v2026.9.25-4

About shows the version the package manager installed.

AI agents and tools can read these release notes as plain Markdown.

This release covers 23 pull requests.

Highlights #

• About shows the version the package manager installed.
• The packaged app no longer offers an update to the version it is already running when it is started from inside a source checkout.
• Right Ctrl dictation works on X11 without extra libraries.
• The Linux dock and app menu show the Dictate icon instead of a generic microphone.
• Pasting into a terminal uses plain text.
• The dictation list and Copy last dictation follow when the words were spoken.
• A .deb update downloads while Dictate stays open.

Changes #

• The About dialog no longer shows a model name. Version, package, and the update channel stay.
• Starting a meeting, and the All / Meetings / Quick filter, are on the beta channel only. The normal channel is dictation, and every saved note stays in the one list.
• Dictation into a terminal, including the Grok CLI, is inserted with Shift+Insert as plain text. Ctrl+V in that CLI treats a WebKit clipboard as a file chip.
• A .deb update downloads while Dictate stays open. The app installs that package and restarts only after a second click.
• Stable and beta are separate builds. The installed version decides which one you have. About no longer switches between them.

Fixes #

• About shows the version the package manager installed. A .deb installed outside the in-app updater used to show an older stamped version.
• The packaged app no longer offers an update to the version it is already running when it is started from inside a source checkout.
• The README shows the Dictate icon on GitHub and the npm package page.
• Right Ctrl dictation works on X11 without extra libraries. The 2026.9.25-1 fix named pynput but not the X11 backend it loads at runtime, and the build machine has no display, so the packaged engine still shipped without it.
• The Linux dock and app menu show the Dictate icon instead of a generic microphone. The packaged app's own launcher entry used a fallback icon that hid the one the .deb installs. Existing entries are repaired on next start.
• The packaged engine includes the X11 hotkey library, so a normal desktop session can dictate without being in the input group.
• Pasting into a terminal uses plain text. The focused window is recognized from its process and window class, including Ghostty, not from a single app name.
• A disconnected engine no longer writes stock demo sentences into the dictation list.
• Dictation stays on CPU when every NVIDIA GPU is bound to vfio for a VM. The RTX 4090 passed through to Windows is not taken.
• The dictation list and Copy last dictation follow when the words were spoken. A crash recovery that stamped old notes with a later finish time no longer floats those notes above a new dictation.
• A saved backend this build does not ship, including the removed xAI, OpenAI, and Gemini backends, is rewritten to Parakeet when the desktop UI loads. The window was reporting faster-whisper for that stale setting even though the engine was already running Parakeet.

Contribution record #

CHANGELOG/records/2026.9.25-4.md lists every pull request in this release once, with its related issues and thanks.