AICHE +

G

Ghostty Integration

The short answer: Native macOS dictation has known issues with Ghostty (Voice Control bugs, Secure Keyboard Entry conflicts). AICHE bypasses all of this - press ⌃+⌥+R, speak your commit message or command, and text inserts directly into Ghostty without touching Apple's broken dictation stack.

If you've tried using macOS Voice Control or fn+fn dictation in Ghostty, you've hit the wall: flashing dictation icon, text not appearing in real-time, or nothing happening at all. These are documented issues in Ghostty's GitHub (#2473, #3728, #8717).

AICHE doesn't use macOS dictation. It records audio independently, transcribes via cloud AI, and inserts text directly. No Voice Control, no Secure Keyboard Entry conflicts, no Ghostty-specific bugs.

1. Open Ghostty terminal.
2. Position cursor where you want text (middle of a git commit, after echo, in a heredoc).
3. Press ⌃+⌥+R (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt+R (Linux) to start AICHE recording.
4. Speak naturally - commit messages, documentation, complex commands.
5. Press the hotkey again to stop.
6. Text appears at cursor position in 2-4 seconds.

Heads-up: Unlike native dictation, AICHE works regardless of Ghostty's "Secure Keyboard Entry" setting. You don't need to disable security features to use voice input.

The pro-tip: You speak 3x faster than you type. Detailed commit messages that explain why a change exists (not just what changed) take 15 seconds to dictate vs 2 minutes to type. Your git history becomes actually useful.

Result: Voice input in Ghostty that works every time. No flashing icons, no real-time preview issues, no fighting with macOS Voice Control settings.

Do this now: Open Ghostty, type git commit -m ", press ⌃+⌥+R, speak your commit message, press the hotkey again, close the quote, hit Enter.

Why Native Dictation Fails in Ghostty

The Technical Problem

Ghostty uses a modern GPU-accelerated architecture that handles text input differently than Terminal.app. macOS dictation expects specific input method behaviors that Ghostty doesn't fully implement (yet).

Known issues:

• Voice Control dictation shows flashing icon but inserts no text
• fn+fn dictation doesn't show real-time text preview
• Secure Keyboard Entry (a security feature) blocks dictation entirely
• Some dictation modes work inconsistently across macOS versions

Why AICHE Works

AICHE bypasses the entire macOS input method stack:

1. Independent audio capture - Records via system microphone, not tied to any app
2. Cloud transcription - Processes audio on AICHE servers, not macOS Speech Recognition
3. Direct text insertion - Simulates keystrokes or clipboard paste, works in any app
4. No input method dependencies - Doesn't care how Ghostty handles IME

This architectural difference means AICHE works in Ghostty (and every other terminal) regardless of Apple's dictation bugs.

Best Use Cases in Ghostty

Git Commit Messages

Stop writing "fixed bug" commits. Dictate the full context:

"Refactor database connection pooling to use HikariCP instead of c3p0.
Reduces connection acquisition time from 50ms to 5ms based on load testing
with 100 concurrent requests. Updates max pool size to 20 with 30 second
timeout. Adds health check query to catch stale connections. Backward
compatible - no changes needed in data access layer."

That's 45 seconds of speaking vs 3 minutes of typing.

CLI Documentation

Writing heredocs or echo statements for README content:

cat << 'EOF' > INSTALL.md
[dictate your installation instructions here]
EOF

Speak the documentation naturally, AICHE handles punctuation and formatting.

Complex Commands

Long curl commands, docker run with many flags, kubectl with YAML inline - anything where you know what you want but typing it is tedious.

SSH Sessions

AICHE works over SSH too. The text inserts into your local Ghostty, which sends it to the remote shell. Voice input for remote servers without any server-side setup.

Ghostty-Specific Tips

Tabs and Splits

Use Ghostty's tab/split features with AICHE:

• Dictate in one pane while watching build output in another
• Keep a reference pane open while voice-coding in the main pane
• Split horizontally for wide commit messages

GPU Acceleration

Ghostty's GPU rendering doesn't affect AICHE. Text insertion happens at the same speed regardless of how many terminal cells Ghostty is rendering.

Configuration

No Ghostty config changes needed. AICHE works with default settings. If you have custom keybindings that conflict with ⌃+⌥+R, either:

• Change your Ghostty binding
• Use AICHE with Ghostty window focused and press Space bar instead

Comparison: AICHE vs Native Dictation

Feature	macOS Dictation in Ghostty	AICHE in Ghostty
Basic functionality	Inconsistent (known bugs)	Works reliably
Real-time preview	Often broken	N/A (inserts on completion)
Secure Keyboard Entry	Must disable	Works with it enabled
Voice Control mode	Flashing icon, no text	Works
Punctuation	Basic	AI-enhanced (Message Ready)
Multi-language	Limited	Full translation support
Offline	Yes	Queues for later

Troubleshooting

Text Not Inserting

1. Verify AICHE is running (check menu bar icon)
2. Confirm Ghostty window has focus when you stop recording
3. Try clicking into Ghostty before stopping the recording

Wrong Window Gets Text

AICHE inserts into the last focused window before recording started. If you click elsewhere during recording, text may go to the wrong app. Keep focus on Ghostty throughout.

Hotkey Doesn't Work

On macOS, verify Accessibility permissions for AICHE:
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → AICHE (checked)

Related

• AICHE with iTerm2 - Another popular macOS terminal
• AICHE with Warp - AI-native terminal
• AICHE with Windows Terminal - Windows users
• Voice-to-Text Hotkey - How the global hotkey works