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Code dictation and snippets

Speak symbols and casing, or expand a phrase into a reusable multi-line snippet with variables.

Code dictation turns spoken symbols and casing instructions into text. Snippets turn a short phrase into a reusable block. Both work through Nota's normal dictation pipeline; they do not edit your project files or run an autonomous coding agent.

Turn on code dictation

  1. Open a mode in Modes.
  2. Enable Code dictation and save the mode.
  3. Use that mode in your editor or terminal. Speak the identifier, punctuation and casing you need.

The mode recognises supported spoken symbols and casing commands, such as camelCase and snake_case. It avoids normal prose capitalisation. Smart Dictation is skipped for this formatting; a rewrite that you explicitly enabled in the mode can still run.

Code vocabulary can be biased by names in the front window's title, such as a file or branch. Screen-text hints are used only when that mode requests screen context and permission is already available. These are vocabulary hints, not access to the entire repository.

Create a voice snippet

  1. Open Dictionary and choose Snippets.
  2. Add a trigger phrase and the text it should expand into. The body can have several lines.
  3. Save it, then dictate its trigger in any mode.

A snippet is different from a replacement: it can contain a template and variables, and its completed text is delivered without AI cleanup rewriting it. A snippet without input slots matches its trigger as the whole dictation; input slots can consume the words spoken after the trigger.

For example, a trigger “my sign off” can insert:

Thanks,
Alex
{cursor}

Variables

VariableUses
{date}, {time}The current local date or time. An optional format can be included, such as {date:yyyy-MM-dd}.
{clipboard}Text currently on your clipboard, when the snippet expands.
{cursor}The position to place the caret after insertion, when the app supports it through Accessibility.
{input:Name}A named input filled from the words spoken after the trigger. Start with one slot before building a more complex template.

A snippet using the clipboard can include private material. Check the expanded text before sending it from the destination app.

Terminals and sending

Nota removes trailing line breaks from these outputs in terminals so a snippet does not execute a shell command just by ending with a newline. Code dictation suppresses the mode's auto-send unless an explicit spoken “enter” instruction is recognised in a mode with auto-send enabled. Spoken send is not available in terminals.

For running a script with dictated text, use the explicit Command output described in Modes.