The problem
Good prompts for coding agents are long: what's wrong, what you tried, what to leave alone. Saying that takes a fraction of the time it takes to type, but general-purpose dictation gets coding words wrong (userId, --help, your repository's name), keeps every "um", and leaves you fixing the text by hand before you can send it.
How Pairbar solves it
- Put the cursor in Claude's message boxOpen a chat in the Claude app and click into its message box, as if you were about to type.
- Hold ⌃⌥Space and talkHold ⌃⌥Space while you speak and let go to stop, or tap it once for hands-free dictation until you press it again. With the cursor already in the box, a quick double tap of the right ⌘ key starts and stops too. The first time, Pairbar asks for the microphone.
- Watch the words appearHover the recording capsule or click its level lines to open the words at the microphone's anchor. They aren't typed into Claude yet. Words the speech model may still change are drawn lighter. Recording, review and send remain together in that capsule.
- Let it polishWhen you stop, Whisper refines the words on your Mac, then a quick polish by your own Claude or Codex (on your plan) or on your Mac rewrites them into a clean prompt, with a stop budget that scales with dictation length. It rewrites, never answers.
- Send or insertReturn sends it into the chat; ⌥Return puts it in the message box without sending, so you can edit it there; Esc cancels. Pairbar types into Claude with the Accessibility permission; without it, the text is copied for you to paste with ⌘V.
Shortcuts
| Shortcut | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| ⌃⌥Space | Hold to talk, or tap for hands-free dictation | any app |
| Right ⌘ ×2 | Start or stop dictating into the message box | cursor in Claude's or Codex's message box |
| ↩ | Send | while the card is up |
| ⌥↩ | Insert without sending | while the card is up |
| esc | Cancel (kept in your voice history) | while the card is up |
Correct words for next time
After insertion, rate the dictation with thumbs up or thumbs down. Thumbs down opens the words: choose one word or the first and last words of a phrase, then save a replacement with Learn correction. Corrected words are marked green. Choose Add another to fix the remaining words or phrases. Your personal dictionary remembers replacements for future dictations; you can remove it in Voice settings. Ratings and the original inserted text stay in your private history.
Modes for different kinds of text
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Prompt (default) | a clear instruction for Claude or Codex: fillers and stutters out, punctuation and capitals fixed, spoken symbols turned into text, numbers as digits |
| Message | light cleanup only; symbols stay words |
| Verbatim | exactly what you said |
| Code | symbols and names said literally: "camel case user id" → userId, "snake case max retries" → max_retries |
| Notes | every sentence becomes a bullet |
| Translate to English | speak a supported language, get English |
Change the mode in Settings → Voice → Polish → Default mode or the voice menu; with Different mode per place on, Pairbar's composer, Claude's message box and Codex's each keep their own. See Modes.
It knows your project's words
Speech models get coding words wrong, so Pairbar hands macOS's model a short list of what you're likely to say where you're dictating: the project's name and branch, the files git says changed, the skills and agents it knows, about 70 common developer words, and your own Personal dictionary (pair bar -> Pairbar). Said after "slash", a skill's name snaps to the real one: "slash code review" → /code-review. See your project's words.
Privacy
- Speech recognition runs on your Mac, Whisper included. No audio is kept unless you turn on Keep audio for 24 hours.
- The polish is the only step that can leave the Mac: it sends the text (never audio) to your own
claudeorcodex, on your plan. Polish on your Mac instead and nothing leaves it. There's no Pairbar server. - Every dictation is kept in a history on your Mac (30 days to start with; Forever, 7 days or "Don't keep" in Settings → Voice → History).
Without Pairbar
Other ways to talk to Claude Code on a Mac:
| Approach | What you get | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| macOS Dictation | built-in, works in any text field | no coding-word cleanup or project vocabulary; you fix symbols and names by hand |
| A general dictation app | speech to text anywhere, often with AI cleanup | usually its own account or subscription, and it doesn't know your repository's names or skills |
| Typing | full control | slow for long, detailed prompts |
Frequently asked questions
- Does dictation send my voice to a server?
- No. Speech recognition runs on your Mac, and no audio is kept unless you turn that on. Only the polish sends the text (not audio) to your own Claude or Codex, and you can polish on your Mac instead.
- Does Polish cost anything?
- It uses your own Claude or Codex plan with a stop budget that scales with dictation length. There's no extra account or API key, and polishing on your Mac uses no plan at all.
- Will it send the message without me checking?
- Not unless you choose that. Stopping keeps the words in the card to read (Review first, the default); Return sends, ⌥Return inserts without sending, and Esc cancels.
- Which languages does it understand?
- Pairbar detects among your configured supported languages automatically. Live recognition, Whisper refinement and Polish have different language support; availability depends on the engine and your Mac. Project vocabulary helps preserve English technical terms and names. Translate to English turns supported speech into English.
- Do I need Codex for voice?
- No. Dictation works with Claude alone, Codex alone, or both, and Polish can use whichever plan you have.
Related
- PairbarVoice dictationTalk to Claude, Codex or any app on your Mac: a mic pill or ⌃⌥Space, live words, Whisper on your Mac, a quick polish on your own plan, six modes, automatic language detection and project vocabulary.
- Use caseVoice dictation for the Claude desktop app: talk, polish, sendA mic pill under Claude's message box: live words as you speak, Whisper on your Mac, a quick polish by your own Claude, and ↩ to send.
- DocsVoice dictationTalk instead of typing into the composer or Claude's and Codex's chat boxes: on this Mac, automatic language, coding words, automatic Polish, OK or Send, history
- GlossaryVoice dictation (for coding agents)Speaking a prompt instead of typing it: speech-to-text into the agent's message box, with coding words, symbols and project names cleaned up.
- Use caseA fuller sidebar for Claude Code in the Claude desktop appA sidebar over the Claude app listing every Claude Code chat across projects with live status, search, Tasks, skills, agents and limits. Claude alone is enough.
- Use caseIs Pairbar worth it if you only use Claude Code?What Pairbar adds when Claude Code is your only agent: sidebar, live status, Tasks, ⌘K search, skills, subagent transcripts, limits, voice, workflows and more.
- GuidePairbar keyboard shortcuts and how to peek at the app's own sidebarAll Pairbar shortcuts, from ⌘K and ⌃1–9 to ⌥ peek and chat-menu letters, and which ones you can switch off.
Try Pairbar free for 7 days
One sidebar for the Claude and Codex desktop apps. Everything on for 7 days, no card needed; then $49/year ($39 first year with LAUNCH), $9/month or $129 lifetime (first 200 buyers). macOS 26 or later, Apple silicon.