https://github.com/matinsaurralde/babel
Native macOS dictation. Private, fast, open-source. Apple SpeechAnalyzer + Liquid Glass on macOS 26.
https://github.com/matinsaurralde/babel
apple-silicon borges dictation liquid-glass macos open-source privacy speech-to-text speechanalyzer swift swift6 swiftui
Last synced: about 2 hours ago
JSON representation
Native macOS dictation. Private, fast, open-source. Apple SpeechAnalyzer + Liquid Glass on macOS 26.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/matinsaurralde/babel
- Owner: matinsaurralde
- License: mit
- Created: 2026-04-17T02:14:24.000Z (3 months ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-04-28T02:45:45.000Z (2 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-04-28T04:23:28.399Z (2 months ago)
- Topics: apple-silicon, borges, dictation, liquid-glass, macos, open-source, privacy, speech-to-text, speechanalyzer, swift, swift6, swiftui
- Language: Swift
- Size: 9.84 MB
- Stars: 0
- Watchers: 0
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# Babel
**Dictation for macOS that never leaves your Mac.**
Hold a key. Speak. Release. The text appears in whatever app you're in — browser, terminal, code editor, Slack. No cloud. No telemetry. No account. No subscription.
Built natively for macOS 26 Tahoe: Apple **SpeechAnalyzer** for on-device transcription, native **Liquid Glass** for the UI, and the **Apple Neural Engine** doing the work your M-series chip was designed for.
```
hold ⌥ speak release
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ● Listening… │ ← floats over every app
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
```
## Why "Babel"
Jorge Luis Borges — the Argentine writer — imagined a library containing *every possible book*: every combination of letters, every text that has been written or ever could be. Babel — the dictation app — is a narrower version of that library: every word **you** are about to say, turned into text you can place anywhere, on a machine that forgets the audio the moment it's done with it.
## Why another dictation app
| | Babel | Superwhisper | Wispr Flow | Apple Dictation |
|---|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|
| On-device only | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ (cloud) | ✓ |
| Open source | ✓ (MIT) | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free | ✓ | $15/mo | $12/mo | ✓ |
| Works in any app | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | partial |
| Latency | <400 ms | ~600 ms | ~1 s | ~500 ms |
| Liquid Glass UI | ✓ | mimicked | ✗ | — |
**Privacy is a design decision, not a checkbox.** Babel has no server. No opt-out telemetry — because there is nothing to opt out of. The mic audio flows into Apple's on-device `SpeechAnalyzer`, produces a string, gets inserted into the focused app, and is gone. We don't even keep the audio in memory past the session.
**Speed is the other pillar.** Push-to-hold gives you one modal gesture. Transcription streams in the background while you're speaking so the final text is ready the instant you release the key. Apple's SpeechAnalyzer on M-series hits ~45 ms/sec of audio — the bottleneck is now how fast you talk.
## Download
**Latest: [Babel 0.1.0](https://github.com/matinsaurralde/babel/releases/latest)** ([DMG](https://github.com/matinsaurralde/babel/releases/download/v0.1.0/Babel-0.1.0.dmg), 4.4 MB) — macOS 26 Tahoe, Apple Silicon.
The DMG is signed with a free Apple Personal Team certificate, not notarized. First launch: **right-click Babel.app → Open** (not double-click). macOS asks once whether to open an app from an unidentified developer; allow it, and future launches are regular double-clicks.
Subsequent releases arrive through Sparkle — *Check for Updates…* in the menu.
## Status
**Pre-alpha.** macOS 26 Tahoe and later only. Three modes, all on-device:
- **Fast** — Apple SpeechAnalyzer, no post-processing. <400 ms end-of-speech.
- **Balanced** — SpeechAnalyzer with partial-result streaming.
- **Accurate** — Whisper `large-v3-turbo` via [WhisperKit](https://github.com/argmaxinc/WhisperKit). First use downloads ~1.5 GB from Hugging Face; cached afterwards.
v1.1 will add local LLM post-processing via [Ollama](https://ollama.com) for grammar cleanup and custom vocabulary. v1.2 will add optional BYOK routing to OpenAI / Groq / Cohere for users who want cloud-fast.
## Build from source
```bash
brew install xcodegen
git clone https://github.com/matinsaurralde/babel.git
cd babel
xcodegen generate
open Babel.xcodeproj
```
Or from the command line:
```bash
xcodegen generate
xcodebuild -project Babel.xcodeproj -scheme Babel -configuration Debug build
scripts/resign.sh # re-sign with your stable Apple Development identity
open ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Babel-*/Build/Products/Debug/Babel.app
```
Requires **Xcode 26** and **macOS 26** (Tahoe).
### Why the re-sign step?
Xcode's default ad-hoc signature changes on every build, so macOS' TCC
database treats each rebuild as a different app and revokes every
permission. `scripts/resign.sh` post-signs the built `.app` with a
stable Apple Development identity from your login keychain, so the
code-signature hash is identical across rebuilds and permissions stay
granted. Set one up once in Xcode → Settings → Accounts → Manage
Certificates → `+` Apple Development.
## Permissions
Four, all native macOS:
| Permission | Used for |
|---|---|
| Microphone | capture your voice |
| Speech Recognition | run Apple SpeechAnalyzer on-device |
| Input Monitoring | detect the global push-to-hold hotkey |
| Accessibility | paste the transcript into the focused app |
The first launch walks you through each one. Every permission prompts through macOS' native system — Babel never sees the raw grant.
## Default hotkey
**Hold Right Option** to record. Release to insert. Rebinding arrives with v1.0.
## Languages
Babel transcribes in every language your Mac's dictation can. It picks the locale you've set as macOS' system language by default; Settings → General → Dictation Language lets you override the choice.
To add more languages, open **System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation** and enable the ones you want. macOS downloads the on-device model the first time; after that, everything stays local.
## Design decisions
The important choices live as ADRs in [`docs/decisions/`](./docs/decisions). If you're wondering "why did they do X instead of Y", that's where to look. Start with:
- [001 — macOS 26 only, no fallbacks](./docs/decisions/001-macos-26-only.md)
- [002 — Apple SpeechAnalyzer as the default engine](./docs/decisions/002-speechanalyzer-default.md)
- [003 — Push-to-hold over press-to-toggle](./docs/decisions/003-push-to-hold.md)
- [004 — Hybrid AX + paste text insertion](./docs/decisions/004-hybrid-insertion.md)
## Contributing
Babel is MIT-licensed and built in public. Issues and PRs welcome. If you're proposing a non-trivial change, please sketch an ADR in `docs/decisions/` so the discussion stays in the repo.
## License
MIT — see [LICENSE](./LICENSE).
---
*Privacy and speed, by design. — Buenos Aires, 2026*