Minimal, private push-to-talk dictation for Windows.
Hold one key, speak, release, and Parrot types wherever your cursor is.

Download the latest Windows build

Parrot is a native Windows take on digimata/parrot, built around the same simple interaction with Windows audio, reliable text insertion, and NVIDIA-capable local inference.

Quick start

1. Download Parrot-Windows-x64.zip from the latest release and extract it.
2. Run Parrot.exe. Windows SmartScreen may ask you to confirm because the app is not code-signed yet.
3. Click any text field, hold Right Ctrl, speak, then release.

Note

The first launch takes a little longer while Parrot downloads and loads the speech model. Later launches only load it from disk, which may take a few seconds; once the tray says Ready, transcription is fast.

_{The real first-launch window. The model downloads once, then stays on your PC.}

Built for quick prompting

• Your shortcut: keep Right Ctrl, choose a familiar preset, or record your own key or keyboard chord.
• Your microphone: choose any active input device from Settings.
• Useful advanced controls: tune recognition quality, GPU backend, end-of-speech protection, and reliable delivery for long prompts.
• NVIDIA acceleration: automatic CUDA, Vulkan GPU, or CPU fallback in one download.
• Private by design: audio is transcribed locally; recordings and transcripts are not saved.

Settings and GPU

Right-click the tray icon and choose Settings to select a microphone, choose a preset, or click Record shortcut and press any keyboard key or chord. You can also toggle the recording pill or start Parrot with Windows. Open Advanced only when you want finer control.

In Automatic mode Parrot tries CUDA 13, then Vulkan GPU, then CPU. Vulkan is the zero-setup NVIDIA path and only needs a current display driver; CUDA can be preferred when the CUDA 13 toolkit is installed. The active runtime appears in the tray menu.

Requirements and notes

• Windows 10 version 2004 or newer, or Windows 11, 64-bit
• Microphone permission enabled in Windows Settings
• About 430 MB extracted, plus 181 MB for the default English model
• Internet access for the one-time model download only

If the focused app is running as administrator and Parrot is not, Parrot copies the transcript to the clipboard so you can paste it with Ctrl+V.

Command-line options

Parrot.exe --hotkey F9
Parrot.exe --hotkey RightAlt --no-overlay
Parrot.exe --model C:\Models\ggml-small.bin --language auto

The command line supports RightControl, RightAlt, F8, and F9; Settings can record custom keyboard shortcuts. Use --model with a multilingual GGML Whisper model for languages other than English.

Build from source

Install the .NET 8 SDK, then run:

dotnet restore Parrot.Windows.sln
dotnet test Parrot.Windows.sln -c Release --no-restore
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\package.ps1

The self-contained ZIP is written to artifacts\Parrot-Windows-x64.zip.

License

MIT. See LICENSE and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.