lel

X11 transcription daemon that records audio, runs Whisper, logs the transcript, and can optionally run AI post-processing before injecting text.

Requirements

• X11 (not Wayland)
• ffmpeg
• whisper (OpenAI Whisper CLI)
• xclip
• Tray icon deps: libappindicator3 and gtk3 (required by systray)

Build

make build

Config

Create ~/.config/lel/config.json:

{
  "hotkey": "Cmd+m",
  "ffmpeg_input": "pulse:default",
  "ffmpeg_path": "",
  "whisper_model": "base",
  "whisper_lang": "en",
  "whisper_device": "cpu",
  "whisper_extra_args": "",
  "record_timeout_sec": 120,
  "whisper_timeout_sec": 300,
  "segment_sec": 5,
  "streaming": false,
  "injection_backend": "clipboard",

  "ai_enabled": true,
  "ai_provider": "ollama",
  "ai_model": "llama3.2:3b",
  "ai_temperature": 0.0,
  "ai_system_prompt_file": "",
  "ai_base_url": "http://localhost:11434",
  "ai_api_key": "",
  "ai_timeout_sec": 20
}

Env overrides:

• WHISPER_MODEL, WHISPER_LANG, WHISPER_DEVICE, WHISPER_EXTRA_ARGS
• WHISPER_FFMPEG_IN
• WHISPER_STREAM, WHISPER_SEGMENT_SEC, WHISPER_TIMEOUT_SEC
• LEL_RECORD_TIMEOUT_SEC, LEL_HOTKEY, LEL_INJECTION_BACKEND
• LEL_FFMPEG_PATH
• LEL_AI_ENABLED, LEL_AI_PROVIDER, LEL_AI_MODEL, LEL_AI_TEMPERATURE, LEL_AI_SYSTEM_PROMPT_FILE
• LEL_AI_BASE_URL, LEL_AI_API_KEY, LEL_AI_TIMEOUT_SEC

Run manually

./leld --config ~/.config/lel/config.json

Disable the tray icon:

./leld --no-tray

systemd user service

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
cp leld lelctl ~/.local/bin/
cp systemd/lel.service ~/.config/systemd/user/lel.service
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now lel

Usage

• Press the hotkey once to start recording.
• Press it again to stop and transcribe.
• The transcript is logged to stderr.

Execution flow (single in-flight state machine):

• recording -> transcribing -> processing (optional) -> outputting -> idle

Injection backends:

• clipboard: copy to clipboard and inject via Ctrl+V (requires xclip + xdotool)
• injection: type the text with simulated keypresses (requires xdotool)

AI providers:

• ollama: calls the local Ollama HTTP API (/api/generate)
• openai_compat: calls a chat-completions compatible API (/v1/chat/completions)

Dependency checks:

• Recording requires ffmpeg (or set ffmpeg_path)
• Transcribing uses the whisper CLI
• Outputting requires xclip (and xdotool for injection backends)

Control:

lelctl status
lelctl reload
lelctl stop