Setup Wizard

Setup Wizard

The Setup Wizard is a guided, six-step onboarding flow that takes you from a fresh install to a working dictation setup. It runs automatically the first time you launch TypeWhisper, and you can reopen it any time from the Open Wizard button in the top-right of every page.

What it does

The wizard walks through six steps:

1. Pick a transcription model — choose your speech-to-text model, with a recommended default. If the model still needs downloading, the wizard downloads and loads it before you continue. See Transcription engines.
2. Review extension plugins — see the available plugins and their enable state, so you can turn on the transcription engines, LLM providers, and other extensions you want. See Plugins.
3. Confirm hotkey and microphone — set your main dictation hotkey and pick your input device. See Global hotkeys.
4. Setup checklist — a machine-driven checklist of setup tasks tailored to your desktop and session (see below).
5. First-dictation check — a quick try-it step that confirms dictation works end to end.
6. Done — finishes onboarding.

The setup checklist

Step 4 is the heart of the wizard on Linux. It runs a set of setup tasks that each self-gate on your detected desktop and session, so the same wizard configures GNOME/Wayland, KDE, Hyprland, Sway, and X11 without you having to pick your environment. The tasks cover:

• Clipboard tooling — the clipboard backend for your session (xclip on X11, wl-copy / wl-paste on Wayland). See Text insertion.
• Automatic paste — the typing/paste backend (wtype, ydotool, or xdotool) and its setup, including the ydotool daemon and input-group membership where needed. See Text insertion and Wayland notes.
• Global-hotkey registration — registering your dictation hotkey so it fires from any window. See Global hotkeys.
• Active-window detection — the compositor-native provider (or the GNOME Window Calls extension) used for profile matching. See Profiles and Wayland notes.
• ffmpeg — for importing audio/video formats on the File transcription page.

Required tasks gate the Finish button — you cannot finish until they report ready, though you can Skip to bypass the gate and finish anyway. Tasks that do not apply to your session are skipped automatically.

Reopening the wizard

The wizard appears on first launch and marks onboarding complete once you finish. To run it again later — after switching desktops, reinstalling, or installing missing helpers — click Open Wizard in the top-right of any page.

Related pages

• Quick Start — the manual version of the same first-dictation flow.
• Requirements — the optional desktop helpers the checklist sets up.
• Wayland notes — the per-session setup the checklist automates.
• Text insertion, Global hotkeys, and Plugins — the areas the wizard configures.

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Changelog

Date	Change
2026-06-17	Initial version.