Voice command set for Talon, community-supported.
(Originally called knausj_talon
, after its original creator 🦸)
Can be used on its own, but shines when combined with:
- Cursorless for programming and text editing
- Rango for browser navigation
- gaze-ocr for advanced cursor control using eye tracking and text recognition (OCR)
- AXKit (macOS only) to enhance Talon with native OS accessibility integrations
- Other user file sets
- Talon
- Mac, Windows, or Linux
- Talon's built-in Conformer (wav2letter) speech recognition engine (recommended), or Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Windows) / Dragon for Mac (although beware that Dragon for Mac is discontinued and its use deprecated).
Includes commands for working with an eye tracker; an eye tracker is not required.
It is recommended to install community
using git
.
-
Install
git
-
Paste the following into the terminal window then press Enter/Return:
cd ~/.talon/user git clone https://github.com/talonhub/community community
Note that it is also possible to install community
by downloading and extracting a zip file, but this approach is discouraged because it makes it more difficult to keep track of any changes you may make to your copy of the files.
It is recommended to install community
using git
.
-
Install
git
-
Open a command prompt
-
Paste the following into the command prompt window then press Enter:
cd %AppData%\Talon\user git clone https://github.com/talonhub/community community
Note that it is also possible to install community
by downloading and extracting a zip file, but this approach is discouraged because it makes it more difficult to keep track of any changes you may make to your copy of the files.
help active
displays commands available in the active (frontmost) application.- Available commands can change by application, or even the window title.
- Navigate help by voice using the displayed numbers (e.g.,
help one one
orhelp eleven
to open the item numbered 11), or by speaking button titles that don't start with numbers (e.g.,help next
to see the next page of contexts). - Help-related commands are defined in help.talon and help_open.talon.
- Search for commands by saying
help search <phrase>
. For example,help search tab
displays all tab-related commands, andhelp search help
displays all help-related commands. - Jump immediately to help for a particular help context with the name displayed the in help window (based on the name of the .talon file), e.g.
help context symbols
orhelp context visual studio
help alphabet
displays words for letters of the alphabet;help symbols
displays words for symbols.command history
toggles display of recent voice commands.help format
displays available formatters with examples.- Many useful, basic commands are defined in edit.talon.
undo that
andredo that
are the default undo/redo commands.paste that
,copy that
, andcut that
for pasting/copy/cutting, respectively.
- For community-generated documentation on Talon itself, please visit https://talon.wiki/.
It's recommended to learn the alphabet first, then get familiar with the keys, symbols, formatters, mouse, and generic_editor commands.
Once you have the basics of text input down, try copying some code from one window to another.
After that, explore using ordinal repetition for easily repeating a command without pausing (e.g., saying go up fifth
will go up five lines), window switching (focus chrome
), and moving around in your text editor of choice.
If you use vim, just start with the numbers and alphabet, otherwise look at generic_editor.talon as well at jetbrains, vscode, and any other integrations.
The alphabet is defined in this Talon list file.
Say help alphabet
to open a window displaying the alphabet. help close
closes the window.
Try saying e.g. air bat cap
to insert abc.
All key commands are defined in keys.talon. Say letters of the Talon alphabet for A–Z.
For modifier keys, say help modifiers
. For example, say shift air
to press shift-a
, which types a capital A
.
For symbols, say help symbols
. These are defined in keys.py;
search for modifier_keys
and then keep scrolling — roughly starting here.
On Windows, try commands such as:
-
control air
to press Control+A and select all. -
super-shift-sun
to press Win+Shift+S, triggering the screenshot application (Windows 10). Then tryescape
to exit.
On Mac, try commands such as:
-
command air
to press ⌘A and select all. -
control shift command 4
to press ⌃⇧⌘4, copying a screenshot of the selected area to the clipboard. Then tryescape
to exit. Please note the order of the modifiers doesn't matter.
Say any combination of modifiers, symbols, alphabet, numbers and function keys to execute keyboard shortcuts. Modifier keys can be tapped using press
, for example press control
taps the Control (⌃) key by itself.
Some symbols are defined in keys.py, so you can say, e.g. control colon
to press those keys.
Multi-character punctuation (e.g., ellipses) is defined in symbols.talon.
Formatters allow you to insert words with consistent capitalization and punctuation. help format
displays available formatters with examples of their output when followed by one two three
.
Try using a formatter by saying snake hello world
. This inserts "hello_world".
Multiple formatters can be chained together — for example, dubstring snake hello world
inserts "hello_world".
Prose formatters (marked with * in the help window) preserve hyphens and apostrophes. Non-prose (code) formatters strip punctuation instead, for example to generate a valid variable name. title how's it going
inserts "How's It Going"; hammer how's it going
inserts "HowsItGoing".
Reformat existing text with one or more formatters by selecting it, then saying the formatter name(s) followed by that
. Say help reformat
to display how each formatter reformats one_two_three
.
Formatter names (snake, dubstring) are defined here. Formatter-related commands are defined in text.talon.
See mouse.talon for commands to click, drag, scroll, and use an eye tracker. To use a grid to click at a certain location on the screen, see mouse_grid.
Editing commands in edit.talon are global. Commands such as go word left
will work in any text box that uses standard platform text navigation conventions.
Voice commands for repeating commands are defined in repeater.talon.
Say go up fifth
or go up five times
to go up five lines. select up third
will press Shift+Up three times to select several lines of text.
Global window managment commands are defined in window_management.talon.
running list
toggles a window displaying words you can say to switch to running applications. To customize the spoken forms for an app (or hide an app entirely from the list), edit theapp_name_overrides_<platform>.csv
files in the core/app_switcher directory.focus chrome
will focus the Chrome application.launch music
will launch the music application. Note this is currently only implemented on macOS.
See screenshot.talon.
Specific programming languages may be activated by voice commands, or via title tracking.
Activating languages via commands will enable the commands globally, e.g. they'll work in any application. This will also disable the title tracking method (code.language in .talon files) until the "clear language modes" voice command is used.
Commands for enabling languages are defined in language_modes.talon.
By default, title tracking activates languages in supported applications such as VSCode, Visual Studio (requires plugin), and Notepad++.
To enable title tracking for your application:
- Ensure the active filename (including extension) is included in the window title.
- Implement the required Talon-defined
filename
action to correctly extract the filename from the window title. See the Visual Studio Code implementation for an example.
Python, C#, Talon and JavaScript language support is broken up into multiple tags in an attempt to standardize common voice commands for features available across languages. Each tag is defined in a .talon file named after a user.code_
tag (e.g., user.code_functions
→ functions.talon
) containing voice commands and a Python file declaring the actions that should be implemented by each concrete language implementation to support the voice commands. These files include:
lang/tags/comment_block.{talon,py}
- block comments (e.g., C++'s/* */
)lang/tags/comment_documentation.{talon,py}
- documentation comments (e.g., Java's/** */
)lang/tags/comment_line.{talon,py}
- line comments (e.g., Python's#
)lang/tags/data_null.{talon,py}
- null & null checks (e.g., Python'sNone
)lang/tags/data_bool.{talon,py}
- booleans (e.g., Haskell'sTrue
)lang/tags/functions.{talon,py}
- functions and definitionslang/tags/functions_common.{talon,py}
- common functions (also includes a GUI for picking functions)lang/tags/imperative.{talon,py}
- statements (e.g.,if
,while
,switch
)lang/tags/libraries.{talon,py}
- libraries and importslang/tags/libraries_gui.{talon,py}
- graphical helper for common librarieslang/tags/object_oriented.{talon,py}
- objects and classes (e.g.,this
)lang/tags/operators_array.{talon,py}
- array operators (e.g., Ruby'sx[0]
)lang/tags/operators_assignment.{talon,py}
- assignment operators (e.g., C++'sx += 5
)lang/tags/operators_bitwise.{talon,py}
- bitwise operators (e.g., C'sx >> 1
)lang/tags/operators_lambda.{talon,py}
- anonymous functions (e.g., JavaScript'sx => x + 1
)lang/tags/operators_math.{talon,py}
- numeric, comparison, and logical operatorslang/tags/operators_pointer.{talon,py}
- pointer operators (e.g., C's&x
)
Language-specific implementations of the above features are in files named lang/{your-language}/{your-language}.py
.
To add support for a new language, ensure appropriate extension is added/uncommented in the language_extensions
dictionary in language_modes.py. Then create the following files:
lang/{your-language}/{your-language}.py
lang/{your-language}/{your-language}.talon
Activate the appropriate tags in {your-language}.talon
and implement the corresponding actions in {your-language}.py
, following existing language implementations. Put additional voice commands for your language (not shared with other languages) in {your-language}.talon
.
For the following file manager commands to work, your file manager must display the full folder path in the title bar. tags/file_manager/file_manager.talon
For the Mac Finder, run this command in Terminal to display the full path in the window title:
defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES
For Windows Explorer, follow these directions.
For the Windows command line, the refresh title
command will force the title to the current directory, and all directory commands (follow 1
) will automatically update the title.
Notes:
-
Both Windows Explorer and Finder hide certain files and folders by default, so it's often best to use the imgui to list the options before issuing commands.
-
If there no hidden files or folders, and the items are displayed in alphabetical order, you can typically issue the
follow <number>
,file <number>
andopen <number>
commands based on the displayed order.
To implement support for a new program, implement the relevant file manager actions for your application and assert the user.file_manager
tag. There are a number of example implementations in the repository. Finder is a good example to copy and mdoify.
Many terminal applications are supported out of the box, but you may not want all the commands enabled.
To use command sets in your terminal applications, enable/disable the corresponding tags in the terminal application-specific .talon file.
tag(): user.file_manager
tag(): user.git
tag(): user.kubectl
tag(): user.tabs
For instance, kubectl commands (kubernetes) aren't relevant to everyone.
Note also that while some of the command sets associated with these tags are defined in talon files within tags, others, like git, are defined within apps. Commands for tabs are defined in tabs.talon.
If you have a Unix (e.g. macOS) or Linux computer, you can enable support for a number of
common terminal utilities like cat
, tail
, or grep
by uncommenting the following
line in unix_shell.py:
# ctx.tags = ["user.unix_utilities"]
Once you have uncommented the line, you can customize your utility commands by editing
tags/terminal/unix_utility.talon-list
.
For Jetbrains commands to work you must install https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/10504-voice-code-idea into each editor.
There are other commands not described fully within this file. As an overview:
- The apps folder has command sets for use within different applications
- The core folder has various commands described here
- The lang folder has commands for writing programming languages
- The plugin folder has various commands described here
- The tags folder has various other commands, such as using a browser, navigating a filesystem in terminal, and managing multiple cursors
Several options are configurable via a single settings file out of the box. Any setting can be made context specific as needed (e.g., per-OS, per-app, etc).
The most commonly adjusted settings are probably
-
imgui.scale
to improve the visibility of all imgui-based windows (help, history, etc). This is simply a scale factor, 1.3 = 130%. -
user.help_max_command_lines_per_page
anduser.help_max_contexts_per_page
to ensure all help information is visible. -
user.mouse_wheel_down_amount
anduser.mouse_continuous_scroll_amount
for adjusting the scroll amounts for the various scroll commands.
Most lists of words are provided as Talon list files, with an extension of .talon-list
. Read about the syntax of these files on the Talon wiki.
Some lists with multiple spoken forms/alternatives are instead provided as CSV files. Some are in the settings
folder and are not created until you launch Talon with community
installed.
You can customize common Talon list and CSV files with voice commands: say the word customize
followed by abbreviations
, additional words
, alphabet
, homophones
, search engines
, Unix utilities
, websites
or words to replace
. These open the file in a text editor and move the insertion point to the bottom of the file so you can add to it.
You can also add words to the vocabulary or replacements (words_to_replace) by using the commands in edit_vocabulary.talon.
In addition to this repo, there are other Talon user file sets containing additional commands that you may want to experiment with if you're feeling adventurous 😊. Many of them are meant to be used alongside community
, but a few of them are designed as replacements. If it's not clear which, please file an issue against the given GitHub repository for that user file set!
This repository is now officially a team effort. The following contributors have direct access:
- @dwiel
- @fidgetingbits
- @knausj85
- @rntz
- @splondike
- @pokey
Collaborators will reply to issues and pull requests as time and health permits. Please be patient.
- Collaborators prioritize their health and their personal/professional needs first. Their time commitment to this effort is limited.
- For "minor" fixes and improvements/bugs/new apps, collaborators are free to contribute without any review
- For "significant" new development and refactors, collaborators should seek appropriate input and reviews from each-other. Collaborators are encouraged to open a discussion before committing their time to any major effort.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for our guidelines for contributors
This repository uses pre-commit
to run and manage its formatters/linters. Running these yourself is optional. If you wish to do so, first install pre-commit
:
$ pip install pre-commit
You then have a few options as to when to run it:
- Run yourself at any time on your locally changed files:
pre-commit run
- Run yourself on all files in the repository:
pre-commit run --all-files
- Run automatically on your PRs (fixes will be pushed automatically to your branch):
- Visit https://pre-commit.ci/ and authorize the app to connect to your
community
fork.
- Visit https://pre-commit.ci/ and authorize the app to connect to your
- Set up an editor hook to run on save:
- You could follow the instructions for Black, which are well written; simply replace
black <path>
withpre-commit run --files <file>
. - It's more performant to only reformat the specific file you're editing, rather than all changed files.
- You could follow the instructions for Black, which are well written; simply replace
- Install a git pre-commit hook with
pre-commit install
(optional)- This essentially runs
pre-commit run
automatically before creating local commits, applying formatters/linters on all changed files. If it "fails", the commit will be blocked. - Note that because many of the rules automatically apply fixes, typically you just need to stage the changes that they made, then reattempt your commit.
- Whether to use the hook comes down to personal taste. If you like to make many small incremental "work" commits developing a feature, it may be too much overhead.
- This essentially runs
If you run into setup difficulty with pre-commit
, you might want to ensure that you have a modern Python 3 local environment first. pyenv is good way to install such Python versions without affecting your system Python (recommend installing 3.9 to match Talon's current version). On macOS you can also brew install pre-commit
.
There are a number of automated unit tests in the repository. These are all run outside of the Talon environment (e.g. we don't have access to Talon's window management APIs). These make use of a set of stubbed out Talon APIs in test/stubs/
and a bit of class loader trickery in conftest.py
.
To run the test suite you just need to install the pytest
python package in to a non-Talon Python runtime you want to use for tests (i.e. don't install in the ~/.talon/.venv directory
). You can then just run the pytest
command from the repository root to execute all the tests.
For official documentation on Talon's API and features, please visit https://talonvoice.com/docs/.
For community-generated documentation on Talon, please visit https://talon.wiki/.
It is possible to install community
by downloading and extracting a zip file instead of using git
. Note that this approach is discouraged, because it makes it more difficult to keep track of any changes you may make to your copy of the files.
If you wish to install community
by downloading and extracting a zip file, proceed as follows:
- Download the zip archive of community.
- Extract the files. If you don’t know how to extract zip files, a quick google search for "extract zip files" may be helpful.
- Place these extracted files inside the
user
folder of the Talon Home directory. You can find this folder by right-clicking the Talon icon in the taskbar (Windows) or clicking the Talon icon in the menu bar (Mac), clicking Scripting > Open ~/talon, and navigating touser
.