Dictation in Claude Code

Voice dictation in Claude Code for agent prompts, plans, and follow-ups

Claude Code has a built-in voice mode, but it streams your audio to Anthropic and only works inside the Claude Code prompt. SnailText runs transcription on your machine and dictates into the terminal and every other app.

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AI dictation in Claude Code, on your device

SnailText is AI dictation: a speech model turns your voice into text, then a second model cleans it up, dropping filler, fixing punctuation, and matching the style your work needs. Both models run on your own machine, so nothing you say in Claude Code is uploaded for transcription. Press the hotkey, speak, and the finished text lands at your cursor.

Does Claude Code have built-in dictation?

Claude Code has a native voice mode (the /voice command, hold-to-talk), tuned for coding vocabulary. The trade-offs: it streams your audio to Anthropic's servers to transcribe (not on-device), it only works when you sign in with a Claude.ai account (it is disabled for API-key, Bedrock, Vertex, and Foundry auth, and for HIPAA orgs), the mic is local-only so it is dead over SSH or on the web, and it defaults to English unless you set the language. SnailText runs the speech model on your own machine, so nothing is uploaded, works no matter how you authenticate Claude Code, and dictates into the terminal prompt and every other app on Mac and Windows.

Speech to text in Claude Code: how it works

SnailText does not plug into Claude Code directly. It runs system-wide: a global hotkey (Option+Space (Mac) / Ctrl+Space (Windows), customizable) starts recording, the local speech-to-text engine (Whisper or Parakeet) transcribes what you said, and the text is pasted at your cursor through the system clipboard, the same way it lands when you type. That means it works in every Claude Code field, plus every other app on your Mac or Windows machine, with no extension or integration to set up.

That matters in Claude Code specifically: a good agent prompt is a paragraph of precise context, which is slow to type but fast to speak. Speech to text removes that bottleneck without changing how you work in Claude Code.

Voice to text in Claude Code: what to dictate

Voice typing in Claude Code is not limited to one box. Press the hotkey anywhere a cursor blinks and your speech becomes text, so the things you would normally type out by hand become things you just say.

· Long agent prompts describing a feature, constraints, and acceptance criteria
· Plans and step-by-step instructions for a multi-file change
· Follow-up clarifications when the agent goes the wrong way
· Commit messages, PR descriptions, and notes in the same terminal

Talk instead of typing

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Where typing slows you down in Claude Code

· A good agent prompt is a paragraph of precise context, which is slow to type but fast to speak.
· Claude Code's own voice mode streams your audio to the cloud and is turned off entirely when you authenticate with an API key or Bedrock, Vertex, and Foundry.
· The built-in mic only fills the Claude Code prompt, so the terminal, your editor, and commit messages fall back to typing.

Example dictations for Claude Code

Agent prompt

"Refactor the auth module to use the new token store. Keep the public API the same, add a migration for the old sessions table, and write tests for the expired-token path."

Plan

"Before you touch any code, outline the change in three steps, list the files you expect to edit, and flag anything that could break the streaming pipeline."

Follow-up

"That is close, but do not swallow the error there. Log it with the existing tracer and return a typed result so the caller can decide what to do."

Claude Code voice dictation FAQ

Does Claude Code have built-in voice dictation?

Yes. Claude Code has a native voice mode (the /voice command) tuned for coding terms. But it streams your audio to Anthropic to transcribe, only works with a Claude.ai account login (disabled for API-key, Bedrock, Vertex, and Foundry auth and for HIPAA orgs), and is local-mic-only so it does not work over SSH or on the web. SnailText runs transcription locally on Mac and Windows, works regardless of how you authenticate, and dictates into the terminal and every other app.

Can I dictate into Claude Code if I use an API key or Bedrock?

Yes, with SnailText. Claude Code's own /voice is disabled unless you sign in with a Claude.ai account, so API-key, Bedrock, Vertex, and Foundry users cannot use it. SnailText inserts text at the OS level, so it dictates into the Claude Code prompt no matter how you authenticate, and the Development profile restores code identifiers in your chosen style.

Can I use voice typing in Claude Code?

Yes. SnailText adds voice typing to Claude Code on Mac and Windows. Press the hotkey (Option+Space (Mac) / Ctrl+Space (Windows), customizable), speak, and the text lands at your cursor in any Claude Code field, the same way it works for voice to text in every other app on your machine.

Does the dictation work offline?

Yes. SnailText runs the speech model on your device, so dictation works with no internet connection after the model is downloaded. The optional AI cleanup model runs locally too.

Is my voice uploaded anywhere?

No. Audio is processed in RAM on your machine and discarded the moment the text is ready. Nothing is sent to a server for transcription.

How much does SnailText cost?

The free tier gives you unlimited local speech-to-text with no account. Pro adds larger models and the on-device AI cleanup, $7.49/mo or $89/yr for up to 3 devices.

Start dictating in Claude Code

Free local speech-to-text, no account needed. Works in Claude Code and every other app on Mac and Windows.

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