Custom

Take full control of your dictation processing with Custom Mode. Create specialized workflows by combining context-awareness with your own AI instructions for unlimited possibilities.

Key Features

Custom Mode empowers you with:

• Complete control over AI processing instructions
• Context-awareness capabilities
• Advanced audio capture options
• Flexible processing for any workflow

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Additional Settings

AI Instructions

Beyond selecting your preferred AI model, with Custom Mode you have the option to personalize your own AI processing instructions.

Instructions are empty by default. Select “Change Prompt” to modify them. If left blank, AI will not know what task to perform and may give unexpected results.

Audio Options

• Record from System Audio:
  • Perfect for meetings, video content, interviews, or live audio coming your speakers
  • When recording system audio, the waves on the recording window do not move. You can always check Superwhisper’s history to verify capture
• Identify Speakers
  • Useful for meeting transcriptions
  • Speaker separation results appear in the Segments tab of History

Speaker-separated transcripts won’t process through AI automatically within the same mode. See this guide on handling multi-speaker transcripts with AI processing.

Context Awareness

Inside the Change Prompt section, you’ll discover two powerful features:

• Use application context toggle
• Use copied text toggle

These toggles work identically to Super Mode context awareness features.

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Prompting Tips

Referencing Content

When writing AI instructions for use in Superwhisper, you can direct AI’s attention to specific content using these XML-style tags:

• <user_message>
  • Contains your dictated text
• <application_context>
  • Includes the data from your active application window
• <clipboard_context>
  • Contains the text you’ve copied

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These tags let you create targeted instructions for AI. For example:

• “Translate <user_message> to Spanish”
• “Based on <application_context>, suggest relevant code comments”
• “Format <user_message> accordingly based on the content found in <clipboard_context>”

If you want AI to know your input is dictated speech, include it explicitly. For example: “The <user_message> contains dictated text. Please format it into proper paragraphs.”

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Instruct AI exactly which content to focus on and what to do with it. You can combine them in your instructions to create powerful workflows:

If <application_context> shows a code editor:
- Format <user_message> as code comments
- Use coding style from <clipboard_context> as reference

Writing Effective Instructions

1

Clear Purpose

Define your AI instructions by starting with a clear role or purpose statement. This sets the foundation for how the AI will process your content.

2

Requirements

Create a detailed list of specific requirements and expectations. Being explicit helps ensure the AI understands exactly what you need.

3

Structure

Organize your instructions using separate sections for different components. This modular approach makes your instructions easier to understand and modify.

4

Keep Simple

Write direct, straightforward instructions without unnecessary complexity. Clear communication leads to better results.

Using XML Tags

It is suggested to structure your instructions with XML tags to communicate clearly with AI:

Basic Tag Structure

• Set a role and Instructions:

<role>You are a text editor</role>
<instructions>Format the content of `<user_message>` into clear paragraphs</instructions>

• Define specific requirements:

<requirements>
- Use simple, clear language
- Keep the casual tone
- Break into short paragraphs
</requirements>

• Provide context and style:

<context>
- This content is for a cooking blog post
- Target audience is home cooks
- Should use casual, approachable language
- Include cooking-specific terminology where relevant
</context>

<style>
- Write in a warm, encouraging tone
- Use descriptive but simple language
- Include helpful cooking tips
- Make instructions easy to follow
</style>

<output-format>
- Title and introduction
- Ingredient list
- Step-by-step instructions
- Cook's notes and tips
</output-format>

Adjust and expand your XML tags based on your specific needs. The more detailed your instructions, the better the results.

Add Examples

Examples help you teach AI exactly how to process your input and what kind of output you expect. Located at the bottom of the Change Prompt section, below the context toggles, you’ll find the Add Examples interface.

Each example consists of two parts:

• Input field: Shows how you’ll phrase your requests
• Output field: Demonstrates your expected AI response

How to set:

• Click “Add Example” to create your first example pair
• Fill in both the input and output fields
• Add more examples by clicking “Add Example” again
• Right-click any example to duplicate or delete it

Adding 2-3 examples significantly improves AI’s understanding of your needs and leads to more accurate responses.

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Advanced Tip

Currently, Custom Mode doesn’t include text selection context like Super Mode. Enable this by editing your mode’s JSON config file - just back up first and use a simple text editor like TextEdit or VS Code.

Locate Your Modes Folder

Open Finder and navigate to ~/Documents/SuperWhisper/modes/ to access your modes folder

Find Your Mode File

Use Quick Look (press Space) on JSON files to preview and identify your mode by its “name” field

Enable Selection Context

Open the JSON file and change “context_from_selection” from false to true

Restart to Apply

Save your changes and restart Superwhisper to activate the selection context feature

Awesome! You can now reference <text_selection_context> in your custom instructions, as covered in Prompting Tips.

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Unlike other modes, Custom Mode isn’t limited to text formatting. Combine context-awareness with your instructions to create powerful, specialized workflows tailored to your needs.