Documentation

Everything you need to dictate.

One page, four sections. Installation, first dictation, custom dictionary, and how the trial & license work.

1. Installation

Requirements

  • macOS 13 Ventura or later.
  • Apple Silicon (M1 or later). Nommo uses the MLX framework to run Whisper and the cleanup model directly on the Neural Engine. Intel Macs are not supported.
  • 16 GB RAM recommended. Models load into roughly 3.5 GB; the rest is headroom for the rest of the OS.
  • About 4 GB of disk for model weights, downloaded once on first launch. Everything runs offline after that.

Install the .dmg

  1. Download Nommo from /download and open the .dmg.
  2. Drag Nommo to your Applications folder.
  3. Launch Nommo from Applications. On first launch macOS verifies the signature; this can take a few seconds.
  4. On first launch Nommo downloads the Whisper and cleanup models (~4 GB). Subsequent launches are instant and fully offline.

Grant permissions

Nommo asks for two permissions when it starts. Both are required.

  • Microphone: needed to capture your voice. Audio is processed locally and never leaves your Mac.
  • Accessibility: needed to place transcribed text into the app you are dictating into. Nommo never reads the contents of other apps — it only uses Accessibility to type text forward.

If you accidentally deny either permission, open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone / Accessibility, and toggle Nommo on.

2. First dictation

Nommo lives in your menu bar. A subtle spirit-fish icon appears once the backend models have loaded. Nothing else opens — there is no main window.

Default hotkey

Hold Right Option to record, release to transcribe. A small pill appears near the bottom of the screen while you are speaking. Release the key and your polished text lands in whatever app has focus — email draft, Slack thread, code editor, Notes.

Push-to-talk vs. toggle

Two recording modes ship in V1:

  • Push-to-talk (default): hold the hotkey to record. Release to stop. Best for short dictations and conversational speech.
  • Toggle: press once to start recording, press again to stop. Better for longer monologues where you do not want to hold the key.

Switch modes from the menu bar icon → Recording Mode.

What the pipeline does

Every dictation runs through three local stages: Whisper large-v3-turbo for transcription, a Qwen 1.5B cleanup model for filler removal and tone adaptation (skipped on the ~90% of dictations that are already clean), and your custom dictionary for domain substitutions. The pipeline targets sub-500ms end-to-end on the fast path.

3. Custom dictionary

The custom dictionary teaches Nommo names, jargon, and technical terms specific to your work. It plugs into both Whisper (as an initial prompt) and the cleanup LLM (as part of the system prompt), so your entries are recognized on transcription and preserved through polishing.

Add a term

  1. Click the Nommo menu bar icon → Dictionary.
  2. Click Add term, type the word or phrase as you want it to appear, and confirm.
  3. Terms are stored locally in a SQLite database at ~/.nommo/dictionary.db.

What works well here

  • Proper names — colleagues, clients, partners.
  • Company / product names that Whisper would otherwise spell phonetically.
  • Industry acronyms (ISO, HIPAA, SOC 2, LLM).
  • Repeating technical vocabulary in your field.

The top 100 most-used entries are injected into Whisper as an initial prompt on every dictation, so the words you use most are recognized first.

4. Trial & license

14-day free trial

Download Nommo and you get every feature for 14 days — the full cleanup pipeline, all nine app categories, the custom dictionary, push-to-talk and toggle modes. No credit card, no account. You just start dictating.

A small banner in the menu bar icon shows the days remaining. When the trial ends Nommo stops transcribing new dictations until a license is activated.

Buy and activate

  1. Buy Nommo Pro ($99 one-time) from the pricing section. Checkout is handled by Lemon Squeezy — they are the merchant of record.
  2. After purchase you receive a license key by email. Keep it somewhere safe.
  3. In Nommo: menu bar icon → License → Activate, and paste the key.
  4. The key activates on your Mac. A single license covers up to 3 Macs you personally use.

License transfer

Getting a new Mac? Deactivate the old one first (menu bar → License → Deactivate), then activate the new one with the same key. You can deactivate from any Mac at any time — no support ticket needed.

What Pro unlocks

  • Unlimited dictation beyond the 14-day trial.
  • License transfer across your own machines (up to 3).
  • Priority email support at support@getnommo.com.
  • Early access to V2 features.

V1 updates are included forever. Major version upgrades (V2, V3) may be separate purchases at a reduced upgrade price. We will never take features away from a version you paid for.