Whisp is an Oh My Zsh plugin that adds idempotency and convenience features to OpenAI's Whisper CLI tool. It helps you efficiently transcribe audio files without duplicating work.

• Idempotent Processing: Skip files that already have transcriptions unless explicitly forced
• Batch Processing: Transcribe multiple files with a single command
• Extension Filtering: Process files of specific audio types
• Model Selection: Easily switch between Whisper models
• Recursive Searching: Optionally find audio files in subdirectories
• Output Control: View Whisper's real-time output or suppress it
• Resource Management: Limit CPU usage to prevent system slowdown

• Oh My Zsh
• OpenAI's Whisper CLI tool properly installed and available in your PATH

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/whisp.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/whisp

2. Add the plugin to your .zshrc file:

   plugins=(... whisp)

3. Reload your shell:

   source ~/.zshrc

# Transcribe all supported audio files in the current directory
whisp
# Transcribe a specific file
whisp file.mp3
# Transcribe all files with a specific extension
whisp mp3
# Transcribe files with any of multiple extensions
whisp mp3 m4a wav
# Transcribe multiple specific files
whisp file1.mp3 file2.m4a

# Choose which Whisper model to use (default is turbo)
whisp --model tiny
whisp --model base
whisp --model small
whisp --model medium
whisp --model large
whisp --model turbo
# Force transcription even if a transcription already exists
whisp --force
# Specify language for transcription
whisp --language en
# Search for audio files in subdirectories
whisp --subdir
# Run silently (suppress Whisper output)
whisp --silent
# Limit CPU cores used (reduces system load)
whisp --cores 2
# Combine options
whisp mp3 --model medium --force --subdir --cores 4

• Single File Mode: If a transcription exists, prompts you before creating a new one
• Batch Mode: Automatically skips files with existing transcriptions
• Force Mode: Creates uniquely named transcriptions without overwriting existing ones

• mp3
• mp4
• m4a
• wav
• flac
• aac
• ogg
• wma

whisp mp3 --model medium

whisp --subdir

whisp interview.mp3 --force

whisp mp3 wav --silent

This has only been tested on macOS Sequoia 15. YMMV.

MIT © Jacob Reiff

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.