whinge.
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Install

Whinge is a menu-bar app with an optional command-line tool, whinge. It needs macOS 26 Tahoe or later.

With Homebrew

brew install --cask unreasonable-magic/tap/whinge

This installs the signed app and links the whinge command.

From the website

  1. Download Whinge from whinge.computer. The button says which Mac it's built for.
  2. Open the disk image and drag Whinge into Applications.
  3. Open Whinge. It lives in the menu bar, not the Dock.

  4. Add the command-line tool in Settings → General, or from a terminal:

    /Applications/Whinge.app/Contents/Helpers/whinge install

The download is signed and notarized, so it opens without Gatekeeper warnings.

The command line

whinge install (and the button in Settings) creates a link:

WhatWhere
The whinge command~/.local/bin/whinge, linked to the app's copy

If ~/.local/bin isn't on your PATH, it says so. Add it in your shell profile:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Permissions

The first whinge asks for Screen Recording and Microphone access. Check or change them in Settings → Permissions. The first transcription in a language may download its speech model.

Turn on Open Whinge at login in Settings → General to keep it ready for the CLI.

Upgrade

Whinge updates itself. It checks once a day, and when there's a new version it says so with a notification and an Update to… item in its menu, rather than a window over your work. Choose it to see what's new and install it, or pick Check for Updates… in the menu at any time. Turn on Download and install updates automatically in Settings → General and it installs them itself when you quit.

It never restarts in the middle of a whinge, or while one is being saved: an update that's ready waits until Whinge isn't busy.

Installed with Homebrew, brew upgrade --cask whinge leaves Whinge to update itself; brew upgrade --cask --greedy whinge upgrades it anyway. Or download the new version and drag it over the old one. See what changed in the changelog.

Uninstall

brew uninstall --cask whinge

Or drag Whinge from Applications to the Bin and delete ~/.local/bin/whinge. Your recordings and settings stay in Documents/Whinges and ~/Library/Application Support/Whinge/.

Build it yourself

With macOS 26, Xcode 26 and mise, from a clone of the repository:

mise run dev:install

It builds Whinge Dev.app into /Applications and links whinge-dev. Open it from Applications when you want it.