macOS: voice control dictation does not work in Ghostty

[dizzib]

Issue Description

When dictating by voice control dictation Ghostty is unresponsive. Nothing appears at the cursor.

Please note this issue specifically relates to voice control dictation, not keyboard dictation which works correctly in Ghostty 1.2.0 (thanks!).

Keyboard dictation is enabled via Settings -> Keyboard -> Dictation, whilst voice control dictation is enabled via Settings -> Accessibility -> Voice Control and speaking “dictation mode” into the microphone.

Other macOS apps, such as Terminal or Stickies, respond as expected.

Expected Behavior

Any words spoken in voice control dictation mode should appear at Ghostty’s cursor.

Actual Behavior

Any words spoken in voice control dictation mode do not appear at Ghostty’s cursor.

Reproduction Steps

1. enable voice control via Settings -> Accessibility -> Voice Control.
2. open Ghostty with no config.
3. say “dictation mode” into the microphone to switch to dictation mode.
4. say “test”.
5. notice nothing appears at the cursor.
6. open Terminal app.
7. say “test”.
8. notice “test” appears at the cursor.

Ghostty Logs

No response

Ghostty Version

Ghostty 1.2.0

Version
  - version: 1.2.0
  - channel: stable
Build Config
  - Zig version   : 0.14.1
  - build mode    : builtin.OptimizeMode.ReleaseFast
  - app runtime   : apprt.Runtime.none
  - font engine   : font.main.Backend.coretext
  - renderer      : renderer.generic.Renderer(renderer.Metal)
  - libxev        : kqueue

OS Version Information

macOS Sequoia 15.5

(Linux only) Display Server

None

(Linux only) Desktop Environment/Window Manager

No response

Minimal Ghostty Configuration

none

Additional Relevant Configuration

No response

I acknowledge that:

• I have reviewed the FAQ and confirm that my issue is NOT among them.
• I have searched the Ghostty repository (both open and closed Discussions and Issues) and confirm this is not a duplicate of an existing issue or discussion.
• I have checked the "Preview" tab on all text fields to ensure that everything looks right, and have wrapped all configuration and code in code blocks with a group of three backticks (```) on separate lines.

[isao]

FYI dictation won't work if you have "Secure Keyboard Entry" on. Unchecking that option in the application menu fixed this issues for me.

[dizzib]

Thanks, but this issue persists for me even with Secure Keyboard Entry unchecked. 🤷‍♂️

[chrismo]

me too. I'm on Tahoe, fwiw. I've also tried macos-auto-secure-input = false in my config, but that doesn't change anything.

[chrisequalsdev]

On MacOS 15.6 there is "Dictation1" Keyboard > Dictation which does now work and also"Dictation2" which is a component of Accessibility > Voice Control. However you can't use "Dictation1" when Voice Control is enabled (it notes this in the Keyboard > Dictation screen).

The terminal app does work with "Dictation2". In Ghostty it does not and thus shows this annoying flashing icon to alert you of that fact (this is a native MacOS feature). Would be good to be able to use Ghostty with Voice Control enabled. Meaning that the dictation feature of Voice Control works and thus doesn't show the red icon.

[capa-me]

Same on macOS 26.2. Very unfortunate as Voice Control is much more powerful when using AI Tools like Claude Code etc. I was so happy about several Ghostty functions but this limitation lets me switch back to iterm :( Hope this will be fixed one day.

[dizzib]

For anyone interested, I am able to work around this issue by installing OpenSuperWhisper which allows me to dictate into Ghostty and simultaneously use macOS voice-control command mode.

However when dictating into OpenSuperWhisper macOS voice-control is still in effect and can interfere.