Wake Word

Voice Activation for Code Editors

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Say a wake phrase and the right AI assistant opens -- no clicking required.

Say "Hey Claude" and Claude opens. Say "Hey Copilot" and Copilot opens. Say "Computer" and the terminal focuses. The extension handles the routing, pauses its own mic so the assistant can use it, then resumes listening when the voice session ends.

Zero config. No API keys. No accounts. No system dependencies. Install and go.

All audio processing happens locally on your machine. Nothing is recorded or transmitted.

How It Works

1. Install the extension. On Windows, that's all. On macOS/Linux, a local speech model (~17MB) is downloaded on first use and cached.
2. When your editor opens, the extension starts listening on your microphone
3. The speech engine matches recognised speech against your configured wake phrases
4. If a phrase is detected with sufficient confidence, the extension releases the mic and fires the mapped command
5. The target assistant (Claude, Copilot, etc.) takes over the microphone with no contention
6. After a configurable cooldown, wake word listening resumes automatically

Installation

VS Code

Install directly from the VS Code Marketplace.

Or from the command line (VS Code only):

code --install-extension analytics-in-motion.wake-word

Cursor, Windsurf, and other VS Code forks

Option A: Open VSX Registry -- Search for "Wake Word" in the extensions panel.

Option B: Manual .vsix install -- Download the latest .vsix from GitHub Releases. Open Extensions, click the three-dot menu, select "Install from VSIX".

Prerequisites

On macOS and Linux a local speech model (~17MB) is downloaded on first use and cached. If Node.js is installed via nvm or fnm and not on VS Code's PATH, set wakeWord.nodePath to the full path of your node executable.

First Run Consent

The first time the extension tries to listen, a modal dialog explains exactly what happens: continuous microphone use, fully local processing. You must click "Allow Microphone Listening" to proceed.

If you decline, listening does not start. You can enable it any time via the status bar or command palette, which will re-prompt for consent. Reset the consent prompt with Wake Word: Reset Microphone Consent.

Wake Phrase Routing

The core feature. Each spoken phrase maps to a VS Code command.

Default routes

These work out of the box with no configuration:

Custom routes

Add your own phrases in settings.json. Any spoken English phrase works:

{
  "wakeWord.routes": [
    {
      "label": "Copilot",
      "phrase": "hey copilot",
      "command": "workbench.action.chat.open"
    },
    {
      "label": "Claude",
      "phrase": "hey claude",
      "command": "claude-vscode.focus"
    },
    {
      "label": "Search",
      "phrase": "search files",
      "command": "workbench.action.quickOpen"
    },
    {
      "label": "Commands",
      "phrase": "open commands",
      "command": "workbench.action.showCommands"
    }
  ]
}

The speech engine uses a constrained grammar built from your configured phrases for accurate matching.

Phrase aliases

The phrase field accepts a string or an array of strings. Use arrays to map multiple trigger phrases to the same command:

{
  "label": "Claude",
  "phrase": ["hey claude", "open claude"],
  "command": "claude-vscode.focus"
}

Per-route cooldown

Override the global cooldown for individual routes with cooldownSeconds:

{
  "label": "Terminal",
  "phrase": "computer",
  "command": "workbench.action.terminal.focus",
  "cooldownSeconds": 10
}

The handoff

When a wake phrase is detected:

1. The extension immediately kills the speech engine process, releasing the mic
2. The target VS Code command fires (opening the assistant)
3. The assistant's voice mode takes over the microphone with no contention
4. After wakeWord.cooldownSeconds (default: 30), wake word listening resumes
5. Status bar shows a live countdown (Wake: 30s → Wake: 29s → ...) during handoff, then returns to "Wake: Listening"

This ensures only one thing uses the mic at a time.

Settings

Commands

• Wake Word: Enable Listening -- start the detector
• Wake Word: Disable Listening -- stop the detector
• Wake Word: Toggle Listening -- toggle on/off (also via status bar click)
• Wake Word: Reset Microphone Consent -- clear consent and re-prompt

Common command IDs

Useful values for the command field in your routes. Command IDs listed are for VS Code. Cursor and other editors may use different IDs for the same features.

How It Works (Technical)

The extension selects a speech engine based on platform (or the wakeWord.engine setting) and spawns it as a background child process. Both engines communicate via stdout using the same protocol: READY, DETECTED:<phrase>|<confidence>, ERROR:<message>, DEBUG:<info>.

Windows engine (default on Windows)

Spawns a PowerShell process using System.Speech.Recognition.SpeechRecognitionEngine, the same engine built into Windows. A constrained grammar is built from your configured phrases and passed via encoded command. Zero model downloads; the speech engine ships with Windows.

Sherpa engine (default on macOS/Linux, optional on Windows)

Spawns audio-engine.js under system Node.js (not Electron). The child process uses @analyticsinmotion/micstream (PortAudio) for mic capture and sherpa-onnx for keyword spotting. Running under system Node.js is required because Electron's Node.js runtime cannot load native audio addons. A local speech model (~17MB) is downloaded to VS Code's global storage on first use and cached.

Shared flow

1. Extension builds phrase list and spawns the engine process
2. Engine writes READY when the mic is open
3. Each detection above the confidence threshold is written to stdout as DETECTED:<phrase>|<confidence>
4. The extension reads stdout and fires the corresponding command
5. On handoff, the engine process is killed to release the microphone
6. After the cooldown countdown, a new engine process starts

Zero runtime npm dependencies in the extension host. All native dependencies are isolated in the engine/ child process.

Troubleshooting

Privacy

All speech recognition runs locally on your machine. No audio data ever leaves your device. On Windows, speech is processed by the built-in System.Speech.Recognition engine in memory. On macOS and Linux, a local sherpa-onnx model processes audio in the engine child process. Nothing is recorded, stored, or transmitted.

Platform Support

Compatibility

License

Apache 2.0