Introduction
Rubber Duck is a voice-first coding companion for macOS. HoldOption+D and speak — the agent reads your files, edits code, runs commands, and talks back, all streamed to your terminal via the duck CLI.
Interrupt mid-sentence and it stops immediately. Nothing is hidden.
How it Works
Rubber Duck combines a menu bar app with a terminal CLI to give you transparent, voice-driven coding assistance:- Hold the hotkey (
Option+D) and speak your request - Watch the terminal as the agent searches files, runs commands, and proposes edits
- Hear the response spoken back to you while seeing full details in your terminal
- Interrupt anytime — speaking stops the agent immediately
Key Features
Voice-First Interaction
Natural back-and-forth conversation about your codebase. Press and hold
Option+D, speak, and get spoken responses with full terminal transparency.Instant Interruptions
Interrupt mid-sentence and the agent stops immediately. Barge-in support with automatic abort or steering.
Full Terminal Transparency
Every file read, command execution, and code edit is visible in your terminal. No hidden automation.
Multi-Session Support
Run multiple sessions concurrently across different repos. Follow different sessions in separate terminals while voice stays attached to one active session.
Workspace Confinement
All operations are scoped to your attached workspace directory. File operations and bash commands stay within your repo boundaries.
Powered by Pi CLI
Built on Pi coding agent’s RPC mode for robust session management, tool execution, and streaming output.
What You Can Do
Understand code- “Where is the authentication flow defined?”
- “How does the payment processing work?”
- “Why is this test failing?”
- “Refactor this module to use async/await”
- “Add error handling to the API routes”
- “Fix the type errors in the user service”
- “Run the test suite and summarize failures”
- “Show me recent git changes”
- “Check if the build passes”
Two-Piece Architecture
Rubber Duck.app — Menu bar UI with microphone/speaker, session manager, and local daemon that spawns Pi processes and routes events.duck CLI — Terminal client that attaches workspaces, streams live events, and provides simple session control. Never executes tools directly — it’s a client of the app/daemon.
Get Started
Installation
Install Rubber Duck on macOS 15.2+ using Homebrew or direct DMG download
Quickstart
Get up and running in minutes with your first voice coding session
CLI Reference
Learn all available
duck commands and options