Type into a terminal by voice
- Open the intended session and pane, check the foreground program, then click the microphone in that pane's header.
- Speak. Confirmed words are typed into the pane as they arrive. A faint caption shows words still being recognized; that unfinished text has not been typed.
- Click the microphone again to stop. Deck finishes recognition and types any remaining confirmed words. Edit the text in the terminal, then press Enter yourself when ready.
Deck never sends Enter for voice input. There is no separate voice draft, Insert, or Send button. Text already typed stays in the pane if you stop or switch away. On supported macOS 26 devices, confirmed segments may arrive during speech; the older on-device recognizer may type the utterance only when it ends. Each recording is limited to five minutes, and some system recognizers may stop earlier.
Switching sessions or panes, leaving the session, or hiding the window stops recording. Words not yet delivered can be dropped. Deck does not automatically retry an uncertain paste; check the terminal before speaking again. Recording does not prove that the foreground agent is ready—be especially careful at a permission menu, editor, or shell prompt.
Recognition uses your Mac; Deck does not save audio or transcripts to disk. Text typed into a terminal may still be handled by the program running there under that program's own rules.
When voice cannot record or type
Recording requires a supported macOS 12+ on-device recognition configuration. Compatible macOS 26 devices and languages use the newer local engine. First use may need Apple language assets; follow setup guidance when they are unavailable. There is no cloud speech fallback.
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Microphone access denied | Follow the System Settings link, allow deck microphone access and explicitly start recording again |
| Speech Recognition permission needed | Allow Speech Recognition in System Settings, then retry |
| System Dictation disabled | Enable System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation, then return to deck and start recording |
| Unsupported language or assets not ready | Choose a supported language and follow system guidance to prepare its assets |
| Target pane or foreground program changed | Check the original terminal and start a new recording in the intended pane |
| Typed text is uncertain | Check the terminal before trying again; Deck does not automatically resend it |
Permission and Dictation setup errors offer the corresponding System Settings entry. Returning to deck never records automatically.
Use Settings → Terminal & sessions → Voice input to change enabled languages and the recognition default. Chinese, English and Japanese are initially available. One enabled language hides the selector. Follow system language does not detect your spoken language. Preferences persist across restarts; an existing session retains a still-enabled language choice.
Read with Local Translation
Open Local Translation from the Session toolbar, or find it under Settings → Terminal & sessions. It is off by default. The first setup explicitly asks before downloading the offline English → Simplified Chinese pack; opening the panel alone does not read terminal text or start a download while unavailable. There is no cloud translation fallback.
Live view translates only the focused pane's visible viewport, not its full history or an Agent transcript. Copied text waits for a new copy after you select that tab while Deck is in front; it does not read pre-existing clipboard text or copies made while Deck is away. You can use the Agent's own /copy in that scope. Closing the panel or disabling translation stops observation. Source and translation stay in memory, outside logs and terminal input; after the pack is installed, translation makes no network request. Check important wording against the source. Translation details for this release.
Everyday controls
| Action | Control |
|---|---|
| New session | ＋ New session / ⌘N |
| Split right or down | ⌘D / ⌘⇧D, or header split buttons |
| Place an existing session in a split | Drag its sidebar card onto a pane edge |
| Collapse the sidebar | ⌘B |
| Copy and paste terminal text | Drag to select, then ⌘C / ⌘V |
| Select across screens | Hold a drag at the top or bottom terminal edge to extend through history |
| Accept command completion | Tab or → accepts the gray suggestion; only shell commands are recorded, not agent prompts |
| Open paths or websites | Click existing local paths or complete HTTP(S) links in terminal output |
Settings and logs
Settings has eight searchable categories: General & appearance, Shortcuts, Terminal & sessions, Agents & notifications, Integrations, Remote access, Data & privacy, and About & updates. Search a setting by name, then open its result. Agent hooks and away notifications live under Agents & notifications; Slack under Integrations; Phone Connector and MCP under Remote access.
Appearance offers Dark, Light, Follow System and High Contrast, with preset accents. Changes also update open terminal panes. Interface language can follow the system or use English or Simplified Chinese.
Data & privacy exports or resets diagnostic logs. Reset asks for confirmation and clears only the current log. Command history, shell recovery data, exported logs and running sessions remain. History and recovery each have separate clear actions.
When reporting an issue on GitHub, include the version, channel, reproduction steps and expected behavior. Reports are usually public; inspect screenshots and exports before sharing and remove tokens, private paths and real task content.
Updates and versions
This guide covers deck 0.7.26 Stable. Stable is the default channel; Nightly is an opt-in candidate channel whose features and stability may differ. Settings shows the version, channel and short commit.
Stable and Nightly replace the same app and share local data and tmux sessions. They cannot run side by side. Switching to Stable changes future update checks; it does not automatically downgrade a newer build. When the same Nightly version is promoted to Stable, the app archive is unchanged; no reinstall is needed just for the channel name. If you have a higher version installed, check data compatibility first.
Turning a feature off does not undo its data-format upgrade. Human inspection upgrades relevant data to v2; scratchpads, integrations, first-send choices and reminders can require newer formats, up to v7 for channel first-step permission. Older builds without the matching support refuse these files. Do not edit version numbers or formats to bypass the check. Before downgrading, back up important data and verify the target build's compatibility. A backup does not restore running processes or grant automatic-send permission.
If settings or the Board cannot be loaded, follow Deck's recovery notice. Automatic work may wait while recovered data or approvals cannot be verified as current. Review recovered settings before saving; recovery must not be treated as proof that an earlier approval is still valid.
For the complete maintenance reference, see the release-channel documentation. See privacy for application data and integrations.
For deck 0.7.26 Stable. Technical reference: README ↗ · Report an issue