Nocturne v1.0.0 - Initial Release
We are excited to share the initial release of Nocturne, a 100% local and private voice dictation client for macOS inspired by Wispr Flow.
All speech-to-text transcription and AI post-processing happen entirely on your device. No audio data or transcriptions ever leave your Mac.
Key Features in this version:
- CoreML Local ASR: Instant, lightweight transcription powered by the Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3
model running directly on Apple's Neural Engine.
- Embedded Ollama Server: Automatically installs, launches, and manages its own internal
Ollama instance in the background. Download and run open-weights LLMs (like Qwen 3.5 (4B) or
Qwen 2.5) directly within the app.
- Apple Intelligence Integration: Option to use native macOS Apple Intelligence models for
instant, zero-download grammatical cleanup.
- Smart Cleanup Modes: Choose between raw transcription (Literal Mode), fast deterministic
filter-word removal (Rules), or full grammatical polishing (AI).
- Personal Vocabulary and Snippets: Prevent transcription errors with custom replacement rules,
and trigger text snippets (e.g. say "my email" to write "you@example.com").
- Voice Transforms: Polish, restructure, or prompt-engineer any selected text on macOS via
global hotkeys (Option + 1, Option + 2).
- HUD and Dashboard: Track WPM stats, streaking metrics, application distribution charts, use
the scratchpad notes, or chat with the built-in Help AI chatbot.
- Bilingual Interface: Fully localized UI with native translations for 12 major languages.
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Installation and Getting Started
1. Download the attached Nocturne.zip file.
2. Unzip it and move the Nocturne.app to your Applications folder.
3. Open the app. Since it is not notarized by Apple, you will need to bypass macOS Gatekeeper
on first launch:
- Right-click (or Control + click) Nocturne.app and select Open, then click Open again in
the warning dialog.
- Alternatively, go to System Settings, Privacy and Security, scroll down, and click "Open
Anyway" next to the Nocturne warning.
4. Set your Fn key behavior to "Do Nothing" in System Settings, Keyboard so it does not
conflict with the global push-to-talk shortcut.