Financial Modeler Builds Local Speech-to-Tool Desktop App with Claude Code

A developer without professional coding experience has built a fully functional local speech-to-text desktop application using Claude Code. The developer, who works primarily with Excel and SQL in financial modeling, created the tool to replace a cloud-based subscription service.

What Was Built

The application is called Sotto — a local speech-to-text tool for Windows that runs Whisper on your GPU. The developer was motivated by dissatisfaction with cloud-based dictation services where voice data leaves the machine, despite having capable hardware (specifically mentioning a 4070 Ti GPU).

Key Features

• System-wide hotkey accessible from any application
• Auto-stops recording when you stop talking
• Second hotkey for longer voice notes that export to markdown format (compatible with Obsidian)
• Settings UI with system tray integration
• Visual waveform indicator while listening
• Automatic GPU detection and model selection
• Text insertion at cursor position

Technical Details

The application consists of approximately 2,200 lines of Python code across 17 files. According to the developer, Claude Code wrote "the vast majority" of the implementation, including:

• Threading logic
• Windows API integration
• Qt-based user interface

The developer handled requirements definition, testing, bug identification, and feature prioritization, while relying on Claude Code for the actual implementation of technical components they didn't know how to build.

Availability

Sotto is available under MIT license with the following requirements:

• Windows operating system
• Python 3.10+
• GPU recommended but not required

The developer mentions a Mac version is "coming soon" because they recently purchased a MacBook and want to use the tool there. The project is hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/mrobison12-oss/sotto.