CLI Tool
A shell-friendly command-line tool that connects to the TypeWhisper API server for transcription from the terminal.
Installation
Install the CLI from the TypeWhisper app: Settings > Advanced > CLI Tool > Install. This places the typewhisper binary at /usr/local/bin/typewhisper.
The TypeWhisper app must be running with the API server enabled for the CLI to work.
Commands
status
Check if the API server is running and which model is loaded.
typewhisper status
models
List all available models and their status.
typewhisper models
transcribe
Transcribe an audio file or piped audio input.
typewhisper transcribe recording.wav
Large files
When you pass a local file path, the CLI hands the path to the running TypeWhisper app instead of uploading the file bytes. This avoids the HTTP upload body limit for large recordings.
Piped stdin still uses the /v1/transcribe upload endpoint and is limited to 256 MiB. Larger stdin uploads return 413 Payload Too Large.
Options
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--port | API server port (default: 8978) |
--json | Output full JSON response |
--language | ISO 639-1 language code (e.g., en, de) |
--task | transcribe (default) or translate |
--translate-to | Target language for translation (e.g., de, fr) |
Examples
Transcribe a file:
typewhisper transcribe meeting.m4a
Pipe audio from stdin:
ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -f wav - | typewhisper transcribe -
JSON output with jq:
typewhisper transcribe --json recording.wav | jq .text
Translate to German:
typewhisper transcribe --translate-to de recording.wav
Use a custom port:
typewhisper --port 9000 status