Using Flow with Linux, WSL, and Terminal Applications
Last updated: October 19, 2026
Available on: Mac, Windows
Flow transcribes but nothing appears in your terminal or WSL window? Use Paste last transcript to recover text that didn't paste. There is no native Linux application.
Quick checks
Focus: Flow pastes into the active window; keep your terminal focused until text appears.
Dictation shortcut: Push-to-talk defaults to Ctrl+Win on Windows and Fn on Mac; check your binding in Shortcuts if dictation doesn't start.
Transcription or paste? Text in Flow but not your terminal means transcription succeeded; it remains in History and available to paste again. If Flow has no text, check permissions below.
Note: In terminals, Flow does not warn you to click into a text field first, so a paste into an unfocused or non-editable terminal goes nowhere with no error.
Terminal compatibility
Flow attempts the same paste action across Mac and Windows apps; there is no terminal allow-list. The target must accept the paste. The Mac permissions below apply to every Mac terminal.
Terminal | Direct paste | Requirements or differences |
Command Prompt, PowerShell, Windows Terminal, WezTerm (Windows) | Yes | No terminal-specific setup. |
Terminal.app, iTerm2 (Mac) | Yes | Mac permissions below apply. |
Warp, kitty, Alacritty, Hyper (Mac/Windows); Ghostty (Mac) | Yes | Mac permissions below apply. |
VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf integrated terminals | Yes | No terminal-specific setup. |
VS Code Remote SSH (Windows) | Yes | Use this extension if your SSH client doesn't accept Flow's paste. |
Terminal inside a remote desktop or VNC viewer (Windows) | Yes | No terminal-specific setup. |
Terminal inside a VNC viewer (Mac) | No | Use Paste last transcript. |
WSL windows, Linux VMs, remote SSH sessions | No | Flow transcribes, but you must use Paste last transcript. |
When Flow recognizes a coding agent in a terminal, it splits long dictations into plain-text sections, dropping rich-text formatting: Claude text over 600 characters or containing three or more line breaks; Codex text over 1000 characters. Without recognition, this splitting does not apply.
When an app identifies the focused pane as a terminal, Flow omits special keystroke commands such as Tab and does not perform IDE file tagging there.
Dictate into your terminal
Note: On Mac, only Flow needs Microphone and Accessibility permissions; your terminal needs none. Accessibility is required for text insertion, but missing access does not itself block dictation from starting.
Warning: Flow's context-aware formatting (capitalization, spacing, punctuation) applies in terminals too and can transform shell commands unexpectedly. Use Paste last transcript if formatting interferes.
Enable Wispr Flow on Mac in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.
Click into your terminal so it has focus.
Enter insert mode first in Vim, Nano, or other terminal editors.
Dictate a short phrase.
If text appears in the terminal, you're done. Otherwise, recover it below.
Recover text that didn't paste
Action | Mac default | Windows default |
Paste last transcript | Ctrl+Cmd+V | Alt+Shift+Z |
Copy last transcript | Ctrl+Cmd+C | Alt+Shift+X |
Open Shortcuts from Flow's icon menu to change either binding. Paste-failure notifications show your custom binding when set, otherwise the default.
Warning: Wait until dictation finishes before retrying. Paste last transcript cancels a dictation still processing; retrying while dictating can show “Cannot retry while dictating.” If a long dictation still has audio to transcribe, finishing can take up to five minutes.
Click into the target terminal, including your WSL or VM terminal.
Press your Paste last transcript shortcut, then release every key to paste.
Check for text. If nothing appears, click into the terminal again and retry.
Interrupting the key sequence cancels the pending paste. Copy last transcript instead copies plain text without pasting, immediately on key press.
Paste last transcript retries dismissed, failed or unformatted dictations from saved audio before pasting. An enterprise policy that prevents audio storage leaves no audio to retry. An empty result clears the last transcript; Paste last transcript then does nothing without an error, and Copy last transcript also does nothing.
Paste manually
After setup, Flow may show a failed-paste notification containing your text and a Copy button. Only if that notification appears does it put the transcript on your clipboard; otherwise your existing clipboard remains unchanged, so ordinary paste cannot recover the transcript that way.
Warning: On Mac, previous clipboard contents return about half a second after pasting, except copied files, PDFs, rich text with attachments and audio. Failed-paste recovery that leaves the transcript on your clipboard replaces previous contents. Third-party clipboard-manager history may not record Flow's text.
Press Copy last transcript if the failed-paste notification has not already copied your text.
Focus the terminal.
Paste with Cmd+V on Mac or Ctrl+V on Windows.
If text appears, you're done. Otherwise, continue with the checks below.
The text-containing notification appears at most once per dictation. Without usable text, Flow can show a simpler shortcut tip instead. During setup, a separate failed-paste notice appears only when the target is outside Flow.
Clipboard restore and privacy on Windows
After pasting into a terminal on your own PC, Flow restores your previous clipboard about half a second after the terminal reads the dictated text. A later Ctrl+V can paste that older content; a new copy you make is kept. Recognized remote-desktop/VNC viewers (RDP, Citrix, Horizon, AnyDesk, TeamViewer) wait about five seconds before restoration, allowing extra time for remote pastes. Outlook, Word and WhatsApp wait about three seconds. An app reading after restoration can receive the older contents.
Warning: Windows restores images and HTML rich text, but not RTF-only rich text, copied files, PDFs, audio or CSV. Password-manager sensitivity markings remain protected, keeping those items out of Clipboard History (Win+V) and cloud clipboard sync. Flow also marks its dictation clipboard writes sensitive, so they do not appear in Win+V or sync to the cloud clipboard.
If a failed paste leaves dictated text on the clipboard, previous contents are not restored. Starting another paste cancels a pending restoration rather than overwriting newer clipboard contents.
Use a menu instead of a shortcut
The icon menu offers Paste last transcript: use Flow's menu-bar icon on Mac or right-click its tray icon on Windows. The flow-bar menu also offers it beside Transcript history. Windows has no app menu bar.
On Mac, Dictation → Copy last transcript copies instead of pasting; follow the manual-paste steps afterward. Both menu actions are disabled without a stored transcript. When a preview appears, hover over it for a longer preview.
Limitation: The tray displays your binding, but omits Fn and Option keys from its shortcut label; check Shortcuts for the full binding.
If text still doesn't appear
On Mac, missing Accessibility can show “Accessibility Permission Required” (“Flow needs accessibility access to work properly.”) with Open Settings. Revoked permissions can open the relevant settings pane. A startup readiness warning alone does not establish an Accessibility problem.
Microphone settings: Mac — System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone; Windows — Settings → Privacy → Microphone. On Windows, check these OS settings rather than an in-app permission status; a microphone-privacy notification also offers Open Settings.
Recheck Flow's Accessibility permission on Mac using the path above, then retry dictation.
Verify Microphone access in the settings above, then retry dictation.
On Mac, also confirm Screen Capture. After each check, stop if text appears; otherwise continue.
Windows administrator or privilege notification
After a blocked paste, “Update admin settings to paste!” / “Run Flow as Administrator to insert text everywhere” means the terminal runs at a higher privilege level than Flow.
Important: If the target app runs as Administrator, Flow must too. Windows blocks input from lower-privilege apps to higher-privilege ones.
Quit Flow.
Right-click the Flow icon → Run as administrator.
Dictate again. If text appears, you're done; otherwise continue below.
Restart Flow and your terminal, then dictate again. Stop if text appears.
Test in Terminal.app on Mac or PowerShell on Windows.
If it works there, the issue is specific to your third-party terminal — use Paste last transcript if direct paste keeps failing.
Still stuck?
Contact support if:
Direct paste fails after restarting and rechecking permissions.
Paste last transcript doesn't work anywhere, including a plain text editor.
You see an error not covered here.
Include your platform, terminal name and version, and what you tried.