Text Insertion

Text Insertion

Text insertion controls how transcribed text reaches the application you are dictating into. TypeWhisper lets you pick a strategy per application and includes a Smart Auto mode that adapts to browsers, terminals, and Wayland sessions.

Per-app strategies

You set an insertion strategy per application, keyed by process name:

Strategy	Behavior
Auto	Smart per-target selection (see below).
Clipboard Paste	Copies the text and pastes it into the target.
Direct Typing	Types the text character by character.
Copy Only	Copies the text to the clipboard without inserting it.

Auto-paste includes retry handling and clipboard preservation so your existing clipboard contents are restored after a paste.

The per-app strategy editor (process name → Auto / Clipboard Paste / Direct Typing / Copy Only) lives in the App insertion strategies row on the Dictation settings page.

Smart Auto behavior

When a target uses the Auto strategy, TypeWhisper picks per-target:

• Types directly into supported browsers — but falls back to clipboard paste when the window title looks like a webmail composer.
• Types directly into terminals and the Codex CLI, where a synthesized Ctrl+V is not interpreted as paste.
• On Wayland sessions where the focused app can't be identified, prefers direct typing for ASCII text and clipboard paste for non-ASCII text.

Backend chain and setup

The resolved backend chain and the one-click ydotool / input-group setup are shown in the screenshot at the top of this page.

The Text-insertion settings panel surfaces the current backend chain for your session and offers a one-click setup flow for the ydotool daemon and input-group membership when those are needed.

Tools

Text insertion relies on session-appropriate desktop tools:

Purpose	Tools
Clipboard (X11)	xclip
Clipboard (Wayland)	wl-copy / wl-paste
Typing / paste backend	wtype, ydotool, xdotool

The right typing backend is selected per session. See Wayland notes for which backend is tried first on wlroots compositors versus GNOME / KDE Wayland, and for the ydotool daemon and input-group requirements.

Related pages

• Wayland notes — typing backend selection and Wayland setup.
• Profiles — per-app and per-URL matching that pairs with insertion strategies.
• Dictation — where auto-paste fits in the dictation workflow.

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Changelog

Date	Change
2026-06-17	Initial version.
2026-06-17	Added Text insertion screenshot.