Orchard Dictate

Voice dictation for VS Code, powered by Orchard STT.

Press Cmd+Shift+8 (Mac) / Ctrl+Shift+8 (Win/Linux), speak, and the transcript appears at your cursor. Perfect for dictating prompts to Cursor, Claude, Copilot, or just writing faster.

Requirements

• sox (provides the rec binary used to capture mic audio):
  • macOS: brew install sox
  • Linux (Debian/Ubuntu): sudo apt-get install sox
• An Orchard API key

Install

From a packaged .vsix

code --install-extension orchard-dictate-0.2.3.vsix --force

Or via the Extensions sidebar → … menu → Install from VSIX…

From source

git clone https://github.com/orchard/orchard-vscode-dictate
cd orchard-vscode-dictate
npm install
npm run package
code --install-extension orchard-dictate-0.2.3.vsix --force

(Marketplace release coming soon.)

Setup

1. Get an API key at https://orchard.run/keys
2. Open VS Code, run command Orchard: Set API Key (or click the gear icon next to the "🎤 Dictate" status bar item)
3. Paste your key

Usage

• Cmd+Shift+8 (or click the status bar icon): start recording
• Cmd+Shift+8 again: stop, transcribe, and insert at cursor

Settings

• orchardDictate.apiUrl — Orchard backend URL (default: https://api.orchardrun.com). Override only if you're self-hosting locally (http://localhost:8000) or on your own infrastructure.
• orchardDictate.language — auto | es | en | pt | fr | de | it | hi
• orchardDictate.insertMode — cursor (default) or clipboard
• orchardDictate.notifyOnSuccess — show a toast after every success (off by default)

Troubleshooting

"sox not found" / nothing happens when I press the hotkey Install sox (brew install sox on macOS). The extension probes /opt/homebrew/bin/rec, /usr/local/bin/rec, and /usr/bin/rec before falling back to the shell PATH, so it works even when VS Code is launched from Finder/Dock (which uses a minimal GUI PATH).

Recording starts but the transcript is empty Check that your IDE has microphone permission: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone → enable for VS Code / Cursor.

Why?

If you're voice-dictating to AI agents 60+ times a day (like our power users), opening a separate recorder app every time costs you minutes. This extension cuts that to <2 seconds.

Powered by Orchard — multilingual STT at 130× real-time.

Pricing

The extension is free. Audio is processed via your Orchard account:

• Free: 500 minutes/month — covers most casual dictation use
• Hobby ($1/yr): 2,000 minutes/year for light users
• Starter ($10/mo) / Pro ($25/mo) / Enterprise: see orchard.run/pricing