setup-whisper

name	setup-whisper
description	One-time setup for local Whisper transcription — installs faster-whisper and downloads a default model. Use when the user asks to set up whisper, install whisper, or prepare for local transcription.

Setup local Whisper

One-time install for offline transcription.

Steps

1. Ensure uv is available (which uv). If not, install: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh.

2. Install faster-whisper as a tool:

   uv tool install faster-whisper
   

   (Or create a dedicated venv if the user prefers — check preference.)

3. Pre-download the default model (medium) so first real transcription doesn't block:

   uv run --with faster-whisper python -c "from faster_whisper import WhisperModel; WhisperModel('medium')"
   

4. Write/update ~/.config/claude-transcription/config.json with:

   { "whisper_installed": true, "whisper_model": "medium", "whisper_device": "cpu" }
   

5. Confirm with a 5-second synthetic test (optional) — or just tell the user setup is complete.

Model size guidance

Ask the user which model they want pre-downloaded:

• base — 150 MB, fastest
• small — 500 MB, good for most use
• medium — 1.5 GB, default balance
• large-v3 — 3 GB, highest accuracy

AMD GPU note

If the user wants ROCm acceleration, warn that CTranslate2 ROCm support is experimental and document the extra steps (install ctranslate2 built against ROCm, set whisper_device: "cuda"). Default to CPU.