PickScribe is a local-first Linux dictation app. It records your microphone, transcribes the audio locally with whisper.cpp, optionally cleans the transcript with a configured LLM, and pastes the result into the focused app. It is built so your voice stays on your machine.
- Audio never leaves your machine. Recordings are transcribed locally with the bundled
whisper.cppflow and are never uploaded. - Cleanup sends text, never audio. When LLM cleanup is enabled, only the transcribed text is sent to the configured LLM endpoint — DeepSeek by default — and only for cleanup.
- Incremental mode stays local by default. Opt-in incremental dictation may write partial transcript JSON under the local runtime state directory while recording. Those files are removed on stop/cancel unless audio retention is enabled.
- Segment cleanup is a separate opt-in. If enabled, finalized partial transcript text may be sent to the configured cleanup provider before recording stops. Audio still never leaves the machine.
- Local-only mode. One switch restricts cleanup to loopback endpoints (Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp server…), blocks remote providers, and falls back to the raw transcript — so no text leaves the machine either.
- Crash reports. Production builds send anonymous crash and error reports to Sentry by default: stack traces, error messages, OS version, app version, and loaded system libraries needed for crash symbolication. Native crash dumps include a process memory snapshot, which may contain fragments of data in memory at crash time, including recent transcript text. PickScribe strips the machine hostname and never intentionally includes transcripts, audio, API keys, file contents, or documents. Turning reports off in Settings stops new events and native crash capture when settings are saved. Turning reports on takes full effect after restart. Local-only mode disables reporting entirely, and development builds keep it off unless
PICKSCRIBE_SENTRY_DEBUG=1is set for local verification. - Update check. Packaged builds check GitHub Releases for a newer version on startup (they fetch the release
latest.json— version metadata only, never your transcripts, audio, or documents). This runs even in Local-only mode and with cleanup disabled. - Secrets on disk. API keys live in
~/.config/pickscribe/env, which should bechmod 600. PickScribe never intentionally prints API keys; docs and diagnostics redact secrets.
| Data | Leaves the machine? | When |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone audio | Never | Transcribed locally with whisper.cpp |
| Incremental partial transcript text | Only with segment cleanup enabled and Local-only mode off | Stored temporarily in the runtime state directory while opt-in incremental mode is active; finalized partial text may be sent for cleanup only when explicitly enabled |
| Transcribed text | Only with LLM cleanup enabled and Local-only mode off | Sent to the configured endpoint (DeepSeek by default) for cleanup |
| Crash/error reports | Yes by default in production; never in Local-only mode or normal development builds | Sends stack traces, error messages, OS/app version, and loaded system libraries to Sentry. The machine hostname is stripped. Native crash dumps include a process memory snapshot that may contain fragments of data in memory at crash time, including recent transcript text. No transcripts, audio, API keys, file contents, or documents are intentionally included |
| API keys, history, settings | Never | Stored locally under ~/.config/pickscribe and ~/.local/share/pickscribe |
| App update check | Yes — a request to GitHub | On startup (packaged builds); fetches the release latest.json to compare versions. No document or audio content is sent. |
Please report security issues privately:
- GitHub security advisories: https://github.com/pickforge/pickscribe/security/advisories/new
- Email: [email protected]
Do not open public issues for security reports. We aim to acknowledge within a few days.