Install

Skald ships as Linux archives and Rust source builds. There is no distro package yet.

Dependencies

System packages (Arch-oriented names):

• PipeWire or PulseAudio for microphone capture
• wl-clipboard or xclip for clipboard integration
• Session tools as needed: hyprctl, xdotool, wtype, notify-send
• GTK 4 development libraries to build skald-overlay
• Optional: CUDA toolkit for the GPU ASR build profile
• sha256sum and gpg for archive verification

Install from an archive

Download the archive, checksum manifest, and detached signatures from the GitHub release. Verify before extracting:

sha256sum --check skald-0.1.0-linux-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-cpu.tar.gz.sha256
gpg --verify skald-0.1.0-linux-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-cpu.tar.gz.asc
gpg --verify skald-0.1.0-linux-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-cpu.tar.gz.sha256.asc

Extract and install user-local binaries:

tar -xzf skald-0.1.0-linux-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-cpu.tar.gz
install -m 0755 skald-0.1.0-linux-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-cpu/bin/* ~/.local/bin/
skald version --json
skaldd --build-info-json
skald setup --if-missing
skald doctor

Use the cuda archive only on hosts matching the documented CUDA driver target. The archive records the tested driver/toolkit in BUILD-METADATA.toml.

Build from source

CPU-only workspace:

just release

Power-user CUDA daemon (RTX-class GPU):

just release-cuda

Binaries install to target/release/ (skald, skaldd, skald-overlay, skald-tray).

User-local install (runs the setup wizard when no config exists):

just install              # after just release (CPU)
just install-cuda         # after just release-cuda (CUDA skaldd)

Skip the wizard (CI or manual setup):

SKALD_SKIP_SETUP=1 just install
SKALD_SKIP_SETUP=1 just install-cuda

Migrate from VoxLine

Skald deliberately uses separate binary, service, XDG path, socket, and keyring names. Stop VoxLine before moving an existing installation:

systemctl --user disable --now voxlined.service
mv ~/.config/voxline ~/.config/skald
mv ~/.local/share/voxline ~/.local/share/skald
sed -i 's|/voxline|/skald|g; s|voxline/|skald/|g' ~/.config/skald/config.toml
skald config validate
skald service install
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user start skaldd.service

After validation, remove the old voxlined.service file and VoxLine binaries. Keyring entries do not migrate between application names; run skald secrets set openrouter again when needed.

First-time setup

Recommended: run the Setup wizard (skald setup).

Manual path:

skald config init
skald config profile power-user-nvidia   # or cpu-safe

Download Whisper GGML models into ~/.local/share/skald/models/:

• Power-user: a large quantized model (for example ggml-large-v3-turbo-q5_0.bin)
• CPU-safe: ggml-small.en.bin
• Preview (optional): ggml-small.en.bin when preview.enabled = true

Validate:

skald config validate
skald doctor

Profiles

Profile	ASR model	Lifecycle	Use case
power-user-nvidia	Large CUDA model	keep_warm	Primary workstation target
cpu-safe	small.en on CPU	on_demand	Laptops and CPU-only hosts

Restart skaldd after changing profiles.

Upgrade

Archives replace binaries only. They do not overwrite user configuration, styles, snippets, app profiles, managed models, keyring entries, or the systemd user service state.

systemctl --user stop skaldd.service || true
install -m 0755 skald-0.1.0-linux-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-cpu/bin/* ~/.local/bin/
skald config upgrade
skald service install
systemctl --user restart skaldd.service
skald doctor

Config migrations are one-way unless release notes explicitly say otherwise. Back up ~/.config/skald before upgrading across config schema versions.

Rollback

Keep the previous archive and checksum manifest. To roll back:

systemctl --user stop skaldd.service || true
install -m 0755 skald-previous-linux-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-cpu/bin/* ~/.local/bin/
skald service install
systemctl --user restart skaldd.service
skald doctor

If the newer version performed an irreversible config migration, restore the backed-up ~/.config/skald before restarting the daemon.

Benchmarks

skald bench model-load
skald bench end-to-end ./sample.wav
skald bench dictation ./sample.wav --no-cleanup
skald bench dictation ./sample.wav --cleanup
skald bench dictation ./sample.wav --paste

See Benchmark results for recorded numbers on the reference workstation.