Dictation for developers

Where it helps

• AI prompts in Cursor's agent chat, Claude Code in your terminal, ChatGPT or Claude. A long prompt with real context is easier to say than to type. See voice typing in Cursor and voice prompting in Claude Code.
• Commit messages, in your editor's commit box or the message editor git opens.
• Pull request descriptions, review comments and issue reports on GitHub or GitLab.
• The writing around the code: Slack threads, tickets, design docs and code comments.

VocType works anywhere you can paste: when a transcript is ready, it puts the text on the clipboard, presses Command-V in the app you are using, then puts your old clipboard text back. If Command-V works in a field, VocType can paste there.

Three workflows

1. Prompt an AI coding agent

1. Click into the prompt box: Cursor's chat, or Claude Code or another agent running in your terminal.
2. Press Option + Space on a Mac or Alt + Space on Windows and describe the change the way you would to a colleague: what to change, where, and why.
3. Press the hotkey again. The text is pasted at the cursor.
4. Read it, fix anything, then send it yourself. VocType pastes and never presses Return, so nothing is sent before you check it.

For example, you might say:

In the billing service, add a retry with backoff around the webhook call. Keep the current timeout. Add a test for the case where the second attempt succeeds, and don't touch the public API.

2. Write the commit message or pull request description

1. Click into the commit message box, or the description field of a new pull request.
2. Say what changed and why, the way you would explain it in a standup.
3. Tidy the result by hand. Add the ticket number or any formatting your team uses.

3. Leave a code review comment

1. Click into the comment box on the line you are reviewing.
2. Say the concern and the fix you suggest.
3. Read it back before you submit the review.

Get names and jargon right

Speech models often get framework and product names wrong. The Personal Dictionary has two parts:

• Vocabulary. Names and terms VocType sends with each recording as spelling hints, for example your repo names, Kubernetes or Postgres.
• Word replacements. Swap a spelling it keeps getting wrong for the one you want, before the text is pasted. For example, replace "next js" with "Next.js".

Settings worth changing

• If the default hotkey clashes with a shortcut in your editor or terminal, pick another in Settings. F5 and F6 work as single keys. See hotkeys.
• English is the default speaking language. You can also speak Urdu or Hindi and get English text. Pick Urdu → English or Hindi → English in Settings.

Honest limits

• It is dictation, not voice coding. VocType types the words you say. It does not run editor commands or turn speech into code syntax, and saying brackets and symbols aloud is slow. If you want to write and edit code hands-free, a voice control tool such as Talon is built for that.
• Cloud only. Every recording is sent to the cloud to be turned into text, so you need an internet connection. If your company does not allow that, pick an app that processes speech on your Mac.
• Up to 30 minutes per recording, with fair-use caps on each plan. See limits.
• Some fields block pasting, such as some password fields. Copy the text from History instead. See when pasting does not work.
• Mac and Windows only today.

Who should pick something else

• You want to control your editor and write code by voice alone. Use a voice control tool such as Talon.
• Your audio cannot leave your machine. Look at the apps that process speech on your Mac in our list of the best dictation apps for Mac.
• You dictate a sentence now and then. The dictation built into macOS is free and may be enough.

Try it on your next prompt

Download VocType for Mac, give it Microphone and Accessibility access, and dictate your next prompt or commit message. The steps are in getting started. For other ways people use VocType, see all use cases.