Flowstay

Flowstay is a macOS menu bar app for fast transcription with smart workflows, running on FluidAudio.

Screenshots

Menu Bar Ready State

Transcribed State

Personas Settings

Requirements

• macOS 15+
• Xcode 15+ (or Swift 6.2 toolchain)

Build

swift build -c release

Run

./build_app.sh
open /Applications/Flowstay.app

Tests

swift test

Permissions

Flowstay requires:

• Microphone access
• Accessibility access (for system-wide shortcuts)

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Toggle transcription shortcut defaults to Option+Space, and you can customize it in Settings.
• Hold-to-talk input is configurable in Settings:
  • Function key mode uses Fn.
  • Alternative shortcut mode uses a separate hold-to-talk shortcut you choose.
• Hotkey behavior modes:
  • Toggle: Uses the toggle shortcut to start/stop.
  • Hold: Uses your selected hold input mode as press-to-talk.
  • Both: Toggle shortcut for toggle, selected hold input mode for hold-to-talk.
• Shortcut settings persist across app relaunches using macOS UserDefaults.

AI Providers

Flowstay personas support:

• Apple Intelligence (on-device, macOS 26+)
• OpenRouter (cloud, OAuth connection)
• Claude Code (local CLI integration)

Claude Code + Pro/Max subscriptions

When you pick Claude Code (experimental) in Settings, Flowstay invokes your locally installed claude CLI.

• If Claude Code is logged in with your Claude account, usage follows that Claude plan (including Pro/Max limits).
• If Claude Code is configured with ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, usage is billed against Anthropic API credits instead.
• Flowstay uses Claude Code CLI auth for this provider (not Agent SDK API-key auth), so users can keep their existing Claude subscription session.
• You can choose the Claude model (haiku, sonnet, opus) in Personas settings.
• Strict rewrite mode disables tools and enforces structured rewrite output; it is best-effort and can still fail on some prompts.
• Assistant (experimental) can answer requests directly instead of just rewriting transcript text.
• Setup: install Claude Code, then run claude login in Terminal.

Troubleshooting

• If the app fails to start, check Console.app for crashes referencing NSWindow collection behavior.
• If transcription fails, verify microphone permission and model download status.

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE and NOTICE.