openquack

Install

Homebrew (recommended)

OpenQuack ships as a Homebrew cask. Until it’s accepted into the official homebrew-cask — that requires an Apple Developer ID + notarised builds, which is on the roadmap — install it via this repo as a tap:

brew tap larryxiao/openquack https://github.com/larryxiao/openquack
brew install --cask openquack

That points at Casks/openquack.rb in this repo, which fetches the latest DMG attached to a GitHub release.

To upgrade later:

brew upgrade --cask openquack

To uninstall:

brew uninstall --cask openquack

Once OpenQuack lands in homebrew-cask, the tap step goes away and brew install --cask openquack will work directly.

DMG (manual)

Download OpenQuack-<version>.dmg from the Releases page, open it, drag OpenQuack into Applications.

Pre-notarisation DMGs come with an “unidentified developer” prompt on first open. Bypass once with:

right-click OpenQuack.app → Open → Open

Subsequent launches don’t need that.

From source (for developers)

See DEVELOPMENT.md — covers the full build, signing options, the CLI, and the benchmark framework.

Uninstall

brew uninstall --cask openquack removes the app. Add --zap to also delete state OpenQuack writes outside /Applications:

• ~/Library/Application Support/OpenQuack/ — speech model cache, last-recording.wav, app state.
• ~/Library/Preferences/org.openquack.OpenQuack.plist — Settings.
• ~/Library/Saved Application State/org.openquack.OpenQuack.savedState
• ~/.cache/openquack-bench/ — only if you ran the benchmark CLI.

If you installed manually, dragging OpenQuack.app to the Trash is enough; the paths above are safe to leave or remove by hand.

What gets downloaded on first run

• The medium speech model (~700 MB) — cached under ~/Library/Application Support/OpenQuack/WhisperKit/. Subsequent launches don’t re-download.
• A daily check against GitHub Releases for new versions; turn it off by blocking network access if you’d rather not.

Nothing else is downloaded by default.

Permissions you’ll be asked for

1. Microphone — required. We can’t transcribe what we can’t hear.
2. Accessibility — optional. Required only for auto-paste; the transcript still goes to your clipboard if denied.

Both are reversible from System Settings → Privacy & Security at any time.

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