How to set up Walkie on Linux

Which package to use

All three are on the download page. The Arch package is the only one that updates itself, because it comes from a repository.

Install on Arch, Omarchy or Manjaro

Add Walkie's package repository once, then install and update with pacman like any other package.

# /etc/pacman.conf
[walkie]
SigLevel = Optional TrustAll
Server = https://b150.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/walkie/arch/$arch

sudo pacman -Syu walkie-bin

Install on Debian or Ubuntu

sudo apt install ./Walkie_*_amd64.deb

Run the AppImage

chmod +x Walkie_*.AppImage
./Walkie_*.AppImage

Give Walkie a hotkey on Wayland

This is the one part of Linux setup that has no equivalent on macOS or Windows. Wayland has no protocol that lets an application listen for a global keyboard shortcut, so Walkie's in-app shortcut setting cannot see your keypress. Your compositor has to do it instead, and run a Walkie command when the key goes down and up.

Hyprland 0.55 and newer

Add to ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.lua:

hl.bind("SUPER + CTRL + X", hl.dsp.exec_cmd("walkie --toggle-transcription"))
hl.bind("F9", hl.dsp.exec_cmd("walkie --start-transcription"))
hl.bind("F9", hl.dsp.exec_cmd("walkie --stop-transcription"), { release = true })

Hyprland 0.54 and older

Add to ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf:

bind  = SUPER CTRL, X, exec, walkie --toggle-transcription
bind  = , F9, exec, walkie --start-transcription
bindr = , F9, exec, walkie --stop-transcription

Sway

bindsym --no-repeat F9 exec walkie --start-transcription
bindsym --release F9 exec walkie --stop-transcription

GNOME and KDE

Both let you add a custom shortcut in their settings, but neither can bind a key release, so you get press-to-toggle rather than push-to-talk. Point the shortcut at:

walkie --toggle-transcription

For real push-to-talk on those desktops, switch Walkie's keyboard backend to evdev in Settings, which reads the keyboard directly. It needs your user to be in the input group:

sudo usermod -aG input $USER   # then log out and back in

Text injection

Walkie types your transcription into whatever app has focus, using whichever tool your session supports. Install the one that matches your setup:

Also install wl-clipboard so clipboard-based pasting works. On Arch the package install pulls these in as optional dependencies; on other distros install them yourself.

Meeting audio

To record the other side of a call, Walkie reads your speakers' monitor source through PipeWire's PulseAudio layer. Install:

sudo pacman -S pipewire-pulse libpulse pipewire-alsa

• pipewire-pulse and libpulse provide the monitor source Walkie records from.
• pipewire-alsa is what lets your microphone work at all — without it, recording fails with a device error.

The Omarchy bar widget

On Omarchy, Walkie can live in your bar: it shows whether Walkie is idle, recording, transcribing or in a meeting, and clicking it starts dictation. The widget ships inside the walkie-bin package — see Walkie on Omarchy for how to install and configure it.

Other status bars

The widget is a thin wrapper around a command you can call from any bar. walkie status prints one line of Waybar-shaped JSON and exits; walkie status --watch streams a line every time the state changes.

{"text":"<glyph>","alt":"recording","class":"recording","tooltip":"Walkie — recording"}

text is a Nerd Font icon you can ignore in favour of your own. class carries the state: idle, recording, analyzing, transcribing, thinking, speaking, error, meeting, or stopped when Walkie is not running. For Waybar:

"custom/walkie": {
  "exec": "walkie status --watch",
  "return-type": "json",
  "format": "{}",
  "tooltip": true,
  "on-click": "walkie --toggle-transcription"
}

Start Walkie on login

Hyprland ignores the XDG autostart entry Walkie writes, so use its systemd user service instead. The package installs the unit; enable it once:

systemctl --user enable --now walkie

Or, if you would rather keep it in your compositor config:

exec-once = walkie --start-hidden

Known limitations

• The recording overlay is off by default. Some compositors treat it as the focused window, which stops Walkie pasting back into the app you were typing in. You can turn it on in Settings if yours behaves.
• Builds are unsigned. Your desktop may warn on first launch.
• Read Aloud's text capture is limited on Wayland. Reading a selection from another app does not work on every compositor yet; dropping a file onto Walkie always does.