FAQs

Common questions.

Things that come up often about Parakeety, the local Mac dictation app, with proper answers. If you've hit something that isn't here, please drop me a note and I'll add it.

Parakeety says it can't reach the server.

Transcription itself runs entirely on your Mac, but Parakeety does make one network call to validate your trial or license with my server. If a firewall, VPN, or app-level blocker like Little Snitch denies that call, you'll see "Couldn't reach server" in the menu bar, and push-to-talk won't fire while Parakeety is in that state.

To fix it, allow Parakeety to make outgoing connections in whatever's blocking it. Little Snitch will show you the destination when it prompts about Parakeety, so you can just click Allow when that pops up. Then do any one of the following:

  • Click Retry now in the menu bar dropdown.
  • Open Settings and click Try again next to License.
  • Open Settings and paste your license key, then click Activate. The activation call doubles as a retry.

If you've already unblocked it and left Parakeety running, it'll also auto-retry every 30 seconds on its own while it's stuck, so you don't have to babysit it. Pop the Mac to sleep and back, switch wifi networks, or come back to the app from another window, and Parakeety will retry then too.

I'm holding § and nothing happens.

A few things gate push-to-talk. Run through these in order:

  1. Has the model finished loading? First launch downloads about 600 MB. The menu bar dropdown will say "Loading model..." while that's in progress.
  2. Has Parakeety reached the server? If the menu bar reads "Couldn't reach server", see the question above. Push-to-talk is paused while Parakeety can't confirm your trial or license.
  3. Are microphone and accessibility permissions granted? Settings shows "Granted" next to each when they are.
  4. Is your keyboard ISO or ANSI? Parakeety listens for both § (the key below Esc on UK and most European layouts) and ` (the key below Esc on US layouts). One of those should fire on your hardware. If a tool like Karabiner is remapping that key, it'll intercept the press before Parakeety sees it.

Can I change the push-to-talk key?

Not yet, but it's on the list. For now, Parakeety listens for either § (ISO/UK keyboards) or ` (ANSI/US keyboards), whichever sits below Esc on your hardware. I'll add a hotkey picker in Settings in a future build.

Which model does Parakeety use? Where does my audio go?

Parakeety uses NVIDIA's Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3 model, running entirely on your Mac through Apple's CoreML. Your audio never leaves the device.

The only network call Parakeety ever makes is to my license server, to validate your trial or license. That call carries a hashed machine identifier plus your license status. Your audio, your transcripts, and the contents of your clipboard are never uploaded, never logged, and never sent anywhere. If you want the longer version of how that contrasts with cloud dictation tools, Does Wispr Flow run locally? covers it.

Does Parakeety work in other languages?

Yes, across 25 European languages, auto-detected. Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3 covers English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovenian, Greek, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Russian, and Ukrainian. The model picks up which one you're speaking by itself, no setting to change.

Languages outside that list, including Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Turkish and Hebrew, are not supported at the moment. Wider coverage will roll in as a free update if a multilingual successor model becomes practical to ship.

Parakeety isn't showing up in the Accessibility list. How do I add it?

In System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, Parakeety should appear in the list with a toggle. If it doesn't, you can add it manually: open a new Finder window, go to Applications, and drag the Parakeety icon straight onto the Accessibility list. Alternatively, click the + button at the bottom of the list and choose Parakeety from the file picker.

Once it's in the list, flip the toggle on. That's the permission Parakeety needs to paste your transcript at the cursor (it synthesizes a Cmd+V keystroke into whichever app you're typing into). If you skip this, transcripts still land on your clipboard, but you'll have to paste them yourself.

Something's gone wrong. How do I report it?

Open Parakeety's Settings and scroll down to the Help section. Click Report an issue and a diagnostic report is copied to your clipboard, ready to paste into the contact form. Transcript content is never included in the report, so you can send it without worrying about what you've dictated leaking out.

The same panel has an Open button next to Diagnostic log if you'd like to read the log file yourself.

Got a question that isn't here?

Send it to me through the contact page. If it's the kind of thing other people are likely to ask too, I'll add it here.