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Halopen
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Halopen for Obsidian

The best Mac dictation tool for Obsidian

Halopen brings hold-to-talk voice typing to Obsidian on Mac — verbatim by default, in any vault, in any note.

Download Halopen See pricing

Free forever for the first 8,000 words a month · macOS 14.0+ · Apple Silicon & Intel

Why this fits

Halopen, paired with Obsidian.

Halopen is a native macOS dictation app that lands voice-typed text at the cursor in Obsidian — in the daily note, atomic notes, canvas cards, Templater templates, and the QuickAdd capture surface. Hold the function key, speak the literature note, the Zettelkasten entry, or the meeting recap, release; the markdown text — including `[[wikilinks]]` and `#tags` spoken naturally — lands at the Obsidian editor cursor on Apple Silicon and Intel.

Obsidian is the local-first knowledge base of choice for power users — markdown notes, bidirectional links, plugins for everything, files that live on your disk in your vault. The more easily you can land thinking into the vault, the more compounding the vault becomes.

Halopen is the Mac dictation tool built for this. Hold the function key, speak the note section, release. The text lands at your cursor in Obsidian’s editor — markdown-clean, ready for [[wikilinks]] and #tags.

The workflow

How to use Halopen with Obsidian.

  1. 1

    Open Obsidian and any note

    Halopen works in any vault, any note, any pane.

  2. 2

    Hold the function key

    Halopen records.

  3. 3

    Speak the section

    Halopen lands plain text; add wikilinks (`[[`) and tags (`#`) by typing afterward — Obsidian’s autocomplete handles those.

  4. 4

    Release

    Text lands in the editor.

  5. 5

    Link and tag

    Type "[[" or "#" to invoke Obsidian’s native autocomplete; finish with the cursor.

What matters for Obsidian

The Halopen features that earn their place.

  • Works in any Obsidian vault

    Halopen runs system-wide; the vault location and sync method are irrelevant.

  • Markdown-clean text

    Halopen lands plain text. Punctuation is inferred from speech cadence; markdown formatting (`#`, `*`, `[[`) you add by hand or by Obsidian’s native shortcuts.

  • Long-form note capture at speech speed

    Lit notes, daily notes, project planning — all easier dictated.

  • Multilingual

    For multilingual vaults — academics, international researchers — Halopen transcribes in your Mac's primary system language. Set your Mac to French, Spanish, German, Japanese, or any other supported language and dictation lands in that language.

  • Privacy by default

    Halopen does not capture your screen; audio leaves your Mac only while you hold the key. Your vault stays local; Halopen never reads it.

  • Free for 8,000 words a month

    Pro is $19/mo or $179/yr for unlimited.

A real Halopen session

A daily note dictated into Obsidian after a research session:

Halopen output

“"Spent the morning re-reading Reichenbach on the experimental basis of induction. The main thread that’s coming together for me is that the asymmetry between successful and failed inductions is what makes the rule learnable in the first place — without the failures the rule has no shape. Worth pulling Mill on the same point next session and seeing how the language overlaps."”

  • · Names captured (Reichenbach, Mill)
  • · Specific concept ("asymmetry between successful and failed inductions") preserved
  • · Self-direction ("worth pulling Mill on the same point next session") captured
  • · Reading-note register preserved

Why Halopen

The dictation tool that earns its place.

Obsidian rewards the user who captures more, more easily. Halopen turns voice into capture — what you can think out loud you can land in the vault. The compounding effect of a deeper vault is one of the highest-leverage moves a knowledge worker can make.

Halopen treats Obsidian as it does every other Mac surface — as a place to land text. No Obsidian plugin to maintain; no community-plugin compatibility concerns; no dependency on Obsidian’s plugin API. Halopen lives at the OS level.

Halopen for Obsidian — FAQ

Questions worth answering.

Does Halopen work with Obsidian on Mac?

Yes. Obsidian on Mac is a standard text-editor app; Halopen lands text there the same way it does in any other Mac app.

Does Halopen work with multiple Obsidian vaults?

Yes. The vault location is irrelevant — Halopen lands text wherever the cursor is.

Does Halopen handle Obsidian’s wikilinks and tags?

Type "[[" or "#" first to invoke Obsidian’s autocomplete; Halopen lands plain text and Obsidian handles the link / tag completion.

Will Halopen format dictated text as markdown automatically?

No. Halopen lands plain text. Markdown formatting you add by hand or via Obsidian’s shortcuts.

Can Halopen dictate inside a Canvas, Bases, or Excalidraw plugin?

For text-input fields inside Obsidian (including most plugin surfaces that use standard text inputs), yes. Plugins that use custom non-standard input surfaces may behave differently — but the canvas note-text fields, the standard Bases editing UI, and most plugin pop-ups behave like standard text inputs.

How much does Halopen cost?

Halopen Free is 8,000 words a month, forever. Pro is $19/mo or $179/yr for unlimited.

More Halopen pairings

Halopen for whatever you use most on Mac.

See every Halopen pairing →

Power-user cheat sheet

Take Halopen with you when you work with Obsidian.

One short email, then the Halopen power-user cheat sheet — hotkeys, best-fit apps, custom vocabulary tips, voice patterns for prompt engineering. No spam. Unsubscribe in one click.

 

Try Halopen with Obsidian

Hold the function key. Speak.

Halopen Free is 8,000 words a month, forever. Open Halopen, hold the function key, and listen for what you sound like.

Download Halopen See pricing