Spokenly CLI (Command Line)

The spokenly CLI lets you transcribe audio and video files directly from your terminal. It connects to the Spokenly app running on your Mac and returns plain text, SRT, VTT, Markdown, or JSON output.

Install

Open Settings

Open Spokenly > General Settings, scroll to the bottom and click Install CLI.

Enter your password

macOS will ask for your password to create a symlink in /usr/local/bin/. This is a standard system directory for command-line tools. Spokenly does not gain any elevated privileges; the prompt is only for placing the shortcut there.

Use it in your terminal

Run spokenly transcribe <file> in any terminal. The installed executable is a small bash script that forwards your arguments to the locally running Spokenly app. All transcription happens inside the app itself.

Usage

spokenly transcribe <file...> [options]

Options

Flag	Description
`-f, --format <fmt>`	Output format: `text` (default), `srt`, `vtt`, `markdown`, `json`
`-s, --speakers`	Include speaker labels
`-V, --version`	Print the Spokenly CLI version and exit
`-h, --help`	Show help

Examples

Transcribe a meeting recording:

spokenly transcribe meeting.mp3

Transcribe with speaker labels in VTT format:

spokenly transcribe interview.mp3 --format vtt --speakers

Pipe output to clipboard:

spokenly transcribe meeting.mp3 | pbcopy

Transcribe multiple files:

spokenly transcribe part1.mp3 part2.mp3 --format markdown

Get JSON with segment timestamps for downstream tooling:

spokenly transcribe meeting.mp3 --format json | jq '.segments[].text'

Check the installed CLI version:

spokenly --version

Transcription Model

The CLI uses the model selected in the Transcribe File section of the app. If you have a local model like NVIDIA Parakeet selected, transcription runs entirely on your Mac. Otherwise, the file is sent to the Spokenly server for online transcription.

JSON Output Schema

The --format json flag returns a pretty-printed JSON object with the model used and an array of timed segments. speakerId is only populated when --speakers is passed.

{
  "modelId": {
    "predefined": "parakeetTDT06V2"
  },
  "segments": [
    {
      "id": "B7A7C2F3-1E0D-4B6A-9F5C-8C2E5D1A3B4F",
      "text": "Hello world.",
      "start": 0.0,
      "end": 1.42,
      "speakerId": null
    }
  ]
}

Requirements

Spokenly 2.18.13+ (macOS sideload version)
Spokenly must be running in the background

The CLI communicates with the Spokenly app's local server. If the app is not running, the command exits with an error.

Uninstall

Open Spokenly > Settings > General and click Uninstall CLI. This removes the command from /usr/local/bin.

Spokenly CLI (Command Line)

Open Settings

Enter your password

Use it in your terminal

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