athal7/dictation

macOS Dictation uses ~/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary for custom vocabulary. This plain-text file (one word per line) improves recognition of names, project terms, and domain-specific words that the default speech model wouldn't know.

Location

• File: ~/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary
• Format: plain text, one word per line, no duplicates
• Effect: improves both spellcheck and dictation recognition system-wide

Syncing from the knowledge base

Extract custom words from the knowledge base and write them to LocalDictionary. Load the knowledge base skill for structure and file locations.

What to extract

1. People names — canonical names from the name mappings. Split into individual words. Focus on unusual surnames and given names the speech model wouldn't recognize (skip common English first names).
2. Project names — canonical project names from the project mappings. Include multi-word names as individual words.
3. Product labels — product and domain terms from label mappings.
4. Profile headings — scan people and project profiles for heading lines to catch names not in the mappings.

Writing the dictionary

• Preserve existing entries — the user may have manually added words
• One word per line — multi-word names get split ("Pedram" and "Amini" on separate lines)
• Skip common English words — no value in adding "the", "admin", etc.
• Include unusual terms — uncommon surnames, project codenames, product-specific terminology
• Deduplicate — sort -u before writing