Dictation (speech to text) on Bookstack through OpenAI Whisper #3469

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OVERLORD · 2026-02-05T06:48:57+03:00

OVERLORD commented

2026-02-05 06:48:57 +03:00

Originally created by @rounakdatta on GitHub (Jan 23, 2023).

Describe the feature you'd like

Dictation would be a much loved feature on Bookstack. What if there would be a mic button pressing which the dictation module is activated. Many folks must be using Bookstack for mind dumps and hence such a feature would be pretty interesting. OpenAI Whisper is open-source and with community development like whisper.cpp, I feel self-hosting Whisper isn't that big of a deal. Connecting Bookstack to the self-hosted Whisper API can help us achieve the feature.

Bonus: If the dictation service is able to take into account meta things like - "insert a joy emoji", "start a newline with Large Header", "quote ... unquote" etc, that would be pretty awesome. If our custom server which processes these meta instructions, that improves QoL much more.

Describe the benefits this would bring to existing BookStack users

A lot of folks must be using Bookstack for diary-writing or even for mind dumps. It might be very helpful in such situations.
Often tools like Otter are used to take meeting notes and transcriptions. Imagine where we just turn on the mic button on Bookstack and the entire meeting transcription gets recorded there itself on a page.

Can the goal of this request already be achieved via other means?

The base feature doesn't exist as of today. Whether or not we decide to use OpenAI Whisper is a thing to discuss.

Have you searched for an existing open/closed issue?

I have searched for existing issues and none cover my fundemental request

How long have you been using BookStack?

1 to 5 years

Additional context

No response

Originally created by @rounakdatta on GitHub (Jan 23, 2023). ### Describe the feature you'd like Dictation would be a much loved feature on Bookstack. What if there would be a mic button pressing which the dictation module is activated. Many folks must be using Bookstack for mind dumps and hence such a feature would be pretty interesting. [OpenAI Whisper](https://github.com/openai/whisper) is open-source and with community development like [whisper.cpp](https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp), I feel self-hosting Whisper isn't that big of a deal. Connecting Bookstack to the self-hosted Whisper API can help us achieve the feature. Bonus: If the dictation service is able to take into account meta things like - "insert a joy emoji", "start a newline with Large Header", "quote ... unquote" etc, that would be pretty awesome. If our custom server which processes these meta instructions, that improves QoL much more. ### Describe the benefits this would bring to existing BookStack users - A lot of folks must be using Bookstack for diary-writing or even for mind dumps. It might be very helpful in such situations. - Often tools like [Otter](https://otter.ai/) are used to take meeting notes and transcriptions. Imagine where we just turn on the mic button on Bookstack and the entire meeting transcription gets recorded there itself on a page. ### Can the goal of this request already be achieved via other means? The base feature doesn't exist as of today. Whether or not we decide to use OpenAI Whisper is a thing to discuss. ### Have you searched for an existing open/closed issue? - [X] I have searched for existing issues and none cover my fundemental request ### How long have you been using BookStack? 1 to 5 years ### Additional context _No response_

OVERLORD added the 🔨 Feature Request label 2026-02-05 06:48:57 +03:00

OVERLORD closed this issue

2026-02-05 06:48:59 +03:00

OVERLORD commented

2026-02-05 06:49:02 +03:00

@ssddanbrown commented on GitHub (Jan 24, 2023):

Thanks for the request @rounakdatta.
To be honest, this is not something I'd be particularly keen on including myself. While you say it would be a much loved feature, this is the first request I've had for such a feature. Therefore I don't think there'd be enough benefit to warrant the build, maintenance, support and reliance on external libraries/technologies (Whisper or otherwise).
I think this would be something better served at an operating system or browser extension level, like many existing speech-to-text systems.

@ssddanbrown commented on GitHub (Jan 24, 2023): Thanks for the request @rounakdatta. To be honest, this is not something I'd be particularly keen on including myself. While you say it would be a much loved feature, this is the first request I've had for such a feature. Therefore I don't think there'd be enough benefit to warrant the build, maintenance, support and reliance on external libraries/technologies (Whisper or otherwise). I think this would be something better served at an operating system or browser extension level, like many existing speech-to-text systems.

OVERLORD commented

2026-02-05 06:49:09 +03:00

@rounakdatta commented on GitHub (Jan 29, 2023):

Yup, on re-thinking, this might better be implemented as a browser extension to allow more applications to benefit from it. I'm hence closing this issue.

@rounakdatta commented on GitHub (Jan 29, 2023): Yup, on re-thinking, this might better be implemented as a browser extension to allow more applications to benefit from it. I'm hence closing this issue.

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Reference: starred/BookStack#3469