Ghost Pepper
100% private on-device voice models for speech-to-text and meeting transcription on macOS. No cloud APIs, no data leaves your machine.
macOS 14.0+ · Apple Silicon (M1+) · Free & open source
Features
- Hold Control to talk — release to transcribe and paste into any text field
- Meeting transcription — record calls with notes, transcript, and AI-generated summaries saved as markdown
- Runs entirely on your Mac — models run locally via Apple Silicon, nothing is sent anywhere
- Smart cleanup — local LLM removes filler words and handles self-corrections
- Menu bar app — lives in your menu bar, no dock icon, launches at login
- Customizable — edit the cleanup prompt, pick your mic, toggle features on/off
How it works
Ghost Pepper uses open-source models that run entirely on your Mac. Models download automatically and are cached locally.
Speech models
| Model | Size | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Whisper tiny.en | ~75 MB | Fastest, English only |
| Whisper small.en (default) | ~466 MB | Best accuracy, English only |
| Whisper small (multilingual) | ~466 MB | Multi-language support |
| Parakeet v3 (25 languages) | ~1.4 GB | Multi-language via FluidAudio |
| Qwen3-ASR 0.6B int8 (50+ languages) | ~900 MB | Highest multilingual quality, macOS 15+ required |
| Nemotron Speech Streaming 0.6B 8-bit | ~633 MB | Low-latency English streaming via MLX Audio |
| Nemotron 3.5 ASR Streaming 0.6B 8-bit | ~721 MB | Low-latency multilingual streaming via MLX Audio |
Cleanup models
| Model | Size | Speed |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3.5 0.8B (default) | ~535 MB | Very fast (~1-2s) |
| Qwen 3.5 2B | ~1.3 GB | Fast (~4-5s) |
| Qwen 3.5 4B | ~2.8 GB | Full quality (~5-7s) |
Speech models powered by WhisperKit, FluidAudio, and MLX Audio. Cleanup models powered by LLM.swift. All models served by Hugging Face.
Getting started
Download the app:
- Download GhostPepper.dmg
- Open the DMG, drag Ghost Pepper to Applications
- Grant Microphone and Accessibility permissions when prompted
- Hold Control and speak
"Apple could not verify" warning? On macOS Sequoia, you may see a Gatekeeper warning the first time you open the app. Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the Ghost Pepper message. Click Confirm in the popup. You only need to do this once.
Build from source:
- Clone the repo
- Open
GhostPepper.xcodeprojin Xcode - Build and run (Cmd+R)
Permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Microphone | Record your voice |
| Accessibility | Global hotkey and paste via simulated keystrokes |
Privacy audit
Every core feature runs 100% on your Mac — verified by AI code review. No trust required, just point Claude at the repo and ask.
| Feature | Status | What was checked |
|---|---|---|
| Speech-to-text | ✅ Local | WhisperKit/FluidAudio/MLX Audio inference, no audio sent anywhere |
| Text cleanup | ✅ Local | Qwen LLM runs on-device via LLM.swift |
| Audio recording | ✅ Local | AVAudioEngine + ScreenCaptureKit, no streaming |
| Meeting transcription & storage | ✅ Local | Chunked transcription, markdown files on disk |
| Summary generation | ✅ Local | Local LLM summarization, no cloud API |
| OCR & screen capture | ✅ Local | Apple Vision framework, on-device |
| File storage | ✅ Local | Markdown to local filesystem, no cloud sync |
| Analytics & telemetry | ✅ Local | Local-only usage counters (UserDefaults) power the in-app Usage report panel. No Firebase, Mixpanel, Sentry, or any tracking SDK. |
Optional cloud features (disabled by default, require your own API keys): Zo AI chat, Trello integration, Granola meeting import. Model downloads are one-time from Hugging Face.
Verify it yourself: run
cat PRIVACY_AUDIT.mdin Claude Code and ask it to review the codebase against the audit prompt. The full audit includes the exact prompt and detailed file-level results.
Good to know
- Launch at login is enabled by default on first run. You can toggle it off in Settings.
- Everything stays local — transcription history and recordings are stored on your Mac only. Nothing is sent to the cloud. You can clear history anytime in Settings.
Acknowledgments
Built with WhisperKit, LLM.swift, Hugging Face, and Sparkle.
License
MIT
Why "Ghost Pepper"?
All models run locally, no private data leaves your computer. And it's spicy to offer something for free that other apps have raised $80M to build.
Enterprise / managed devices
Ghost Pepper requires Accessibility permission, which normally needs admin access to grant. On managed devices, IT admins can pre-approve this via an MDM profile (Jamf, Kandji, Mosaic, etc.) using a Privacy Preferences Policy Control (PPPC) payload:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Bundle ID | Use the signed app's bundle identifier |
| Team ID | Use the signing team's Apple Developer team ID |
| Permission | Accessibility (com.apple.security.accessibility) |
Questions or deployment issues: open an issue or use your team's internal support channel.
