Releases: Mantej-Singh/stt-cli
Release list
v2.0.0 - Hybrid Speech-to-Text with Whisper Integration
🚀 What's New in v2.0.0
Hybrid Speech-to-Text with Whisper Integration (November 26, 2025)
STT-CLI now supports offline speech recognition using OpenAI's Whisper model, making it perfect for corporate
environments with restricted internet access!
✨ Key Features
- 🎙️ Offline Speech Recognition - OpenAI Whisper "tiny" model (MIT licensed) for fully offline operation
- 🔄 Smart Engine Switching - Auto-detect between Google (online) and Whisper (offline) based on connectivity
- ⚡ 4x Faster Performance - Using faster-whisper with CTranslate2 optimization and INT8 quantization
- 🔒 Privacy-First Design - Audio never leaves your machine in Whisper mode (100% local processing)
📦 Installation
Recommended: Windows Package Manager (Winget)
winget install Mantej-Singh.STT-CLIOr download the executable below and run it - no installation required!
🎯 Perfect For
- Corporate laptops with Win+H disabled by IT policies
- Air-gapped networks requiring fully offline operation
- Privacy-focused users who don't want audio sent to cloud services
- Variable connectivity scenarios (auto-fallback between engines)
📚 Documentation
- https://github.com/Mantej-Singh/stt-cli#readme - Getting started guide
- https://github.com/Mantej-Singh/stt-cli/blob/main/docs/ARCHITECTURE.md - Technical deep dive
- https://github.com/Mantej-Singh/stt-cli/blob/main/docs/WHISPER_MODEL.md - Model details
- https://github.com/Mantej-Singh/stt-cli/blob/main/docs/changelog.md - All versions
- Windows 10/11
- No admin rights required
- ~150MB disk space (includes Whisper model)
🆕 Upgrade from v1.x
If you installed via winget:
winget upgrade Mantej-Singh.STT-CLI
Breaking Changes: None - Fully backward compatible with v1.4.0
📝 Licensing
This application uses OpenAI's Whisper model under the MIT License, which permits free commercial use,
modification, and distribution. All audio processing happens locally on your device.
Full Changelog: v1.4.0...v2.0.0
Built with ❤️ for Windows CLI users blocked by corporate restrictions
Happy Thanksgiving ❤️
STT-CLI v1.4.0 - Auto-Start & Enhanced UX
🎯 Major New Features
- ✨ Auto-Start on Windows Boot - Right-click system tray icon to enable/disable automatic startup
- 🎈 First-Run Welcome Notification - Friendly greeting when you launch STT-CLI for the first time
- ✅ Checkable Menu Items - Visual feedback in tray menu shows auto-start status
- 💾 Settings Persistence - Your preferences are remembered across sessions
🔧 Technical Improvements
- Settings stored in
%APPDATA%\stt-cli\settings.jsonfor better persistence - Windows Startup shortcut management using pywin32 COM interface
- Enhanced error handling for permission issues
- Better first-run experience with guided setup
📖 Documentation Updates
- Comprehensive winget installation guide
- Step-by-step first-time setup instructions
- Auto-start configuration walkthrough
📥 Installation
Via Winget (Recommended):
winget upgrade Mantej-Singh.STT-CLIManual Download:
OR Download speech-to-text-cli.exe from below and run it! :)
Full Changelog: v1.3.1...v1.4.0
STT-CLI v1.3.1 - Winget Readiness
v1.3.1 - Winget Readiness (October 30, 2025)
This release prepares STT-CLI for distribution via Windows Package Manager (Winget)!
Enhancements
- ✅ Added
__version__variable for programmatic version management - ✅ Added
--versionflag (works with Python source:python main.pyw --version) - ✅ Added
--helpflag (works with Python source:python main.pyw --help) - 📖 Enhanced README with log file location (
%TEMP%\stt-cli\app.log) - 📖 Documented troubleshooting steps
- 🎯 Prepared comprehensive Winget manifest information
Technical Details
- File Size: 76 MB
- SHA256:
aa32784a05f164e816b7ff4cbb3caf4da0f478b121ac7f75d3e10c384b593204 - Architecture: x64
- Platform: Windows 10+
Why This Matters
Users will soon be able to install STT-CLI with a simple command:
winget install Mantej-Singh.STT-CLIDownload
- Windows 10/11 (x64): https://github.com/Mantej-Singh/stt-cli/releases/download/v1.3.1/speech-to-text-cli.exe
What's Unchanged
All v1.3 functionality remains intact:
- ✅ Double-tap Left Alt hotkey
- ✅ System tray operation
- ✅ Balloon notifications
- ✅ Speech-to-text in CLI windows
- ✅ No admin rights required
Full Changelog: v1.3...v1.3.1
STT-CLI v1.3 - Balloon Notifications & Bug Fixes
Release Date: October 29, 2025
Build Size: 77MB
🆕 What's New
Balloon Notifications 🔔
STT-CLI now shows Windows balloon notifications when you start or stop recording! You'll get clear visual
confirmation that your hotkey press was detected - no more watching the system tray icon.
- Recording Started: Shows notification with reminder "Double-tap Left Alt to stop recording"
- Recording Stopped: Confirms your recording has ended
- Notifications auto-dismiss after 2-3 seconds
- Professional Windows 10/11 integration
🐛 Critical Bug Fixes
Multi-Toggle Issue ✅
Fixed the most critical bug: Recording would flash on/off when stopping.
Problem: Rapid Alt key presses (4-6 times) would trigger multiple toggles, making the app appear broken.
Solution: Added 800ms cooldown period after each toggle. Now only the first double-tap is processed, ignoring
accidental extra presses.
Impact: Recording now reliably stops when you want it to!
Exception Handling ✅
Added comprehensive try-catch blocks to keyboard event handlers to prevent the listener from crashing on
unexpected errors.
Build Process ✅
Fixed PyInstaller build to properly include all dependencies. Previous builds were missing pynput library.
🔧 Technical Improvements
Code Quality
- ✅ 100% Type Coverage: Added type hints to all functions
- ✅ Thread Safety: Implemented proper threading.Event() and locks
- ✅ Resource Optimization: Icons cached at startup (no repeated file I/O)
- ✅ Better Error Handling: All exceptions logged with full tracebacks
- ✅ Clean Architecture: Improved state management with event synchronization
Documentation
- ✅ Fixed logging to use %TEMP%\stt-cli\app.log (no more permission errors)
- ✅ Updated build instructions with dependency installation steps
- ✅ Comprehensive inline documentation with docstrings
📦 Installation
Option 1: Download Executable (Recommended)
Download speech-to-text-cli.exe from this release and run it. No installation or Python required!
Option 2: Build from Source
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Mantej-Singh/stt-cli.git
cd stt-cli
Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt
Run from source
python main.pyw
OR build your own executable
python -m PyInstaller --onefile --name "speech-to-text-cli" --icon "stt-cli2.ico" --noconsole --add-data
"stt-cli2.ico;." --add-data "stt-cli2.png;." --clean main.pyw
🚀 Usage
- Run the application (system tray icon appears)
- Open Windows Terminal, PowerShell, or CMD
- Double-tap Left Alt to start recording (balloon notification appears!)
- Speak - your words appear in the CLI window
- Double-tap Left Alt again to stop (notification confirms!)
- Right-click tray icon → Quit to exit
📊 Full Changelog
New Features
- 🔔 Windows balloon notifications for recording start/stop
- ⚙️ Configurable notification system (can be disabled in code)
Bug Fixes
- 🐛 Fixed multi-toggle issue with 800ms cooldown period
- 🐛 Added exception handling to keyboard callbacks
- 🐛 Fixed PyInstaller missing pynput dependency
- 🐛 Fixed logging permission issues (now uses TEMP directory)
- 🐛 Fixed image resource leaks (icons cached at startup)
- 🐛 Fixed race conditions with proper thread synchronization
- 🐛 Documented ESC key side effect (clears terminal)
Technical Improvements
- 📝 100% type hint coverage
- 🔒 Thread-safe state management with threading.Event()
- 🧵 Proper locks for compound operations
- 🎯 Graceful shutdown with thread cleanup
- 📚 Comprehensive documentation and docstrings
- 🗂️ Better code organization and maintainability
Build Improvements
- ✅ Fixed dependency bundling in PyInstaller
- ✅ Updated build instructions in README
- ✅ Verified exe works on clean Windows installations
💡 Known Limitations
- ESC key quit feature: Pressing ESC to quit may clear your terminal screen (documented behavior)
- Hotkey: Currently hardcoded to Left Alt double-tap (configurable in future versions)
- Platform: Windows only (by design)
🔮 What's Next?
- Configurable hotkeys
- Additional visual indicators
- Customizable notification messages
🙏 Feedback & Issues
Found a bug? Have a feature request? Please open an issue on GitHub!
📄 Requirements
- OS: Windows 10 or Windows 11
- No Admin Rights Required - Works perfectly on corporate laptops!
- No Installation - Just download and run
Download speech-to-text-cli.exe below and start using voice commands in your CLI today! 🎤
Full Changelog: v1.0.0...v1.3
v1.0.0
Initial Release
This is the first official release of the Speech-to-Text CLI tool for Windows. This initial version provides
a simple and effective way to transcribe speech directly into your command-line interface, with a focus on
ease of use and a minimal footprint.
Key Features in This Release:
- Hands-Free CLI-Typing: Transcribe your speech directly into any active command-line window, including
Windows Terminal, PowerShell, and cmd.exe. This is particularly useful for interacting with CLI-based AI
tools like Google's Gemini CLI and Anthropic's Claude Code. - Global Hotkey Activation: Simply double-press the Left Alt key to start and stop recording from anywhere in
your system. - System Tray Integration: The application runs discreetly in the background and provides a system tray icon
to indicate its status. The icon changes to let you know when it's actively listening, and you can
right-click it to quit the application. - Lightweight and Simple: No complex setup or configuration is required. Just run the executable and start
talking.
Installation:
- Executable: Download the speech-to-text-cli.exe file from the dist folder and run it.
- From Source: Clone the repository, install the dependencies from requirements.txt, and run python main.pyw.
Known Issues:
- This is an initial release, and there may be some bugs. Please report any issues you encounter on the GitHub
issues page. - Runs well on my local pc
Future Plans:
- Configurable Hotkeys: The ability to change the hotkey combination to your preference.
- Enhanced Visual Indicators: More visual cues to make it even clearer when the application is recording.
This release was built together with the Gemini CLI.
Full Changelog: https://github.com/Mantej-Singh/stt-cli/commits/v1.0.0