Vacanam 🎙️

Voice In. Words Out.

Production-quality, local-first voice typing and AI text refinement for Windows.
Hold Ctrl+Space anywhere, speak naturally, and watch your polished words appear instantly.

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🌟 Key Features

• 🎙️ Global Push-to-Talk (Ctrl+Space) — Hold from any application (Notepad, VS Code, Word, Chrome, Terminal, Slack, Outlook), speak, release.
• 🚀 Zero-Configuration Auto-Setup — Launches with a sleek animated splash banner. If no speech model is downloaded on launch, Vacanam automatically downloads and selects the Ultra Fast (tiny ~75 MB) model.
• 🗣️ User-Centric Speech Engine Profiles:
  • ⚡ Ultra Fast (tiny ~75 MB) — Instant response for short phrases & low-end PCs.
  • ⭐ Balanced (Recommended) (small ~466 MB) — Optimal balance of speed and high accuracy.
  • 🎯 High Precision (medium ~1.5 GB) — Exceptional accuracy for technical & complex terms.
  • 👑 Maximum Accuracy (large-v3 ~3.1 GB) — Maximum precision for multi-language speech & accents.
• ⚡ Standalone Voice Action Commands & Shortcuts — Control your PC hands-free by speaking commands: "select all" (Ctrl+A), "undo that" (Ctrl+Z), "redo that" (Ctrl+Y), "copy that", "paste that", "save file" (Ctrl+S), "press enter", "press tab", "press escape", "delete line", "delete word", "switch window" (Alt+Tab), "close window" (Alt+F4), and "lock computer".
• ✍️ Smart Verbal Punctuation & Emoji Formatting — Dictate natural spoken punctuation ("comma", "period", "question mark", "new line", "new paragraph", "open paren", "smiley face", "thumbs up", "fire emoji") and watch them seamlessly format with proper spacing and auto-capitalization.
• 📝 Custom Voice Snippets & Expansion Macros — Define custom trigger phrases (e.g. "insert signature", "insert date", "my meeting link") with dynamic {DATE}, {TIME}, and {DATETIME} tags to expand boilerplate text instantly.
• 🤖 Local LLM Text Refinement (AI Mode) — Sub-second CPU grammar polish using local GGUF models (Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct & Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct) via LLamaSharp. Custom System Prompts editable directly in Settings.
• 📜 Local SQLite Transcript History & Search — Opt-in local SQLite database (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Vacanam\history.db in WAL mode) saving timestamps, raw speech, polished text, and target app badges (devenv, notepad, chrome). Features instant real-time search, one-click Copy, and single-entry deletion.
• 🔇 Microphone Health & Low Volume Alerts (<30%) — Real-time detection of muted microphones and low volume levels (<30%), warning you instantly on the floating overlay (Mic Muted 🔇 / Mic Volume 20% 🔇).
• 🎨 Windows 11 Fluent Dark UI — Animated Launch Banner, glassmorphic floating overlay with audio visualizer pulse ring, and dark Settings UI.
• 🎯 Smart 3-Strategy Text Injection:
  • Clipboard + Ctrl+V (Primary): Backup original clipboard → Paste → Restore original clipboard (<25ms).
  • SendInput Unicode (Fallback 1): Native keystroke simulation for terminal windows (cmd.exe, powershell, wt) without touching clipboard.
  • UI Automation (Fallback 2): ValuePattern.SetValue for accessible controls.
• 🔒 Zero-Trust Local Privacy:
  • ❌ No cloud APIs, no telemetry, no analytics
  • ❌ Audio is never saved to disk
  • ❌ Clipboard contents are never logged
  • ✅ Transcript history is opt-in (disabled by default) and stored 100% locally.
  • 📜 Read our full Privacy Policy or online at avikeid2007.github.io/Vacanam/privacy.html.

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📸 Pipeline Overview

 ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │                   System Tray (Idle)                    │
 └────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
                              │ Hold Ctrl+Space
                              ▼
 ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │  WASAPI 16kHz PCM Capture + Active Window Context HWND  │
 └────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
                              │ Release Ctrl+Space
                              ▼
 ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │   VAD Silence Trimming → Multi-Threaded Whisper.net     │
 └────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
                              │ Transcribed Text
                              ▼
 ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │  (Optional) LLamaSharp GGUF Local LLM Text Polish       │
 └────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
                              │ Final Text
                              ▼
 ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │  Inject Text into Active App (Clipboard / SendInput)    │
 └────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
                              │ (Opt-in)
                              ▼
 ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │   Save Transcript Record to SQLite (%LOCALAPPDATA%)     │
 └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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🚀 Quick Start & Installation

📥 Download Installer

1. Download the latest installer VacanamSetup-1.x.x.exe from GitHub Releases.
2. Run VacanamSetup-1.x.x.exe (no administrative privileges required).
3. Vacanam will launch automatically in your System Tray — hold Ctrl+Space anywhere to dictate.

Note

Code Signing: Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation.

Prerequisites for Building from Source

• Windows 10 / 11 (x64)
• .NET 10 SDK — Download .NET 10

Build & Run from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/your-org/vacanam.git
cd Vacanam

# Restore dependencies
dotnet restore Vacanam.slnx

# Build Release binary
dotnet build Vacanam.slnx --configuration Release

# Run Vacanam (runs in System Tray)
dotnet run --project src/Vacanam.App --configuration Release

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⚙️ Settings & Model Management

Right-click the Vacanam tray icon and click Settings:

• Speech Tab:
  • User-Centric Profiles: Select from Ultra Fast, Balanced, High Precision, or Maximum Accuracy.
  • Live Model Badges: See which models are ACTIVE & READY, DOWNLOADED, or NOT DOWNLOADED.
  • One-Click Download & Select: Download models directly from Settings with live progress tracking.
• Audio Tab: Live Microphone Volume Slider (0 - 100%), Mute Microphone Toggle, and Voice Activity Detection (VAD) threshold settings.
• AI Tab: Enable/disable AI text polish, customize System Prompt / Grammar Rules, and manage local GGUF models (Qwen 2.5 0.5B & Llama 3.2 1B).
• History Tab: Local SQLite Transcript Search, instant real-time filtering, target application badges, one-click Copy, single-record deletion, and Clear All History.
• General Tab: Startup & notification options.
• Privacy Tab: Local-first guarantees & opt-in transcript history toggles.

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📁 Solution Architecture

Vacanam is built with a strictly decoupled modular architecture across 8 projects:

Vacanam.slnx
├── src/
│   ├── Vacanam.Core/           Pure domain interfaces, models, and enums (net10.0)
│   ├── Vacanam.Windows/        Win32 P/Invoke (RegisterHotKey, GetForegroundWindow, SendInput)
│   ├── Vacanam.Audio/          WASAPI audio capture, pure C# AudioConverter, VAD
│   ├── Vacanam.Speech/         Whisper.net speech recognition & automatic model downloader
│   ├── Vacanam.LLM/            LLamaSharp v0.27.0 CPU local LLM text refinement engine
│   ├── Vacanam.Input/          Text injection strategies (Clipboard backup/restore, SendInput, UIA)
│   ├── Vacanam.Infrastructure/ Settings persistence (JSON), SQLite history, DI registration
│   └── Vacanam.App/            WPF UI (Tray, Floating Overlay, Launch Banner, Settings Window)

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📂 Local Model & Storage Paths

Models, settings, databases, and operational logs are stored in your local application data directory:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Vacanam\
├── Models\
│   ├── Whisper\
│   │   ├── ggml-tiny.bin (Ultra Fast ~75 MB)
│   │   └── ggml-small.bin (Balanced ~466 MB, Recommended)
│   └── LLM\
│       ├── Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct-Q4_K_M.gguf (~398 MB)
│       └── Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-Q4_K_M.gguf (~808 MB)
├── history.db (SQLite database - opt-in history)
├── Logs\
│   └── vacanam-YYYYMMDD.log
└── settings.json

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📜 License

Distributed under the MIT License. Free and open-source forever.

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Vacanam is an independent project designed for local offline voice typing on Windows.