AgentPeek vs Speech To Markdown: Features, Pricing & Which Is Better (2026)
A side-by-side comparison of AgentPeek and Speech To Markdown — features, pricing, and ideal use cases — to help you decide which AI tool fits your workflow.
AgentPeek
Tran Huu Hoang
Mac menu-bar app that puts Claude Code and Codex into the Mac notch to watch sessions, answer prompts, track tokens, and manage local dev servers.
Key features
- Notch & Menu-bar Integration: Embeds live Claude Code and Codex sessions into the Mac notch and menu bar for immediate, always-available access without switching windows.
- Live Session Viewer: Displays real-time agent activity and conversation streams so users can watch multi-agent interactions as they occur and inspect agent behavior.
- Interactive Prompt Handling: Surfaces permission prompts and allows users to answer, approve, or modify prompts directly from the menu-bar interface to control agent inputs.
- Token Usage Tracking: Monitors and reports token consumption per session or agent, helping developers manage costs and debug token-related issues.
- Local Dev Server Management: Provides controls to start, stop, and monitor local development servers tied to agent workflows, streamlining local testing and iteration.
- Local-first Privacy Model: Designed to run locally on the user’s Mac to minimize external data exposure and give users control over where agent data is processed.
- Release Log & Versioning: Public release log (changelog) with incremental releases (0.1.x series) so users can track features, fixes, and updates over time.
- Multi-agent Visualization: Integrates with multi-agent setups (per GitHub repo) to visualize interactions across agents for debugging and analysis.
- Embed Claude Code and Codex sessions in the Mac notch and menu bar
- Live session replay and real-time visualization
- Permission prompts and response handling
- Token usage tracking and metrics
- Manage and monitor local development servers
- Local-first storage: session data stays on device
- Live visualization of Claude Code and Codex agent sessions in the Mac notch and menu bar
- Interactive permission prompts allowing users to answer agent prompts from the menu bar
- Token usage tracking and reporting for monitored agent sessions
- Management and monitoring of local development servers associated with agents
- Real-time dashboard for multi-agent orchestration and activity inspection
- Local-first architecture (runs on user's Mac rather than cloud-hosted by default)
- Distributed via a one-time license purchase
Best for
- Observing Multi-Agent Workflows: Watch real-time exchanges between agents to debug coordination issues or verify agent decision paths without opening developer consoles.
- Rapid Prompt Approval: Approve, modify, or answer permission prompts from the menu bar to speed up interactive sessions with Claude Code or Codex during development.
- Token Cost Monitoring: Track token usage during experiments to identify costly prompts or optimize prompt engineering for lower consumption.
- Local Development Management: Start and manage local dev servers used by agents directly from the app, simplifying local testing and iteration cycles.
- Desktop AI Command Center: Keep an always-on control surface for AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Codex) accessible from the Mac notch for quick coding help.
- Agent Behavior Auditing: Capture and inspect live session logs to audit agent outputs, confirm compliance with expected behavior, or reproduce bugs.
- Monitor and debug multi-agent interactions during local development
- Quickly view and respond to agent prompts from the Mac menu bar/notch
- Track token usage and costs while iterating on agents
- Run and control local dev servers for agent workflows
- Provide lightweight agent observability during demos or testing
- Monitor and debug multi-agent workflows spawned by Claude Code or Codex in real time
- Track and audit token consumption during agent runs for cost and performance analysis
- Answer permission or confirmation prompts quickly from the menu bar without switching windows
- Manage local development servers used by agent systems during development and testing
- Provide a lightweight dashboard for agent orchestration and visibility on macOS
Speech To Markdown
xajik
Free, 100% local macOS menu-bar app that turns speech into structured markdown using whisper.cpp and any local LLM.
Key features
- 100% Local Pipeline: Runs whisper.cpp for speech-to-text and any local LLM server for structuring — no cloud calls and no API keys required.
- Global Dictation Hotkey: Press ⌘⌥] in any app to have the transcript typed straight at your cursor, works in Terminal, browser, Slack, and more.
- Agent Mode Live Structuring: A floating capsule streams your voice through the LLM into a real-time Markdown, plain text, or HTML document.
- One-Line Install: A single curl-piped script installs xcodegen, whisper-cpp, and ffmpeg via Homebrew, then builds the app from source into /Applications.
- iOS Companion: A fully offline iPhone/iPad app that uses Apple Intelligence on iOS 26+ (iPhone 15 Pro and up).
- Multiple Output Formats: Format, edit, or append the LLM output as Markdown, plain text, or HTML from a single control panel.
- Send-Now Flush: The Send (⏎) control flushes the current buffer to the LLM immediately instead of waiting for the pause/word-count threshold.
- Model Picker: Download and swap Whisper models from Settings — Base (~150 MB) is a good starting point.
Best for
- Private Meeting Notes: Dictate meeting recaps on a Mac with sensitive content that must never leave the device.
- Voice-Driven Coding Comments: Speak function docstrings or PR descriptions into your editor at the cursor via Global Dictation.
- Structured Journaling: Use Agent Mode to ramble freely and get a clean, headed Markdown document out in real time.
- Offline Field Notes on iOS: Capture voice notes on an iPhone with no signal, structured into markdown using on-device Apple Intelligence.
- Slack / Email Long-Form: Dictate long replies straight into Slack or Mail without opening a separate transcription tool.
