Voice input & context commands¶
Two composer features for working faster: dictation (talk instead of type) and the /summarize / /compact slash commands for managing a conversation's context window.
Voice input (dictation)¶
The composer has a 🎤 button. Click it to record audio; click again to stop. Hive transcribes the recording and appends the transcript to the composer (it doesn't auto-send), so you can edit before pressing Enter.
Transcription is bring-your-own, local. Hive shells out to a Whisper
CLI on your machine — nothing is uploaded. The default command is
whisper; install openai-whisper
(or a compatible CLI) and make sure it's on your PATH.
| Env var | What it overrides | Default |
|---|---|---|
HIVE_WHISPER_CMD |
the transcription binary | whisper |
HIVE_WHISPER_MODEL |
the model name passed to it | (CLI default) |
Best-effort
Dictation only works if a local Whisper CLI is installed and runnable.
If the command isn't found, the recording is discarded and nothing is
appended. Set the env vars before launching Hive (e.g. in ~/.zshrc).
/summarize and /compact¶
Long conversations eventually outgrow the model's context window. Hive
already auto-compacts when a turn would overflow — but you can manage
context explicitly with two commands from the / menu, both under
Context:
/summarize¶
Posts a model-written summary of the conversation so far as a new message in the transcript. The full transcript is kept — nothing is removed. Use it for a quick recap, or to hand a newcomer the gist without scrolling.
/compact¶
Collapses the whole conversation into a single summary checkpoint. It removes the existing messages and posts the summary as the new head of the chat, freeing up context. This is the explicit version of the runtime's automatic overflow compaction.
/compact removes messages
Because /compact replaces the transcript with a summary, it's
confirm-gated — Hive asks before doing it. The earlier messages are
gone from the active conversation afterward, so reach for /summarize
if you want to keep the full history.
See Your first chat for the rest of
the composer's / menu.