VoxType Activity Overlay

A DankMaterialShell daemon plugin that shows a live microphone activity overlay while VoxType is recording.

Features

• Bottom-of-screen audio visualizer pill driven by Cava
• Frequency-bar and scrolling-waveform visualizer modes
• Optional button to cancel the current recording
• Animated bar heights that react to microphone input
• Spinner in the pill while VoxType transcribes, with cancel still available
• Optional final transcript bubble that appears after VoxType finishes transcribing
• Configurable visualizer sensitivity, transcript timing, and overlay opacity
• All settings configurable from DMS settings UI

Requirements

• DankMaterialShell >= 1.5.0
• VoxType speech-to-text daemon
• cava audio visualizer
• PipeWire (for mic capture)

Install

Quick start (recommended)

git clone https://github.com/agneswd/dms-voxtype-activity-overlay \
  ~/.config/DankMaterialShell/plugins/dms-voxtype-activity-overlay
sh ~/.config/DankMaterialShell/plugins/dms-voxtype-activity-overlay/setup.sh
systemctl --user restart voxtype.service
dms restart

Then enable in DMS Settings → Plugins → Scan for Plugins → VoxType Activity Overlay.

Manual setup

Alternatively, follow the steps below if you prefer to configure things yourself.

1. Clone the plugin

git clone https://github.com/agneswd/dms-voxtype-activity-overlay \
  ~/.config/DankMaterialShell/plugins/dms-voxtype-activity-overlay

2. Configure Cava

mkdir -p ~/.config/cava
cp ~/.config/DankMaterialShell/plugins/dms-voxtype-activity-overlay/config/cava/dms-voxtype-activity-overlay.ini \
  ~/.config/cava/dms-voxtype-activity-overlay.ini

3. Connect VoxType to the overlay

Run the setup script:

sh ~/.config/DankMaterialShell/plugins/dms-voxtype-activity-overlay/setup.sh

If you already use a VoxType post-processing command, setup preserves it and runs the transcript capture afterward. Unsupported or ambiguous configurations are left untouched with an explanation instead of being rewritten.

4. Restart services

systemctl --user restart voxtype.service
dms restart

5. Enable in DMS

1. Open Settings - Plugins
2. Click Scan for Plugins
3. Enable VoxType Activity Overlay

Uninstall

sh ~/.config/DankMaterialShell/plugins/dms-voxtype-activity-overlay/setup.sh --uninstall

This restores the post-processing block that was present at installation and removes files created by setup.

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Visualizer Mode	Scrolling Waveform	Switch between a smooth scrolling waveform and live frequency bars
Visualizer Sensitivity	180%	Scales how much the bars react to mic input
Show Cancel Button	on	Cancel the current recording or transcription
Show Final Transcript	on	Display the final recognized text after transcribing
Transcript Time On Screen	3600ms	How long the transcript bubble stays visible
Pill Opacity	94%	Overall opacity of the recording pill
Transcript Opacity	96%	Overall opacity of the transcript bubble

How it works

VoxType (recording)  →  Cava (audio visualizer)  →  Pill (visualizer + cancel)
                                                         ↓
VoxType (transcribing)  →  Pill stays visible (spinner + cancel)
                                                         ↓
VoxType (idle)  →  post_process hook
                         ↓
           capture script saves transcript
                         ↓
           DMS plugin reads and shows bubble

The overlay is a full-width transparent layer-shell window pinned to the bottom edge. The pill and transcript bubble are centered inside it, so they work at any screen width.

Repository layout

dms-voxtype-activity-overlay/
├── DmsVoxtypeActivityOverlay.qml
├── DmsVoxtypeActivityOverlaySettings.qml
├── plugin.json
├── scripts/              # Helper script for VoxType post_process hook
├── config/               # External program configs
│   └── cava/             # Cava visualizer config
├── tests/                # Setup and uninstall checks
├── setup.sh              # One-command setup script
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

License

MIT

Waveform mode and the cancel interaction were inspired by VoxType OSD by Iris Blur.

The settings UI uses selected components from dms-common by Loc Huynh.