History and Insights

How History Is Stored

History keeps the most recent 1,000 dictations on your Mac and shows all of them. Entries have no fixed expiry date. Each includes raw and cleaned text, timestamp, target app identifier, insertion outcome, and recording duration when known. Older entries leave History as the cap is reached.

Steno keeps the previous version of the History file after each save. If the file can't be read in full, entries that can't be read are skipped and kept in a copy of the original file; a file that can't be read at all is moved aside instead of overwritten. Steno says so once and can show the kept file in Finder.

Search and Groups

Use History search to find words in raw or cleaned text or an app identifier. Search covers every transcript History keeps. Rows are grouped by date. Select an entry to inspect its text and insertion outcome; the layout adapts to the window width.

Copy Paste Delete

Copy puts the transcript on the clipboard. You can paste it yourself into the intended field, or use the available paste-to-app action after checking the destination. Run cleanup again reprocesses saved text with your current settings; it does not record or recognize the original audio again. Restore original cleanup puts back the text from before you ran cleanup again. An older entry whose command can't be replayed, or one the current settings would empty, is left unchanged with a note saying why.

Deleting an entry removes its saved transcript from this Mac, including from the backup copy of the History file and from copies kept when the file couldn't be read in full. It does not remove text already inserted into another app or its separate Insights usage record. If a kept copy is too damaged to edit, Steno says that it still holds older text.

Delete all history removes every saved transcript after confirming how many will be deleted, including the backup copies and any kept copies. It is available even when no transcripts are listed. Insights totals are kept.

Recovery Tips

If the outcome is Copied, click the intended field and press Cmd+V. Steno copies instead of inserting when the cursor is in a password or other secure field, when focus moved to a different field or app while it was transcribing, when the original app can't be brought back to the front, or when you dictate from Steno's own window with no text field selected. After pasting into Terminal, iTerm2, or Warp, the outcome is Pasted. If a transcript was inserted but couldn't be saved to History, Steno says the text was inserted and offers it for copying. If insertion failed, open History and copy the completed transcript. Check the destination before retrying to avoid duplicate text. Even when History reports Inserted, check that the text reached the right place in your editor.

A canceled recording has no completed transcript to recover. Recording or recognition failures may also leave no usable text; History is not an audio archive.

Insights

Insights shows a six-month activity calendar, streaks, words spoken (counted before cleanup), known dictated time, completed sessions, estimated speed, cleanup coverage, and top apps. The calendar covers six months; lifetime totals cover all recorded usage. Speed and time summaries use the session data Steno has recorded. They do not measure recognition accuracy or time saved.

Usage records contain session dates, app identifiers, and counts, without transcript text or audio. Deleting History entries leaves these totals intact.