LibreAI / Audio / ostt
// audio · kristoferlund/ostt

ostt

Voice-to-text for the Linux terminal, from a hotkey.

💎 Hidden gem★ 304 stars⑂ 31 forksMITupdated 2026-10
▦ visual — this project's README ships no embeddable screenshot,
so here's a placeholder. The guide below is complete regardless.
// project facts

Project facts

ostt is an open-source audio project by kristoferlund (kristoferlund/ostt on GitHub). It has 304 GitHub stars and 31 forks, is released under the MIT license, and was last updated on GitHub on 1 October 2026.

GitHub stars
304
Forks
31
License
MIT
Last updated on GitHub
1 October 2026
Category
Audio
Listing
Hidden gem — a shorter page for a lesser-known project
Official site
Official site
// how it works

How it works

  1. Clarify your goal

    Decide what you want the project to do before installing anything.

  2. Clone the repo

    Grab the source and skim the README for setup requirements.

  3. Install and configure

    Install dependencies and add any API keys or settings it needs.

  4. Run your first task

    Launch it and follow the example workflow from the docs.

// features

Why people love it

Terminal UI

A keyboard-driven interface for fast terminal workflows.

Speech-to-text

Turns spoken audio into accurate text.

Noise removal

Cleans up background noise automatically.

Speaker diarization

Knows who said what in multi-speaker audio.

Local inference

Process audio without uploading to the cloud.

Multiple formats

Handles MP3, WAV, and common audio formats.

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// run it

Run it yourself

  1. Step 1 — Clone the repo

    Download the source and move into the project folder.

    git clone https://github.com/kristoferlund/ostt.git
    cd ostt
  2. Step 2 — Build the binary

    Compile an optimized release build with Cargo.

    cargo build --release
  3. Step 3 — Run it

    Launch the release binary and check its help output.

    ./target/release/app --help
// use cases

What you can build

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// faq

Questions, answered

Who maintains ostt?

It is an open-source project at kristoferlund/ostt with 31 forks. Check the repo’s contributors and recent commits to judge how active maintenance is.

Is ostt free to use?

Yes. It is MIT licensed, so you can use it commercially with attribution.

What audio formats work?

MP3, WAV, and most common formats are supported.

Does it need a GPU?

It helps a lot for transcription speed, but CPU mode works too.

Can it handle multiple speakers?

Tools with diarization label who said what.

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// alternatives

Alternatives in Audio

The most-starred other Audio projects in the LibreAI catalogue — the realistic shortlist if ostt is not the right fit.

Get ostt

Free and open — grab the source, star the repo, and start creating.