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Dictate prompts into Claude Code on your Mac

To dictate prompts into Claude Code on a Mac, you need a dictation app that types at your cursor in the terminal. Click into the Claude Code input, hold a hotkey, talk through the task, and release. The text lands where you would have typed it, and you press Enter.

That is the whole trick. The rest of this post is about doing it well: what to install, how to speak a task so the agent can act on it, and how to stop a rambling sentence from turning into a rambling prompt.

What you need to dictate into Claude Code on a Mac

Claude Code runs in your terminal, so the dictation tool has to work in any app, not only in a browser or a notes window. Three things matter:

  1. It types at the cursor. You want the words to appear in the Claude Code prompt, not in a separate window you copy from.
  2. It handles your vocabulary. Prompts are full of file names, function names and library names. A generic speech model will mangle them.
  3. It cleans up as you go. Spoken sentences have false starts, filler and “no wait, I mean”. The agent reads all of it.

macOS has built in Dictation (System Settings, then Keyboard, then Dictation), and it does type into Terminal. It covers point one. It does not know your repo and it types exactly what you said, so points two and three are on you.

Akova, a Mac dictation app for coding agents is built for this job. It is voice to text for Claude Code that runs offline with on-device Whisper. It types at your cursor in any terminal or editor, and has a Prompt mode that turns spoken rambling into a structured prompt before it pastes. It needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later on Apple Silicon (M1 and later).

How to dictate a prompt into Claude Code, step by step

Here is the setup we use every day.

1. Install Akova and pick a hotkey

Download Akova, open it, and set the hotkey you will hold to talk. Pick one your fingers find without looking, because you will press it a hundred times a day.

2. Choose Prompt mode

Akova has several modes. The free ones are Clean up, Paragraphs, Bullet points and your raw words. Prompt mode is the one for coding agents. It is a Lifetime feature, free for 7 days after your first launch. On macOS 26 it uses Apple Intelligence. On macOS 14 and 15 it runs on a local Ollama model instead.

3. Add your project words to custom vocabulary

Open custom vocabulary in Settings and add the names that come up in your prompts: the repo, your services, your odd library names. For example:

akova-landing
WhisperKit
stripe-webhook
PostHog
Astro
useSessionStore

These are the words that otherwise come out as “whisper kit” or “post hog”. Five minutes here saves a correction in every prompt. For why these words go wrong in the first place, and how to keep the list short, see why Whisper mishears code words.

4. Start Claude Code and click into the prompt

Run claude in your project directory as usual. The cursor sits in the input box. If dictation types everywhere except your terminal, see how to fix dictation that is not typing in the Mac terminal.

5. Hold the hotkey and talk

Describe the task the way you would to a colleague at your desk. Do not compose. Say it however it comes out.

6. Release and read

The prompt lands at your cursor. Skim it, fix a word if you need to, and press Enter.

That is the loop: click, hold, talk, release, Enter. After a day it stops feeling like a tool and starts feeling like talking to the agent.

How to speak a prompt Claude Code can act on

Dictation makes prompts longer, which is mostly good. Claude Code does better with context, and talking gives it more context than you would ever bother to type (the numbers are in is dictation faster than typing). But longer is not the same as clearer. Four habits help.

Say the goal first. Start with what should be true when the agent is done. “The upload should retry on network errors” beats ten seconds of describing the code you are looking at.

Name files and functions out loud. “In api/buy.ts, the handler that builds the redirect” gives the agent a place to start. This is where custom vocabulary pays off: the names come out spelled right.

Say the constraints. What must not change, which test must pass, which pattern to follow. Spoken constraints are the ones people forget to type.

Say how you will check it. “Run the build when you are done” or “add a test for the empty case”. Claude Code will do it if you ask.

You do not have to say these in order, and you do not have to say them cleanly. Backtracking is fine. That is the point of Prompt mode: you supply the thinking, it supplies the structure. Without it, a good habit is to say the goal again at the end, so the last thing the agent reads is what you want.

FAQ

Can I dictate into Claude Code with the built in macOS Dictation?

Yes. macOS Dictation types into Terminal, so it works with Claude Code. It types exactly what you said, though, without your project vocabulary and without restructuring a rambling sentence into a prompt. Akova adds custom vocabulary and Prompt mode on top of the same idea. The full comparison is in Apple Dictation vs Akova for coding prompts.

Does Claude Code have its own voice mode?

Yes. Run /voice and hold Space to talk into the Claude Code prompt. It sends audio to Anthropic’s servers, needs a Claude.ai sign in, and only types inside Claude Code. For when to use it and when a system wide app fits better, see Claude Code voice mode vs a Mac dictation app.

Does dictation work in Cursor and Codex too?

Akova types at your cursor in any app, so it works in Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and any other terminal, editor or chat box. The steps above are the same. Only the place you click before you talk changes. For Cursor’s Agent chat and inline edit, see how to dictate prompts into Cursor. For the Codex specifics, including which hotkey to avoid, see how to dictate prompts into Codex CLI. For Copilot Chat in VS Code and Copilot CLI, see how to dictate prompts into GitHub Copilot.

Is Prompt mode free?

It is a Lifetime feature. Every Pro feature, Prompt mode included, is free for 7 days after your first launch, with no card and no account. After that, Clean up, Paragraphs, Bullet points, custom vocabulary and audio file transcription stay in the free tier. Lifetime adds Prompt mode, Fix grammar and more modes, review before pasting, Voice for Agents (beta) and voice commands. See pricing for the full list.

Does my audio leave my Mac?

Not by default. Akova transcribes with on-device Whisper models, and Prompt mode runs locally too, so dictation works offline. Here is how Whisper runs offline on a Mac. For the longer comparison, read on-device vs cloud dictation for Mac developers. To verify it yourself, see how to check if Mac dictation runs offline.

Try it on your next prompt

Install Akova, add five words from your current repo to custom vocabulary, and dictate the next task you were about to type into Claude Code. Download Akova free, no account and no card.