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Install

Install localvoxtral, update it, remove it, or switch to nightly builds. You need an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 15 or later.

Install localvoxtral

Pick one of three ways. The installer script is the simplest:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/T0mSIlver/localvoxtral/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Homebrew users can install from our own tap:

brew install --cask T0mSIlver/localvoxtral/localvoxtral

You can also download the latest DMG from Releases. Releases are signed with Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so all three open without a Gatekeeper prompt.

Set up on first launch

On first launch, a setup wizard asks for the microphone and Accessibility permissions. It then asks which engine to use.

The local engine downloads its models first. Mistral's hosted API needs only an API key and downloads nothing.

You can dictate as soon as the wizard finishes. To run it again later, open it from Settings.

Update localvoxtral

Update the same way you installed:

  • Run the installer script again.
  • With Homebrew, run the upgrade:
brew upgrade --cask localvoxtral
  • Or download the newest DMG and replace the app in your Applications folder.

Updates keep your settings, your downloaded models and the config files you edited (how new defaults arrive).

Note

Releases before October 2026 were ad-hoc signed. After your first update from one of them, macOS asks for the Accessibility permission again, once. If the dictation hotkey does nothing, remove localvoxtral from System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility (Device Control and Data Access on macOS 27) and add it back. Later updates keep the grant.

Uninstall with Homebrew

This command also removes settings, downloaded engines and caches:

brew uninstall --cask --zap localvoxtral

It leaves two things that other apps can share. Models stay in ~/.cache/huggingface, and so does ~/Library/Application Support/default.store, where older versions kept the dictation history. Stored API keys stay in your login keychain.

The Homebrew cask

The cask follows stable releases. A stable release ships every day that the main branch has something new and checked, so a Homebrew upgrade never moves you onto a nightly.

The tap is T0mSIlver/homebrew-localvoxtral. The release pipeline points it at each stable release once that release is public.

@achembarpu wrote the first version of the cask.

Try a nightly build

Stable releases ship daily, so most people need nothing else. Nightlies are prereleases of the main branch, cut on demand, for testing a fix before the next daily release.

Nightlies pass the same checks as a stable release except the end-to-end dictation check. They pass unit tests, live speech-to-text integration, packaging, and a launch smoke test.

To install the newest nightly or stable release, whichever is newer, run:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/T0mSIlver/localvoxtral/main/scripts/install.sh | LOCALVOXTRAL_CHANNEL=nightly bash

Re-running that command never leaves you behind stable. To follow stable only, run the plain installer command instead. Your settings and models are kept either way.

To install one specific build, pass its tag:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/T0mSIlver/localvoxtral/main/scripts/install.sh | LOCALVOXTRAL_VERSION=v0.8.5-nightly.20260916 bash

Only the seven most recent nightlies are kept, so pin a tag only for a build you are testing now. Nightlies are notarized like stable releases. The rare nightly built while signing was unavailable says so at the top of its release notes; install it with the installer script, which re-signs it on your Mac.