Quick start

Get up and running with Epilude in five minutes.

Overview

Epilude is a voice productivity suite for Mac. Press a hotkey, speak naturally, and release — formatted text appears wherever your cursor is.

Setup checklist

  1. Install Epilude and grant permissions
  2. Configure an AI provider (see below)
  3. Choose your dictation hotkey
  4. Start dictating

Configure an AI provider

Epilude uses AI to transcribe and format your speech. You need at least one provider configured:

ProviderWhat it doesAPI Key required
DeepgramReal-time transcriptionYes
OpenAITranscription + formattingYes
AnthropicText formatting (Auto-Edits)Yes

Go to Epilude → Settings → AI Providers and add your API key for at least one transcription provider (Deepgram or OpenAI).

Recommended setup

For the best experience, configure Deepgram for transcription and Anthropic for Auto-Edits formatting.

Your first dictation

Open any text field

Click into any app where you can type — Notes, Mail, Slack, your browser, a code editor, anything.

Press and hold your hotkey

The default hotkey is Right Option (⌥). You'll see a small indicator appear showing Epilude is listening.

Speak naturally

Talk at your normal pace. You can say punctuation commands like "comma", "period", or "new paragraph" for formatting.

Release the key

Epilude will process your speech, format it with AI, and insert the text at your cursor position.

Smart formatting

Epilude automatically formats your speech using Smart Formatting:

  • Punctuation: Say "comma", "period", "question mark" to insert punctuation
  • Lists: Say "list" or "bullet" followed by numbered items
  • Line breaks: Say "new line" or "new paragraph"
  • Corrections: Say "actually" or "scratch that" to revise

Next steps

Was this page helpful?