Dictate prompts to Claude Code and Cursor on Mac

Claude Code has a built-in /voice mode that works inside Claude Code only: hold Space, talk, let go (per code.claude.com, checked 2026-09-27). To dictate into Cursor, VS Code, the terminal, PR descriptions and tickets as well, use a system-wide dictation app with a hold-to-talk key, a mode that switches on in your editors, and a dictionary with your repo’s names.

Option 1: Claude Code’s built-in /voice

Type /voice in Claude Code. By default you hold Space to record and let go to stop; there is also a tap mode, tap once to start and again to send. Transcription does not use your tokens or messages.

The limits, from the same docs page:

• It works in Claude Code and nowhere else.
• It needs you logged in with a claude.ai account. API-key, Bedrock, Vertex and Foundry setups don’t get it.
• It needs a local microphone, so no SSH sessions or cloud sessions.

If all your prompting happens in Claude Code on your own Mac, that is enough. Stop here.

Option 2: a system-wide dictation app

Most developers write in more places than one CLI: Cursor’s agent chat, Codex, a commit message, a PR description, a Linear ticket, a Slack reply to the reviewer. A system-wide app types into all of them the same way.

Option	Works in	Cost (as of 2026-09-27)	Custom words
Claude Code /voice	Claude Code only	Included with a claude.ai login	Not in the docs
Apple Dictation	Any text field	Free	No
Nota	Any app: Terminal, iTerm, Cursor, VS Code, browsers	5,000 words free, then $79 once ($59 early bird until December 31, 2026)	Yes: dictionary hints and replacements

With Nota: hold your shortcut (hold to talk, or double-tap to lock hands-free in the default Auto trigger), say the prompt, let go. The text is pasted where the cursor is.

Set up a coding mode that switches by app

A mode is a set of choices (speech model, language, rewrite, what happens after the paste) that switches on by itself in the apps you list.

1. Open Modes, click New mode, call it Code.
2. Add the apps: Terminal, iTerm, Cursor, VS Code, and any other editor you use.
3. Leave Rewrite with AI off. Prompts go in as you said them; the model on the other end reads spoken text fine.
4. Leave Auto send on None so you read before you run. For a chat pane where you trust it, Return or Command-Return is an option.
5. Pick a model. A local model (Parakeet or Whisper) keeps your code talk on your Mac; a cloud model on your key is there if names come out better.

If you use Smart Dictation elsewhere, it also runs in modes with the rewrite off. Add a destination rule for your editors that points to a style of your own, such as “keep wording and code terms exactly, only fix punctuation”.

For builders: a mode’s Result can be Command instead of Paste. Nota then hands the final text to a shell command of yours, on standard input and in the NOTA_TRANSCRIPT environment variable, and pastes nothing. That is enough to send a spoken note straight into a script, a CLI or a queue.

Teach it your repo’s words

Speech models guess at useEffect, kubectl, your service names and your colleagues’ names. Fix that once in the dictionary:

• Words are sent to the speech model as hints. Whisper, GPT Transcribe, Deepgram Nova-3, ElevenLabs Scribe, AssemblyAI, Soniox, Speechmatics and Gemini accept them. Parakeet does not take hints.
• Replacements run after every dictation, on any model. Say “use effect”, get useEffect. Say “cube control”, get kubectl.
• Auto Learn: when you correct a word right after it was pasted, Nota offers to remember the fix. Its review step uses the AI provider you set.

Start with the ten names you say most. The Suggestions tab lists terms you said often in the last 30 days that are not in the dictionary yet.

Prompts that work better spoken

• Describe the bug like you would to a colleague. What you did, what you expected, what happened, what you already ruled out. Spoken, that takes a minute; typed, most people skip half of it.
• State the constraints out loud. “Don’t touch the public API, keep the tests passing, no new dependencies.” Easy to say, tedious to type.
• Review by voice. Read the diff, then say what bothers you. “The retry loop has no backoff, and the error message leaks the path.” Paste that into the PR.

Keep code itself typed. Dictating syntax is slow in any tool; dictate intent and let the agent write the code.

Shortcuts and trigger options are on the shortcuts page, and modes on the modes page.