Dettivo
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§ Day zero

Get started with Dettivo

Install the app, activate your license, grant Microphone, Accessibility, and Input Monitoring, then hold the Push-to-Talk hotkey and speak. Dettivo types into whatever app has focus.

Who this is for

New Dettivo users on Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later. If you already have the app installed and your license activated, jump straight to dictation or meetings.

How Dettivo works

Dettivo is a native macOS menu bar app. It does not run in your Dock and it does not require a cloud account. The app handles audio capture, speech-to-text, and direct insertion locally on your Mac.

Dictation runs on Apple Silicon via WhisperKit and bundled MLX models. Meeting capture taps system audio through Core Audio and falls back to ScreenCaptureKit when needed. Optional hosted providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenAI-compatible endpoints) are opt-in — you bring the key, the key lives in Keychain.

First-run checklist

Onboarding walks you through each of these in order. Permissions can be granted later from Settings if you skip a step.

  1. 01

    Download and install

    Grab the latest Mac build from the download page and drag it into Applications. Sparkle handles every subsequent update.

    dettivo.com/download

  2. 02

    Paste your license

    Onboarding asks for the key emailed at purchase. Click Save + Validate. The key persists in Keychain.

    Onboarding › License

  3. 03

    Grant Microphone

    Required for every capture. Click Request Access; macOS will prompt once.

    System Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone

  4. 04

    Grant Input Monitoring

    Required for global hotkeys. macOS requires you to drag Dettivo into the allowed-apps list and restart the app once.

    System Settings › Privacy & Security › Input Monitoring

  5. 05

    Grant Accessibility

    Lets Dettivo type into the focused app and read the active selection for Enhanced context. Without it, every transcript falls back to clipboard paste.

    System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility

  6. 06

    Try Push-to-Talk

    Hold Option+Space (the default). Speak. Release. Dettivo inserts the transcript into the focused app.

    Anywhere on your Mac

Three things worth turning on next

A Quick Note destination

Pick a folder (your Obsidian vault works) so voice notes have a home that is not the focused app.

A meeting recording

Grant Screen & System Audio Recording, then start the next meeting from the menu bar. No bot joins the call.

The CLI

`dettivo install-helper --link` symlinks the bundled CLI into `~/.local/bin/`. Pipe transcripts into anything.

§ Related

Launching April 2026

Be first on the launch list.

Dettivo opens for new purchases in April 2026. One-time license, three Macs, lifetime updates.