STT-CLI v2.0 is a Windows-only speech-to-text tool with hybrid engine support (Whisper offline + Google online). Designed for users on corporate laptops where Win+H is disabled by IT policies. Runs as a background system tray application with no visible window, using a global hotkey (double-tap Left Alt) to toggle recording. Perfect for use with Windows Terminal, PowerShell, Claude Code, and Gemini CLI.
Key Features:
Hybrid Speech-to-Text: Whisper (offline) + Google Web Speech API (online) with switchable engines
Offline Mode: Works without internet using OpenAI Whisper (MIT licensed, privacy-focused)
Engine Toggle: System tray menu to switch between Auto-Detect, Whisper, and Google modes
About Menu: Version info and engine status at your fingertips
Auto-start on Windows Boot with persistent settings
Global hotkey activation (double-tap Left Alt)
Background operation with system tray icon
Balloon notifications for recording status and engine changes
Automatic CLI window detection (security feature)
No admin rights required
Portable executable - no installation needed
Works on corporate laptops with restricted permissions and offline environments
What's new in 2.0.0
v2.0.0 - Hybrid Speech-to-Text with Whisper Integration (November 26, 2025)
🚀 Major New Features:
Offline Speech Recognition: OpenAI Whisper "tiny" model (MIT licensed) for fully offline operation
Hybrid Engine Architecture: Auto-switch between Google (online) and Whisper (offline) based on connectivity
Engine Selection Menu: System tray submenu to manually choose Auto-Detect, Whisper, or Google engines
About Menu: New "About" section showing version, author, current engine, and Whisper status
Batch Launchers: run.bat (normal mode) and run-debug.bat (troubleshooting mode) for easy startup
🔧 Technical Implementation:
faster-whisper: 4x faster than vanilla Whisper with CTranslate2 backend
INT8 Quantization: CPU-optimized for speed (greedy decoding, beam_size=1)
Lazy Model Loading: Whisper loads on first use (~70MB one-time download)
Model Cache: Stored in %APPDATA%\stt-cli\models for persistence
Settings Persistence: Engine preference saved across sessions
Prepared for Windows Package Manager (Winget) submission
All v1.3 functionality remains intact:
Double-tap Left Alt hotkey
System tray operation
Balloon notifications
Speech-to-text in CLI windows
No admin rights required
Frequently asked questions
Is STT-CLI free?
Yes. STT-CLI is free and open-source software released under the MIT license.
What is the latest version of STT-CLI?
The latest version is 2.0.0.
Is it safe to download STT-CLI?
The download button links to the official installer published on github.com, the same file Windows Package Manager installs. You can verify the downloaded file by comparing its SHA-256 checksum with c3f2051b6cb2c8d844b81a6cb9bcf618dfc3dd148d96aebc4f34b4db7035c005.
Which Windows versions does STT-CLI support?
STT-CLI runs on Windows and is available for 64-bit (x64) systems.
How do I uninstall STT-CLI?
Open Settings › Apps › Installed apps, find STT-CLI and select Uninstall. From the command line, run winget uninstall --id=Mantej-Singh.STT-CLI -e.
Is there a portable version of STT-CLI?
Yes. STT-CLI is available as a portable program (speech-to-text-cli.exe, 64-bit (x64)) that runs without installation. Copy it to any folder or USB drive and run it from there.
Alternatives to STT-CLI
Other Audio programs for Windows from different developers.
