{"data":{"slug":"handy","name":"Handy","tagline":"MIT offline push-to-talk dictation for any text field — Whisper or Parakeet, nothing leaves your machine","category":"libraries","categoryName":"Libraries","url":"https://handy.computer","github":"https://github.com/cjpais/Handy","pricing":"open-source","hook":"Handy is a desktop app with one job: hold a shortcut, talk, release, and the transcript is pasted into whatever app has focus — your editor, a terminal, or a coding agent prompt.","whatsGood":"MIT (cjpais/Handy), release v0.9.8 (2026-10-03). Windows, macOS and Linux; `brew install --cask handy` and winget packages exist (community-maintained). Fully local: Silero voice activity detection, then Whisper Small to Large with GPU acceleration, or Parakeet V3 on CPU with automatic language detection. Hold-to-talk or toggle modes, CLI flags, and a community Raycast extension. ★~33k.","theCatch":"Needs microphone and accessibility permissions to paste into other apps. Linux on Wayland is the weak spot: global shortcuts have to be set up in your desktop environment and text input needs wtype, dotool or ydotool. Larger Whisper models want a decent GPU; on a laptop CPU stick to Parakeet. Transcription only — no text-to-speech or voice cloning. Vs voicebox (local voice studio with TTS, cloning and MCP voice hooks): Handy is the small, dictation-only tool.","verdict":"The free, private way to talk to your coding agents instead of typing — great on Mac and Windows, more setup on Wayland.","addedAt":"2026-10-10","featured":false,"domain":"Libraries","subSpecialty":"Speech","subcategory":"Speech","tags":["desktop-app","self-host","local-first","permissive","coding-agents","voice","active"],"capabilities":["speech-to-text","offline","whisper"],"surfaces":["Self-host"],"ecosystem":["Multi-platform"],"licenseModel":"OSS/MIT","githubStars":34113,"starsPerWeek":389,"access":"free","archived":false,"repo":{"createdAt":"2025-02-13","pushedAt":"2026-10-15","license":"MIT","archived":false,"checkedAt":"2026-10-19"}},"related":[{"slug":"hono","name":"Hono","tagline":"Tiny TypeScript web framework that runs on every runtime"},{"slug":"phaser","name":"Phaser","tagline":"MIT HTML5 2D game framework with scenes, physics, and tilemaps"},{"slug":"pixijs","name":"PixiJS","tagline":"MIT 2D WebGPU/WebGL renderer, not a game engine"},{"slug":"babylonjs","name":"Babylon.js","tagline":"Apache-2.0 3D engine for the web, now on v9"},{"slug":"playcanvas","name":"PlayCanvas","tagline":"MIT WebGL2/WebGPU engine plus an optional hosted Editor"}],"links":{"self":"/api/gems/handy","html":"/gems/handy","markdown":"/gems/handy.md","category":"/api/gems?category=libraries","categoryPage":"/stacks/libraries"}}