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Dictate

by Norm Green
productivity editor
Install Plugin
Dictate panel ready Recording in progress Note created from your dictation

Description

Record voice, transcribe locally with Whisper, and create Joplin notes or to-dos

Additional Information

Links:
Maintainers: normg
Version:1.0.4
Minimum app version:3.6
Downloads: This version:18
Last updated:2026-08-07T00:34:15Z

Joplin Dictate

Record your voice, transcribe it locally with whisper.cpp, and turn it into a Joplin note or to-do. Transcription runs entirely on your machine — no audio leaves your computer. An optional step can polish the transcript with a local, OpenAI-compatible LLM.

Features

  • One-click dictation from a dedicated Joplin panel (and the note toolbar / Tools menu).
  • Pause / Resume and Cancel while recording.
  • Transcribe an existing WAV file instead of recording.
  • Local transcription via whisper.cpp (whisper-cli).
  • Optional transcript polishing (grammar/punctuation/filler removal) via any OpenAI-compatible chat endpoint.
  • Creates the note in the currently selected notebook, or a configurable fallback notebook.

Requirements

Platform note: recording uses pw-record from PipeWire, so this plugin currently targets Linux. File transcription works anywhere whisper-cli runs.

  • PipeWire (pw-record) for audio capture — on Fedora: sudo dnf install pipewire-utils.
  • whisper.cpp, built locally, with a ggml model (e.g. ggml-small.en.bin).
  • Joplin 3.6 or newer.
  • (Optional) A local OpenAI-compatible LLM server for transcript polishing.

Installation

From the Joplin plugin store (recommended)

Tools → Options → Plugins, search for Dictate, install, and restart Joplin.

Manual

Download the .jpl from the releases and install it via Tools → Options → Plugins → Install from file.

Configuration

Tools → Options → Dictate:

  • Whisper.cpp directory — root of your whisper.cpp checkout (default: ~/whisper.cpp).
  • Whisper model file — path to the ggml model (default: ~/whisper.cpp/models/ggml-small.en.bin).
  • whisper-cli binary — path to the built executable (default: ~/whisper.cpp/build/bin/whisper-cli).
  • Polish transcripts with LLM — off by default.
  • LLM server URL — OpenAI-compatible base URL (e.g. http://localhost:1234).
  • LLM model name — model identifier sent to that server.
  • LLM request timeout (seconds) — advanced; default 60. Increase if your LLM server has a slow cold start.
  • Use selected notebook — create the note in the notebook currently selected in Joplin.
  • Default notebook ID — fallback notebook when the above is disabled.

Privacy: transcription is always local. If you enable Polish transcripts with LLM, the transcript text is sent to the LLM server URL you configure. Point it at a local endpoint (e.g. http://localhost:1234) to keep everything on your machine; a remote or plain-http URL sends note text over the network in cleartext.

Usage

Open the Dictate panel (toolbar mic button or Tools → Dictate):

  1. Dictate — start recording. The button turns into Stop.
  2. Pause / Resume — pause capture; you must Resume before you can Stop.
  3. Cancel — discard the current recording.
  4. Stop — finish, transcribe, and create the note.
  5. Transcribe file… — pick a WAV file to transcribe instead of recording.

Building from source

npm install
npm run dist   # produces publish/dev.normg.joplin-dictate.jpl

License

MIT © Norm Green