StarlingType for macOS
Full setup & user guide. Dictate in English and Chinese without switching languages; your voice stays on your Mac.
1. Install (≈1 minute)
- Download StarlingType-0.1.1.dmg.
- Open the
.dmgand drag StarlingType into Applications. - First launch only: right-click (or Control-click) the app → Open → confirm. One-time step — see the Gatekeeper warning.
2. First-run setup
A setup wizard runs on first launch and walks you through:
- Welcome & privacy — a quick intro; audio stays on your Mac.
- Microphone — allow it so StarlingType can hear you.
- Mode — Cursor mode (recommended) types text at your cursor in any app; Clipboard mode copies it for you to paste.
- Accessibility / Automation (cursor mode only) — grant these so StarlingType can insert text where your cursor is. The wizard explains each prompt before it appears.
- Live wake test — try a wake phrase and see "We heard you."
- Done — optionally enable Launch at login (recommended, since it's a menu-bar app with no Dock icon).
3. How to use it
Once running, StarlingType lives in your menu bar (a microphone icon).
- Say a wake phrase (see below).
- Hear the pop chirp — that's your cue to talk.
- Speak your sentence, mixing English and Chinese freely (or just one language).
- When you stop, a tink chirp plays and the text appears at your cursor (or on your clipboard, depending on your mode).
Don't feel like talking to it? Click Dictate now in the menu-bar panel to dictate without a wake phrase.
4. Wake phrases
| English | Chinese |
|---|---|
| Hey Type | 嘿小听 |
| Hey Starling | 小听小听 |
| 嘿听打 | |
| 听打听打 |
5. Settings
Open the gear panel from the menu-bar icon:
- Mode — Cursor (type at cursor) or Clipboard (copy to paste).
- Microphone device — pick your input by name (survives AirPods connect/disconnect).
- Wake sensitivity and VAD tuning.
- Audio chirps — toggle the pop/tink sounds.
- Language — System / English / Chinese for the app's own UI.
- Launch at login — keep StarlingType available without opening it each time.
- Recovery shortcuts — quick links to the Accessibility/Automation panes if you ever need to re-grant.
6. System requirements
- macOS Ventura (13.0) or later.
- Apple Silicon (M1 or newer). Intel Macs are not supported — the on-device speech engine ships Apple-Silicon binaries only.
- ~450 MB disk (mostly the speech-recognition model).
- A working microphone.
7. The Gatekeeper warning
StarlingType isn't signed with an Apple Developer ID (that program costs $99/year; for a free v1.0 we skipped it rather than pass on the cost). So macOS shows "StarlingType can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer" on first launch.
Right-click the app → Open bypasses this once; macOS remembers your choice afterward. If usage justifies it, future builds will be signed + notarized and the warning disappears.
8. Permissions after an update
macOS ties permission grants (Microphone, Accessibility) to the app's code signature. StarlingType signs every release with the same identity, so your grants carry over across updates — you shouldn't have to re-grant anything.
If a permission ever does drop, StarlingType detects it on launch and offers a one-click Re-run Setup. Manual recovery (rarely needed, ~20 seconds — order matters):
- System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility (or the gear panel's Open Accessibility).
- Select StarlingType, then click the − button to remove the entry.
- Quit StarlingType.
- Relaunch it from Applications.
- Grant the permission when prompted.
Don't skip the quit + relaunch — re-adding the entry while the old process runs leaves a cached "denied" state.
9. Known issues
- Gatekeeper warns on first launch — right-click → Open once (see section 7).
- Wake phrase can bleed into your first sentence if you don't pause — pause ~300 ms (the chirp is your cue).