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CLI reference

Flag Meaning
--source <pulse_source_name> Explicit PulseAudio/PipeWire source (e.g., alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo.monitor)
--list-sources List available Pulse sources and exit
--model <size> Any Whisper model size accepted by the engine, e.g. tiny\|base\|small\|medium\|large-v2, optionally suffixed .en for an English-only model (default: small.en). --language auto-detection is meaningless with an .en model, since it only ever transcribes English
--engine <auto\|faster\|whisper\|cpp> Force a specific engine (default: auto)
--device <auto\|cpu\|vulkan\|gpu\|cuda> Device for transcription (default: auto). cuda applies to the Python engines (faster, whisper), vulkan/gpu to cpp; auto reads SYS2TXT_DEVICE, else CPU
--language <code> Force language code (e.g., en). Omit to auto-detect
--format <txt\|srt\|vtt\|json\|tsv> Transcript format (default: txt). See Output formats
--output <path> Also write the transcript to a file. Without it, the transcript is only printed to stdout (redirect it yourself with > if you want a file). In live mode txt appends to an existing file; the timed formats replace it, since a subtitle or JSON document cannot resume mid-file
--duration <seconds> (once mode) Record fixed duration instead of waiting for Ctrl-C
--segment-seconds <n> (live mode) Segment length in seconds (default: 8)
--silence-timeout <seconds> (live mode) Stop automatically after N consecutive seconds of silence (0=disabled, default: 0). Segments that fail to transcribe do not count as silence
--max-lag <seconds> (live mode) Untranscribed audio to tolerate before --on-lag applies (0=unlimited, default: 0). See Live mode
--on-lag <drop\|fail> (live mode) What to do once the backlog passes --max-lag: drop the oldest audio to catch up, or stop with an error (default: drop). Requires --max-lag
--timestamps Print timestamps alongside text (plain text only; the timed formats always carry their own)
--input <path> Transcribe an existing audio file instead of recording
--model-path <path> Path to a whisper.cpp model file (for the cpp engine)
--whisper-cpp-path <path> Path to the whisper-cli binary (for the cpp engine)
--no-download Don't auto-download a missing whisper.cpp model file (for the cpp engine)
--verbose / -v Enable debug logging
--quiet / -q Suppress informational log messages (warnings and errors still show)