# Handy

> MIT offline push-to-talk dictation for any text field — Whisper or Parakeet, nothing leaves your machine

**Category:** Libraries  
**Pricing:** open-source  
**URL:** https://handy.computer  
**GitHub:** https://github.com/cjpais/Handy  
**Added:** 2026-10-10

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## The 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.

## What's Good

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.

## The Catch

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.