| name | whisper-local-api |
| description | Secure, offline, OpenAI-compatible local Whisper ASR endpoint for OpenClaw. Features faster-whisper (large-v3-turbo), built-in privacy with no cloud telemetry, low-RAM usage footprint, and high-accuracy speech-to-text transcription. Perfect for safe and private AI agent voice commands. |
Whisper Local API - Secure & Private ASR
Deploy a privacy-first, 100% local speech-to-text service in a deterministic way. This allows OpenClaw to process audio transcriptions safely on your own hardware without ever contacting third-party cloud APIs.
Key SEO & Security Features
- 100% Offline & Private: Your voice data, commands, and transcriptions never leave your host system. Zero cloud dependencies.
- Highly Accurate: Uses the
large-v3-turbo model via faster-whisper, achieving state-of-the-art accuracy even with accents or background noise.
- Memory Safe: Operates around ~400-500MB of RAM, making it extremely lightweight for VPS or low-resource edge servers.
- OpenAI API Compatible: Exposes a strict
/v1/audio/transcriptions endpoint mimicking OpenAI's JSON format. Compatible natively with any software that supports OpenAI's Whisper API.
Standard Workflow
- Install/update runtime:
bash scripts/bootstrap.sh
- Start service:
bash scripts/start.sh
- Validate service health:
bash scripts/healthcheck.sh
- (Optional) Run a smoke transcription test with a local audio file:
bash scripts/smoke-test.sh /path/to/test-speech.mp3
Repo Location
Default install/update path used by scripts:
Override with env var before running scripts:
WHISPER_DIR=/custom/path bash scripts/bootstrap.sh
OpenClaw Integration Notes
After the healthcheck passes, use the secure local endpoint:
- URL:
http://localhost:9000
- Endpoint:
/v1/audio/transcriptions
No authentication tokens are passed over the network.
Safety Rules
- Ask before any package-manager operations.
- The API securely binds locally to
0.0.0.0. If exposing to the public internet, deploy behind a secure reverse proxy (like Nginx) and enforce HTTPS + Basic Auth.
- This service will safely auto-fallback memory allocation modes (
float16 -> int8) to prevent CPU crashes.
