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Sync your dictionary across computers

Speakey's dictionary — your custom vocabulary, replacement rules, and the words it's learned — lives in a plain folder on your machine. So you can keep it identical across every computer you dictate on, without it ever touching a cloud server.

We recommend Syncthing: open-source, peer-to-peer, end-to-end encrypted. Your words sync straight from one of your machines to another — no account, no third party, no copy sitting on someone else's disk. It's the same principle Speakey itself is built on.

Why peer-to-peer

A privacy-first dictation app shouldn't hand your vocabulary to a cloud provider to move it between your own computers. Syncthing connects your devices directly and encrypts the transfer, so your words stay your own — in transit and at rest.

What gets synced

Everything in your Speakey dictionary folder: each vocabulary category, your _replacements.csv rules, and the usage data behind Speakey's learning. Sync the folder and a new word added on one machine shows up on the others.

Where the folder lives

Windows: %APPDATA%\io.speakey.app\dictionary\ — paste that into the Explorer address bar.
Linux: ~/.local/share/io.speakey.app/dictionary/

Set it up (about 5 minutes)

Install Syncthing on both computers.
On computer A, add the Speakey dictionary folder above as a Syncthing folder. Give it a memorable Folder ID like speakey-dictionary.
Pair the two machines: in each Syncthing web UI, choose Add Remote Device and swap their device IDs.
Share the speakey-dictionary folder with computer B. On B, accept it and point it at B's own dictionary path from the list above.
Leave both folders set to Send & Receive. Done — add a word on your laptop and it appears on your desktop.

Speakey watches the dictionary folder and hot-reloads changes, so a synced update shows up live — no restart needed.

Good to know

Avoid simultaneous edits

Don't edit the dictionary on two machines at the exact same moment. If you do, Syncthing keeps both versions and drops a *.sync-conflict-* file rather than losing your data — just delete the copy you don't want.

Both machines need to be online at the same time at least once for the first sync — Syncthing is direct, not store-and-forward.
Prefer a cloud folder like OneDrive or Dropbox? It works the same way — point it at the dictionary folder — but your vocabulary then lives on that provider's servers, which is the tradeoff Syncthing avoids.