GitHub repo: https://github.com/herrkaefer/micpipe

Voice input is getting popular again (thanks, vibe coding). I tried a few apps (spokenly, 闪电说, Typeless, etc.) and couldn’t decide. Then I realized: the voice dictation inside the ChatGPT web app is already really good. It’s fast, accurate, handles Chinese + English mixing very well.

So I had a thought:

Can I use that as a system-level “voice input method”, and use it for any app?

That thought turned into this little tool: MicPipe.

The idea / workflow is simple:

[You start recording] → MicPipe presses the dictation button in the ChatGPT chat box → [You stop recording] → it presses stop dictation → grabs the text → switches back to your original app → pastes the text.

This solves my problem of choosing.

A few notes:

One hotkey, two modes

My “original invention” 😆

• Hold Fn to talk, release to finish and paste → Hold mode
• Tap Fn to start, tap again to finish and paste → Toggle mode

I’ve seen many apps use two separate shortcuts for “hold to talk” and “toggle on/off”… it doesn’t have to.

The hotkey is customizable:

ChatGPT & Gemini

Both are supported. But honestly, Gemini’s dictation quality isn’t as great as ChatGPT yet.

AI Pipe

You can send the dictation result into a preset prompt, and then paste the processed output back into the original input box.

There are five preset prompt slots, all editable.

Examples:

• Fix grammar / typos (Grammar Fix)
• Rewrite in a more email-like tone (Email Writer)
• Turn my messy requirements into cleaner “instructions for an AI to code” (Vibe Coder)

Of course, doing a second step makes it slower – This is expected. This can’t beat a cloud workflow that returns a combined result at once.

Not cross-platform

I tried:

1. CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol) — didn’t work. With CDP, ChatGPT couldn’t log in.
2. Playwright — also no. In headless mode the microphone can’t be enabled.

So I used AppleScript.

MicPipe opens a “dedicated but minimal” Chrome window for the dictation flow. I place it outside the screen so it doesn’t bother me.

Stability still needs work. Star / PR / fork welcome.