Is Keebye a treatment for RSI or carpal tunnel?

No. Keebye can replace some keyboard input with speech; it does not diagnose, treat, cure, or rehabilitate anything. Follow advice from a qualified clinician.

Can I go fully hands-free with it?

Not entirely. You still press a hotkey to start and stop, and you still edit and navigate with keyboard or trackpad. Keebye removes the bulk typing load, not every keypress — pair it with the accessibility tools already built into macOS for the rest.

Does my voice get sent to a server?

Never. Transcription runs on your Mac with no telemetry and no account required to dictate. What you say about your health, your work, or anything else stays on the machine.

What if holding a key still hurts?

Switch the trigger. Right Command is the default, but Fn or Right Option work too — pick whichever finger movement your hands tolerate best. A single tap also toggles dictation on and off, so you are not holding anything down for a long passage.

Will it get medical or technical terms right?

Add recurring terms to the custom dictionary to reduce corrections, but review every medical or technical term before relying on the text.

Voice Dictation for RSI and Wrist Strain on macOS

If typing aggravates RSI or wrist strain, dictate instead: hold a hotkey, speak, and Keebye types it — on-device, offline, private. Not a treatment.

Why dictate when your hands need a break

If typing is uncomfortable, replacing some keyboard input with speech may reduce the number of repeated keystrokes in a task. That is a workflow change, not a diagnosis or treatment plan. The NHS guidance on RSI recommends seeking professional advice when symptoms persist or worsen and notes that activity changes should be individualized.

Dictation changes the input method. The paragraphs you would have typed — the message, the notes, the long AI prompt — you can say instead. Keebye makes no claim about pain, function, or recovery; it only replaces some typing with speech.

This page is written with you, not at you. There is no cure here, no gadget promise — just a quieter way to get the words down.

How it works

Put your cursor wherever the text should go, hold Right ⌘, and talk the way you would to a colleague. Release the key and the transcribed text lands at the cursor. One held key, a few sentences spoken, done — no reaching across the keyboard, no sustained finger work.

Everything runs on-device. The English model, Parakeet, downloads once and then needs no connection, so nothing you dictate about your condition or your work ever leaves the Mac. If English is not your first language, the optional Canary model adds 24 more.

The same key works everywhere, so email, chat, and a developer's daily writing all lean on one gentle motion instead of thousands of keystrokes.

Setup in two minutes

Grant Accessibility and microphone access when Keebye asks — that is the whole install. Then choose the trigger that asks the least of your hands: Right ⌘, Fn, or Right ⌥. If even holding is uncomfortable, use tap-to-toggle so a single press starts dictation and another ends it.

Turn on launch-at-login if it helps your workflow, and add recurring terms to the custom dictionary to reduce repetitive corrections. Review the result, especially medical names and technical identifiers.

Limits, honestly

Keebye is a typing-load reducer, not a medical device. It does not treat, prevent, or rehabilitate RSI, carpal tunnel, or any injury, and nobody should read a recovery promise into it. See a clinician for that; use this to type less in the meantime.

It is also not fully hands-free. You press a key to begin and end, and you still edit and move the cursor yourself — combine it with the built-in macOS accessibility features for a lighter-touch setup overall.

Transcription is batch, not live: the words appear when you release the hotkey, not while you speak. And Keebye is macOS only.

Use tap-to-toggle for one long prompt, review it, and stop there; the test is whether it replaces useful keystrokes, not whether symptoms change. For the builder workflow, read Driving Claude Code with your voice. To decide whether a dedicated app is justified at all, read Keebye alternatives.