Drag, grant, done.
The first-launch wizard walks through every step. This page mirrors it so you can read ahead.
1. Drag Murmur to /Applications
Open the .pkg, follow the installer, then launch Murmur from /Applications or Spotlight. The wizard opens automatically on first run.
2. Input Monitoring
So Murmur can see Right ⌘ system-wide. Without this, the hotkey only works when Murmur is the active app.
Approve in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring.
3. Accessibility
So Murmur can paste the transcript into whichever text field you're focused on. macOS won't let an app toggle this on its own, so you'll need to add Murmur manually.
Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, click the +, choose Murmur, and toggle it on.
4. Microphone
macOS prompts the first time you press Right ⌘. Approve once and you're set.
Audio is buffered in memory while you hold the hotkey and discarded once Whisper transcribes it. Nothing is written to disk.
5. Optional: screen context (for AI mode)
Off by default. Enable it if you want AI mode to see the focused window when generating a reply. Murmur captures one screenshot on each AI mode trigger and sends it to Claude with the transcript.
Turning this on adds two prompts: Screen Recording permission, and an Claude API key. Skip it and quick-mode dictation still works fully.
Get a key at console.anthropic.com. Murmur stores it locally in ~/.config/voice-reply/config.json (readable only by your user account) and sends it nowhere except api.anthropic.com.
6. Pick a transcription model
Whisper runs entirely on-device via Apple's MLX framework. Three accuracy tiers, downloaded on first use and cached at ~/Library/Application Support/Murmur/models:
- Fast: 140 MB. Tiny model. Good enough for short, clear speech.
- Balanced: 470 MB. The default. Handles accents, filler words, and noisy rooms.
- Best: 1.5 GB. Highest accuracy, longest latency. Worth it for long-form dictation.
Switch any time from the menu-bar popover. Delete unused models from the picker when you're done.
You're done
Hold Right ⌘ for fast on-device dictation. Double-tap, then hold, for a Claude-polished reply. Esc mid-recording cancels.
Need to revisit this later? Click the menu-bar icon and choose Run Setup Again.