What Are Workflows
A workflow is a set of AI refinement rules that Murmur applies automatically based on the app you are dictating into. The same sentence spoken into Mail should come out polished and professional; spoken into Slack it should stay casual and short; spoken into a code editor it should preserve technical terms exactly. Workflows make that happen without you changing any settings between apps.
Manage workflows in Settings > Refinement Workflows.
How a workflow is chosen
When you finish dictating, Murmur looks at the app you were in when recording started and picks one workflow:
- A custom workflow that explicitly lists that app
- A built-in workflow that explicitly lists that app (for example, Slack is listed in the Messaging workflow)
- A built-in workflow matching the app's category (an unlisted email client still gets Email Style)
- Basic Refinement — the always-on catch-all
You never trigger a workflow manually. Press your usual dictation hotkey; Murmur resolves the right workflow on its own.
What a workflow controls
Each workflow defines:
- Trigger apps — which apps activate it
- Profile — the kind of writing it produces (email, message, code instruction, prose)
- Style — formality (Casual, Neutral, Professional, Formal), whether to use emojis, and whether to use abbreviations and shortforms
- Custom instructions — free-form rules applied on top, like "Always use British English" or "Sign off as Vishal"
- Command Mode — whether the workflow also supports voice commands for generating content from instructions
See Customizing Workflows for every field in detail.
Requirements
- An AI provider. Workflows run your transcription through an AI model, so at least one provider must be configured in Settings > AI Providers. If none is set up, Murmur shows a "Configure an AI provider" banner and pastes raw transcriptions instead. See AI Providers.
- AI Refinement enabled. The master toggle Enable AI Refinement at the top of Refinement Workflows turns the whole system on or off. With it off, every dictation pastes exactly what you said.
Master controls
At the top of Settings > Refinement Workflows:
- Enable AI Refinement — "Run your dictation through an AI for cleanup or per-app polish." The global on/off switch.
- Generate title from dictation — when on (the default), the AI also produces a short title for each dictation, shown in History.
- Send cursor context when available — when on (the default), Murmur includes your cursor position and nearby text so the AI matches capitalization and spacing mid-sentence. See Context-Aware AI.
Skipping refinement in specific apps
Some apps are about speed, not polish. The Skip refinement in these apps list at the bottom of Refinement Workflows excludes apps entirely: dictation there pastes as-is, even when refinement is enabled. Click Add App to add one.
There is a matching Skip commands in these apps list in Command Workflows for Command Mode.
While you are recording
Two gestures work during any dictation:
- Shift (tapped bare) — switch between Dictation and Command mode mid-recording.
- Escape — press once to skip refinement and paste the raw transcription; press twice quickly (within half a second) to cancel. While holding a push-to-talk key, Escape cancels outright.
A cancelled recording above a minimum length is kept in History with its audio, so cancelling never destroys anything. The full gesture table is in Recording Indicator.
When refinement is skipped automatically
Murmur falls back to pasting the raw transcription when:
- No AI provider is configured, or the provider times out
- The transcription exceeds roughly 3,000 characters
- The matched workflow is disabled and no other workflow applies, with Basic Refinement set to Leave raw
Your raw transcription is never lost — History keeps both the original and the refined text for every dictation.