Getting Started with Hablará

Installation and Setup

Hablará runs fully offline – no cloud account needed. whisper.cpp transcribes locally, Ollama and Apple Intelligence analyse locally. OpenAI and Anthropic are optional cloud providers.

At a Glance

  1. Install
  2. Permissions
  3. Language Model
  4. AI Provider
  5. Done

Install

Free

macOS

Apple Silicon & Intel

Windows

Windows 10/11

Pro

macOS

Apple Silicon & Intel

Windows

Windows 10/11

Linux

x64 & ARM64

First Launch

Choose Language

15 languages available, auto-detected from system language.

Permissions

Grant microphone access and set up hotkey Ctrl+Shift+D.

Storage Location

Recordings stored locally.
App Store: select folder manually.

Set Up Language Model

whisper.cpp runs locally – no internet needed. The model is downloaded once (~574 MB). Auto-selected based on language setting (q8_0).

German Turbo

~574 MB

Optimised for German. Fastest option for German transcriptions.

🌐 German

Large V3 Turbo

~574 MB

Universal model for 13 languages. Best balance of quality and speed.

🌐 13 languages

Kotoba V2

~574 MB

Language-optimised for Japanese.

🌐 Japanese

ℹ️ Optional – can be set up later in Settings.

Choose AI Provider

Offline

Ollama

Fully offline – runs locally on your device, install via shell script.

macOS

⬇️ Ollama Setup (DMG, macOS)

Signed, notarized installer for macOS. Recommended for easy setup.

or manually via Terminal:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fidpa/hablara-releases/main/scripts/setup-ollama-mac.sh | bash

🪟 Windows

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fidpa/hablara-releases/main/scripts/setup-ollama-win.ps1" -OutFile "$env:TEMP\setup-ollama-win.ps1"; & "$env:TEMP\setup-ollama-win.ps1"

🐧 Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fidpa/hablara-releases/main/scripts/setup-ollama-linux.sh | bash
ollama.com →
Cloud

OpenAI

Cloud-based – fast, API key required.

Create API Key →
Cloud

Anthropic

Cloud-based – Claude models, API key required.

Create API Key →
Cloud

Mistral

Cloud-based – EU-native (Paris), GDPR-compliant without SCCs, API key required.

Create API Key →
On-Device

Apple Intelligence

Runs directly on your device – no API key, no account, no setup. Requires macOS 26+ and Apple Silicon (M1 or later) with Apple Intelligence enabled.

🔐 API keys are stored encrypted in the OS keychain. Cloud usage requires GDPR consent in the app.

Need help?

Questions about setup or a technical issue? Write to me – I'm happy to help.

Ready to go!

Press hotkey Ctrl+Shift+D or click the record button in the app.