Orbit

AI-powered voice companion for macOS and Windows. Hold a key, speak, and Orbit transcribes, writes, and takes action — right where your cursor is.

Features

• Voice-to-text anywhere — Hold your shortcut key, speak, release. Text appears at your cursor.
• Multiple modes — Transcribe, translate, summarize, or use custom AI prompts
• Works everywhere — System-wide keyboard shortcuts, works in any app
• Fn/Globe key support — Use the Fn key as your trigger on Mac
• Privacy-first — Audio is processed and never stored. Fully open source.

Project Structure

orbit/
├── apps/
│   ├── desktop/     # Electron + React desktop app
│   │   ├── app/     # React frontend (renderer)
│   │   ├── lib/     # Main process, IPC, services
│   │   ├── native/  # Rust native binaries (key listener, audio, text writer)
│   │   ├── server/  # Backend API server (Better Auth, gRPC)
│   │   └── build/   # macOS entitlements, build configs
│   └── web/         # Marketing website (Next.js)

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 18
• Bun (package manager)
• Rust (for native modules)
• macOS or Windows

Desktop App

cd apps/desktop

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Copy env file and fill in your values
cp .env.example .env

# Build native Rust binaries (first time only)
./build-binaries.sh --mac        # macOS ARM
./build-binaries.sh --mac --x64  # macOS Intel

# Start development
bun run dev

Build DMG (macOS)

cd apps/desktop
ORBIT_ENV=prod ./build-app.sh mac

Website

cd apps/web
bun install
bun run dev

Tech Stack

Desktop App:

• Electron + React + TypeScript
• Rust native binaries (keyboard capture, audio recording, text injection)
• SQLite (local data)
• gRPC + Protobuf (server communication)
• Better Auth (authentication)

Website:

• Next.js + React + TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS + Framer Motion

macOS Permissions

Orbit requires these macOS permissions to function:

Permission	Why
Accessibility	Capture keyboard shortcuts and inject text
Input Monitoring	Detect key presses system-wide
Microphone	Record audio for transcription

After installing a new build, you may need to re-grant Accessibility permissions (the app will guide you through this).

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.

1. Fork the repo
2. Create your branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes
4. Push to the branch
5. Open a Pull Request

License

MIT