voicebox/docs/content/docs/overview/captures.mdx

---
title: "Captures"
description: "The paired audio + transcript archive — every dictation, recording, and uploaded audio file shows up here, replayable and retranscribable."
---

## Overview

A **capture** is an audio clip paired with its transcript. The Captures tab
is where every dictation, manual recording, and uploaded audio file lands,
with the original audio kept alongside the text so you can replay, re-run
transcription with a different model, refine the transcript, or send the
content somewhere else — including generating it back as speech in any of
your voice profiles.

<Callout type="info">
  The Captures tab shipped in **0.5.0**, alongside global dictation and the
  per-profile personality modes. If you've used earlier versions, note that
  the Audio tab moved into **Settings → Audio Channels** to make room for
  this one.
</Callout>

## Where captures come from

| Source | How it shows up | Badge |
|---|---|---|
| **Dictation** | Triggered by the global hotkey (see [Dictation](/overview/dictation)). Auto-refined by default. | `dictation` |
| **In-app recording** | Recorded directly in the Captures tab using the built-in mic. | `recording` |
| **File upload** | Any audio file dropped into the Captures tab — `.wav`, `.mp3`, `.m4a`, `.webm`, `.opus`, `.flac`. | `file` |

All three paths share the same backend pipeline, the same model picker, and
the same refinement flags. The source badge is there so you can visually
scan a long list.

## List view

The main Captures view is a chronological list. Each row shows:

- The transcript (raw or refined — the refined version wins if present)
- Duration + timestamp
- Source badge
- A play button for the original audio
- A meatballs menu with per-row actions

Filtering and search are a Tier-2 ask — ping if you need them.

## Detail view

Clicking into a capture opens the detail view:

- **Waveform player** for the original audio
- **Transcript editor** — click in and edit. Changes save on blur.
- **Refined vs. raw toggle** if refinement ran on this capture
- **Per-capture action bar** — retranscribe, refine, play as voice, delete
- **Settings snapshot** — STT model used, refinement flags at the time
  this capture was processed, and the voice model if any was played

## Retranscribe

Runs the capture's original audio through a different Whisper model without
re-uploading or re-refining anything. Useful when:

- The default model mis-heard something and you want to try a larger model
- You used Base for a noisy clip and want to rerun with Turbo
- A non-English clip needs an explicit language hint

**Settings → Captures → Transcription** controls the default model and
language lock for new captures. Retranscribe uses those defaults unless you
override them per capture.

## Refine

Runs the raw transcript through the local LLM to produce a cleaned-up
version. The flags on the capture are snapshotted when refinement first
runs, so you can re-refine later with different flags without losing the raw
transcript:

| Flag | Effect |
|---|---|
| **Smart cleanup** | Remove fillers (`um`, `uh`, `like`), tidy punctuation and capitalization. |
| **Remove self-corrections** | Keep the final version when the speaker backtracks ("actually, no, on Tuesday"). |
| **Preserve technical terms** | Leave identifiers (`handleSubmit`, `npm install`) untouched. |

See the Refinement section of [Dictation](/overview/dictation#refinement) for
how Voicebox strips Whisper loop hallucinations *before* the LLM sees the
transcript — a capture can be re-refined any number of times without
re-introducing "thanks for watching thanks for watching" echoes.

The refinement model picker (three bundled Qwen3 sizes) lives in
**Settings → Captures → Refinement**.

## Play as voice

This is the capability no one else in the dictation category ships: take any
capture and play it back as speech in any of your voice profiles. One
dropdown over every profile, one click, and the capture's text runs through
`/generate` with the selected voice.

Use cases:

- Hear your own dictation back in a cloned voice of someone you like
- Send a message you dictated as an audio reply in a specific character
- Quickly prototype a line for a story without retyping

Playback uses whatever engine the selected profile is bound to — the same
rules as the Generate tab. There's no LLM in this path; the transcript goes
through unchanged. If you want the agent-style "transform the content before
speaking" flow, that's what the
[personality modes](/overview/voice-personalities) do — and the same
primitive is exposed to MCP-aware agents via the
[MCP Server](/overview/mcp-server) so Claude Code, Cursor, or Cline can speak
in one of your voices on their own.

<Callout type="info">
  The default voice for the Captures tab's Play-as action is set in
  **Settings → Captures → Playback → Default voice**. You can still override
  it per capture.
</Callout>

## Send-to menu

Each capture has a Send-to menu for moving its content into other parts of
Voicebox:

- **Copy transcript** — to clipboard
- **Use as voice sample…** — promote this capture to a sample on a voice
  profile of your choice. Opens a profile picker (with "+ New voice" for
  cold starts) and a reference-text confirm dialog, because cloning needs
  the `reference_text` to match the audio verbatim. Edit as needed and
  save — the capture stays in the Captures tab untouched; the sample is a
  copy, not a move.

## Storage and retention

**Settings → Captures → Storage** controls how long captures live on disk:

| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| **Retention: forever** | Never auto-delete. Default. |
| **Retention: 90 days / 30 days / 7 days** | Captures older than the window are pruned on app start. |
| **Clear all captures** | One-click nuke of every capture and its audio on disk. No undo. |

The original audio is always kept alongside the transcript — archival is on
by default. Every capture's audio file and metadata row can be re-processed
(retranscribe, refine, Play-as) as long as the audio file still exists.

## Short-recording guard

Audio clips under **300 ms** are short-circuited client-side and never
uploaded. This prevents a fumbled chord tap from landing an empty capture.
The threshold is tuned to filter accidents without cutting off intentional
short dictations.

## Keyboard shortcuts

Inside the Captures tab:

| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
| `Space` | Play / pause the selected capture |
| `↑` / `↓` | Previous / next capture in the list |
| `Enter` | Open the selected capture in detail view |
| `⌘ / Ctrl` + `C` (in detail view) | Copy the transcript |

## API surface

The Captures tab is backed by a small set of REST endpoints:

| Method | Endpoint | Use |
|---|---|---|
| `POST` | `/captures` | Upload audio + start the pipeline (STT, optional refinement, archival). |
| `GET` | `/captures` | List captures. |
| `GET` | `/captures/{id}` | Fetch one capture. |
| `POST` | `/captures/{id}/retranscribe` | Rerun STT with a chosen model. |
| `POST` | `/captures/{id}/refine` | Rerun refinement with chosen flags. |
| `POST` | `/profiles/{id}/samples/from-capture/{capture_id}` | Promote a capture to a voice profile sample. |

These endpoints are stable and usable from your own scripts — see
[Remote Mode](/overview/remote-mode) for running Voicebox as a server the rest
of your machine can talk to.

## Next steps

<Cards>
  <Card title="Dictation" href="/overview/dictation">
    The global hotkey flow that feeds most captures.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Voice Personalities" href="/overview/voice-personalities">
    Per-profile compose button and persona rewrite toggle for captures you
    want to transform, not just transcribe.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Creating Voice Profiles" href="/overview/creating-voice-profiles">
    Promote a capture into a voice sample on a profile.
  </Card>
</Cards>