I got sick of dictation apps charging monthly fees, so I built a local-first alternative
Hi r/Tauri,
I got fed up with every decent dictation tool locking my data behind a subscription, so I built my own. It's called Verenu.
The concept is simple: hold a global hotkey (Ctrl + Space on macOS, Ctrl + Windows on PC), talk, let go, and it drops cleaned-up formatted text directly into whatever app you're using. Works anywhere — docs, email, Discord, whatever.
Why Tauri? Because I wanted something actually lightweight. Wispr Flow, my main competitor, sits at 500MB+ of RAM. Verenu runs under 200MB. Built with Tauri, Svelte, Rust, and SQLite.
How it works:
- Bring your own API keys — currently supports Groq, OpenAI, and Google
- Groq is the recommended pick. For a ~50 word sentence you're looking at 1-2 seconds from release to text
- Audio is recorded locally and only sent to the API you choose. Your keys live in Windows Credential Manager or macOS Keychain. Everything else stays in a local SQLite database. Zero telemetry
- Custom snippets, personal dictionary, and app-specific formatting profiles
Heads up: It's a beta, unsigned app. I've attached VirusTotal scans to every release. Expect some rough edges.
On how I built it, Verenu is AI-assisted. I used Claude/Codex for a lot of the implementation work, and I’m being upfront about that because the repo is public and the workflow is pretty obvious. My role has been product direction, architecture choices, reviewing changes, testing, debugging, and deciding what actually ships. I’m not trying to pretend this was hand written line by line I’m trying to ship a useful, reviewable open-source app that works.
I've been using it daily for a month, dictated nearly 30k words through it, and it's genuinely part of my workflow now. Download it, poke at the code, tell me what's broken, or just use it.
Repo: https://github.com/MONKE2525E/Verenu
Edit / clarification: By “local-first,” I mean the app itself runs locally, stores history/settings locally in SQLite, keeps API keys in Windows Credential Manager or macOS Keychain, and does not use Verenu servers or telemetry.
Transcription currently uses your own Groq/OpenAI/Google API key. Full local transcription is not in yet, but local model support is something I’m interested in exploring.