murmur automatically restarts the session with your edits
• Change languages: Select English or Spanish from the dropdown (can't change during recording)
• Clear and restart: Use the Clear button to wipe the text and restart recording
• Disable auto-type: Turn off auto-type when you want to review before inserting

Building

Requirements

• macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or later
• Swift 5.9+
• Xcode Command Line Tools

Build Scripts

Development (recommended):

./dev.sh                # Quick development build
./dev.sh --force        # Clean rebuild

Production:

./prod.sh               # Optimized production build

Manual build:

./build-app.sh --dev                    # Development
./build-app.sh --prod --version 1.0.0   # Production with version
open Murmur-Dev.app                     # or Murmur.app

Create DMG installer:

./build-app.sh --prod --version 1.0.0   # Build first
./create-dmg-installer.sh --version 1.0.0  # Create DMG

For development in Xcode:

swift package generate-xcodeproj
open Murmur.xcodeproj

Note: swift run won't work directly due to entitlement requirements. Always use the provided build scripts or Xcode.

See BUILD.md for detailed build documentation including permission management.

Privacy Commitment

Murmur is built with privacy at its core:

• ✅ Zero network requests - works completely offline
• ✅ Zero telemetry - no analytics, no tracking, no "anonymous" data
• ✅ Zero cloud services - your voice never leaves your Mac
• ✅ Zero local storage - transcriptions exist only in memory
• ✅ Open source - verify it yourself, build it yourself

See our Security Policy for more details.

Roadmap

We're just getting started. Here's what's coming:

• 📜 History of transcriptions with search and export
• 🤖 Optional local LLM integration for:
  • Filler word removal ("um", "uh", "like")
  • Smart punctuation and formatting
  • Grammar improvements
• 🔄 Alternative recognition engines (whisper.cpp)
• 📚 Personal dictionary for custom words and terminology
• ⚡ Voice shortcuts and text snippets

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guidelines before submitting pull requests.

How to Contribute

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Documentation

• Landing Page - Marketing website for Murmur
• Contributing Guidelines - How to contribute to Murmur
• Security Policy - Our privacy and security principles
• Build Documentation - Detailed build instructions
• Scripts Reference - Development scripts overview

Acknowledgments

Core Technology

• Speech Framework - Apple's native speech recognition (SFSpeechRecognizer)
• SwiftUI - Native macOS UI framework
• AVFoundation - Audio capture and processing

Built with native macOS technologies to ensure maximum privacy, performance, and reliability.

Support

Murmur is free, open source, and always will be. All features are available to everyone at no cost.

If you find Murmur valuable and want to support the project:

• ⭐ Star the repo: Help others discover Murmur on GitHub
• 🐛 Bug reports: Open an issue
• 💡 Feature requests: Open an issue
• 🤝 Contributions: Check out our Contributing Guidelines

License

MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Copyright (c) 2025 Bruno Cánepa

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Made with ❤️ for privacy-conscious Mac users
_{Because your voice is yours, and it should stay that way.}