The best notes are the ones you actually capture — and the fastest way to capture them is to say them. With Clavio, you start talking and your thoughts land straight in an Obsidian note, in your own words, lightly tidied so they read back clean tomorrow. There's nothing to send and no hurry: the text simply appears where your cursor sits, so you keep thinking out loud — a heading here, a link there — until the whole idea is down. It's your second brain, filled at the speed of speech.
Start a note the moment it strikes — a wake word or one key
A thought worth keeping rarely waits for you to sit down and type. So Clavio gives you two ways to open the tap in Obsidian, and you pick whichever fits the moment. Set a wake word and you're fully hands-free — say it, then talk, and your thinking flows into the note without you touching a key. Prefer a deliberate trigger? Pick a hotkey instead — one press starts and stops, and it never fires while you're typing Markdown by hand. Either way you go from a half-formed thought to a line in your vault in about a second, before it slips away.
Natural polish: your thinking, just cleaned up enough
Spoken thought is messy — you restart sentences, trail off, circle back. A raw transcript of all that is a chore to reread, which is exactly why so many voice notes go unopened. So for Obsidian, keep Clavio on its natural polish: it takes what you actually said and hands back clean, readable prose — false starts dropped, sentences closed, punctuation in place — without rewriting your meaning or flattening your voice. It's the lightest touch that still leaves a note worth rereading, not a wall of um-and-ah. Set it once for Obsidian and every note comes out that way.
Built for the long thought — and it never stomps your Markdown
Thinking out loud runs long, and that's the whole point of a vault — so Clavio doesn't cut you off mid-idea. Raise the capture length in settings and you can talk through an entire meeting recap or a page of morning pages in one unbroken go. And because an Obsidian note is just Markdown, Clavio simply drops clean sentences wherever your cursor is — it doesn't fight the “#” headings, “-” bullets, “[[wikilinks]],” or “#tags” you've laid down. Add the names you reach for most to Clavio's dictionary — the people, projects, and note titles you link to — and they come through spelled right, so “[[Project Atlas]]” lands as the words you meant, not a phonetic guess.
One voice for the whole vault — and everywhere after
Your vault is where the thinking happens, but it rarely ends there. Capture the daily note, the meeting recap, the fleeting idea — all in your natural voice — and when it's time to act, the same wake word follows you out of Obsidian. Turn a note into a task in your tracker, paste the gist into an email, fire off the Slack message it prompted; Clavio types into every one of those the way it types into your note, and remembers the right tone for each — reflective for your vault, tidy for an email, casual for chat. And since it only answers to your voice, a housemate or a podcast playing nearby never adds a stray line to your notes. One voice carries a raw thought all the way to the thing you do about it.
Recommended Clavio settings for Obsidian
| Setting | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Activation | Wake word or hotkey | Say a wake word to capture fully hands-free, or press one hotkey for a deliberate start — whichever fits the moment. |
| Polish level | Natural (light) | Drops false starts and adds punctuation so spoken thought reads back clean, without rewriting your meaning or flattening your voice. |
| Auto-send | Off | A note isn't a message. Text lands where your cursor is and stays put, so you keep writing, editing, and structuring the idea. |
| Personal dictionary | Add your vault's names | Keeps the people, projects, tags, and “[[wikilink]]” titles you link to coming through spelled right every time. |
| Capture length | Raise it for long notes | Thinking out loud runs long — a generous cap lets a full brain-dump land in one go instead of getting cut off mid-idea. |
Fill your second brain by voice with Clavio
Clavio is an AI dictation app for Mac. It sits in your menu bar and types finished text wherever your cursor is — an Obsidian note, your daily note, the email or Slack message a note turns into. You start with a wake word (fully hands-free) or a single hotkey, and choose the polish per app: a natural, light touch for Obsidian so spoken thought reads back clean, something tidier elsewhere. A personal dictionary keeps your vault's people, projects, and tags spelled right, and an on-device voiceprint means only your voice ever adds to your notes. Free to try: 3,000 words a month, no card, macOS 14+ on Apple Silicon. Pro is £12/month for unlimited.
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Common questions
Doesn't Obsidian already handle voice, or macOS dictation?
Obsidian has no built-in voice, and macOS dictation just drops raw, unpunctuated words into the note — no cleanup, and it can't keep your people and project names straight. Clavio is built for capturing thought: a natural polish turns what you said into readable prose, your vault's recurring names come through spelled right, and the same voice follows you from the note into the email or task it becomes. That's why people reach for it over the built-in option.
Can I dictate into Obsidian fully hands-free?
Yes. Set a wake word, say it, and start talking — your words land in the note without you touching a key. Auto-send stays off because a note isn't a message: there's nothing to fire, so the text simply appears at your cursor and waits while you keep thinking out loud.
Will it mangle my note titles, links, and technical terms?
No. Natural polish tidies your prose without rewriting what you meant, and it drops clean sentences around the Markdown you've already typed rather than fighting it. Add the people, projects, tags, and “[[wikilink]]” titles you use most to Clavio's dictionary and they transcribe right every time, instead of a phonetic guess.
Can I dictate a whole long note in one go?
Yes — that's what Obsidian is for, so Clavio is built to keep up. Raise the capture length in settings and you can talk through a full meeting recap or a page of morning pages without getting cut off mid-idea, and natural polish keeps the whole thing readable when you scroll back through it later.
Can I use the same voice outside my vault too?
Yes — that's the point of a system-wide app. Clavio types into your task tracker, email, and Slack the same way it types into an Obsidian note, and remembers the tone per app: reflective for your notes, tidy for an email, casual for chat. One wake word carries a thought from your vault all the way to the thing you do about it.