Dictate in the terminal on a Mac: commit messages and coding-agent prompts by voice

The longest things developers type are no longer code. They are prompts to Claude Code or Codex, commit messages, review comments and bug reports — sentences, not syntax. Saying them takes a fraction of the time, if your dictation works where you type them: in a terminal.

The clip above plays at real speed. The cursor sits after git commit -m ". Press Fn, say "Fix the race condition in the token refresh, and retry failed requests with exponential backoff.", press Fn again, and the sentence is typed at the cursor.

How it works

MioType types into whatever has the cursor, the same way your keyboard does — so it works in Terminal, in an editor, in a browser, and inside a coding agent's prompt.

1. Put the cursor where the text should go.
2. Press Fn and talk. A small bar at the bottom of the screen shows it is listening.
3. Press Fn again. The text appears. Press Esc instead to throw it away.

There is no hold-to-talk: you can take your hands off the keyboard while you think out loud.

Make it type exactly what you said

By default MioType cleans up dictation with AI — filler words out, punctuation in. That is what you want for a prompt or a commit message. For a command, or anything where the exact words matter, change it in Settings:

• Editing level → Minimal keeps your wording and order; it only adds punctuation and drops obvious filler.
• AI editing off types exactly what was heard.

Teach it your project's words

Speech models stumble on the words developers use most: kubectl, useEffect, a service name, a teammate's surname. In MioType's Dictionary:

• Add a word once and MioType listens for it from then on.
• Add a correction — "cube control" → kubectl — for a phrase it keeps getting wrong.
• In an ordinary text field — a chat box, an editor — you can also just fix the word within a minute of dictating; MioType notices and adds it for you.

If English is your second language

Many developers think in Chinese and write prompts and commits in English. Press Fn + Left Shift instead of Fn, speak Chinese, and English is typed. Going the other way, select an English paragraph — an error message, a review comment — and press Fn + Control to read it in Chinese where it is.

What it costs, and where your voice goes

A free account includes 3,000 cloud words a week; Pro is 100,000 a month for $9.99, $59.99 a year or $149 once (pricing). Speech goes to MioType's cloud by default, which keeps no audio and no request text (privacy policy). If a codebase under NDA means audio must not leave your Mac, switch recognition to the local Whisper model in Settings.

MioType is a Mac app for Apple silicon. Comparing options? See the best dictation apps for Mac, or how it stacks up against Typeless and Wispr Flow.