zee

Voice transcription that stays out of your way.
Supports Groq, OpenAI, Mistral, ElevenLabs and Deepgram models.
Push-to-talk, tap-to-toggle, or real-time streaming. Pure Go. Sub-second fast.

Highlights

• System tray app — lives in the menu bar. Switch microphones, transcription providers, and languages from the tray menu. Dynamic icons show recording and warning states.
• Two recording modes — push-to-talk (hold hotkey) or tap-to-toggle (tap to start/stop).
• Real-time streaming — when a streaming-capable model is selected (e.g. Deepgram Nova-3), words appear as you speak and auto-paste into the focused window incrementally.
• Fast batch mode — HTTP keep-alive, TLS connection reuse, pre-warmed connections, streaming encoder runs during recording (not after). Typical key-release to clipboard: under 500ms.
• Auto-paste — transcribed text goes straight to clipboard and pastes into the active window. In streaming mode, each new phrase pastes as it arrives.
• Silence detection — VAD-based voice activity detection warns when no speech is heard. In streaming mode, auto-closes recording after 30 seconds of silence.
• Pure Go encoding — MP3 and FLAC encoders, no CGO. Three formats: mp3@16 (smallest), mp3@64 (balanced), flac (lossless).
• Multiple providers — Groq, OpenAI, Mistral, ElevenLabs, and Deepgram, switchable from the tray menu at runtime.
• 36 languages — select transcription language from the tray menu or via -lang flag.
• Cross-platform — minimal dependencies, pure Go where possible.
  • macOS
  • Linux
  • Windows

Install

One-liner (recommended)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sumerc/zee/main/install.sh | bash

Downloads the latest DMG, verifies its SHA256 against checksums.txt, copies Zee.app to /Applications, and clears the quarantine attribute. Pin a version with VERSION=vX.Y.Z bash.

Manual DMG

1. Download Zee-<version>.dmg from the latest release
2. Open the DMG and drag Zee.app to Applications
3. Clear quarantine: xattr -cr /Applications/Zee.app

CLI binary

For terminal usage:

# Apple Silicon
curl -L https://github.com/sumerc/zee/releases/latest/download/zee_darwin_arm64.tar.gz | tar xz

# Intel
curl -L https://github.com/sumerc/zee/releases/latest/download/zee_darwin_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz

GROQ_API_KEY=xxx ./zee              # Groq Whisper
DEEPGRAM_API_KEY=xxx ./zee          # Deepgram (streaming auto-enabled when a streaming model is selected from the tray)
./zee -debug-transcribe             # include transcription text logs

Note: When running from a terminal, macOS permissions (Microphone, Accessibility) are granted to the terminal app (e.g. Ghostty, iTerm2, Terminal), not to zee itself.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/sumerc/zee && cd zee
make build        # CLI binary
make app          # macOS DMG

Usage

Set at least one API key, then run zee:

export GROQ_API_KEY=your_key       # batch mode (Groq Whisper)
export OPENAI_API_KEY=your_key     # batch mode (OpenAI Whisper)
export DEEPGRAM_API_KEY=your_key   # streaming mode (Deepgram)
export MISTRAL_API_KEY=your_key    # batch mode (Mistral Voxtral)
export ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=your_key # batch mode (ElevenLabs Scribe)
zee                                # starts in menu bar, hold Ctrl+Shift+Space to record

Note: export only works in the current terminal session. To make API keys available to Zee.app when launched from Spotlight or Applications, use launchctl:

launchctl setenv GROQ_API_KEY your_key

Add this to your ~/.zshrc so it runs on every login.

zee runs as a system tray app in the menu bar. Hold Ctrl+Shift+Space to record, release to transcribe. Result auto-pastes into the focused window.

Use the tray menu to switch microphones, providers, and languages — or use -setup for initial device selection.

macOS Permissions

On first run, macOS will prompt for permissions:

1. Microphone — Required for audio recording. System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.

2. Accessibility — Required for global hotkey and auto-paste. System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.

If permissions aren't granted, zee will fail silently or the hotkey won't register. Run with -doctor to diagnose permission issues.

Testing

make test                                      # unit tests
make test-integration                          # integration tests (builds binary, requires GROQ_API_KEY)
make integration-test WAV=test/data/short.wav  # single-file integration test (requires GROQ_API_KEY)
make benchmark WAV=file.wav RUNS=5             # multiple runs for timing

Flags

Flag	Default	Description
-format	mp3@16	Audio format: mp3@16, mp3@64, or flac
-autopaste	true	Auto-paste into focused window
-setup	false	Select microphone device
-device	(default)	Use named microphone device
-lang	en	Language code (e.g., en, es, fr)
-debug	true	Enable diagnostic logging
-debug-transcribe	false	Enable transcription text logging
-doctor	false	Run system diagnostics and exit
-logpath	OS-specific	Log directory (use ./ for current dir)
-hints	-	Vocabulary hints for transcription (comma-separated)
-transcribe	-	Audio file to transcribe and exit
-benchmark	-	WAV file for benchmarking
-runs	3	Benchmark iterations
-version	false	Print version and exit

Environment

Variable	Description
ZEE_LOG_PATH	Log directory override
ZEE_PPROF	pprof server address (e.g., :6060)
ZEE_CRASH=1	Trigger synthetic crash for crash-log testing
ZEE_LONGPRESS_DURATION	Hybrid hotkey long-press threshold (e.g., 350ms)
ZEE_SAVE_LAST_AUDIO=1	Enable tray action to save the last recording sample

About

Started as a vibe-coding project but turned into a standalone app I use daily for all my speech-to-text. Built with AI, love, and care — the kind of polish you get when you actually use the thing you're building.