Voice to Text for GitLab
GitLab is your entire DevOps platform, but writing about your work takes forever. Merge request descriptions, issue comments, wiki documentation, CI/CD pipeline notes. All that prose your team needs to understand your changes. Blurt lets you speak it instead of typing it. Hold a button, explain your changes naturally, release. Text appears in GitLab wherever your cursor is. Your merge requests get the context reviewers need. Your wiki pages actually get written. Your CI/CD pipelines finally get documented.
The Typing Problem
Merge request descriptions that explain anything take forever to write
You just finished a complex feature across multiple commits. Now you need to explain what changed, why it changed, how to test it, and what the deployment implications are. You could walk someone through it verbally in 45 seconds, but typing it all out takes 15 minutes. So you write 'Implements feature X' and call it done. Reviewers waste time figuring out what you actually changed. The review drags on for days.
Issue comments pile up unanswered
Your project has active users filing bugs and asking questions. Each issue needs a response: reproduction steps requested, workarounds provided, status updates given. Writing thoughtful responses to twenty issues takes your entire afternoon. You fall behind. Users feel ignored. Your issue tracker becomes a graveyard of unanswered questions.
Wiki pages never get written
Your project wiki is empty or outdated. The setup guide is from two years ago. The architecture overview doesn't exist. The runbook has gaps. You know you should document these things, but after a day of coding, more typing is exhausting. So the wiki stays neglected. New team members struggle. The same questions get asked repeatedly. Knowledge stays locked in people's heads.
CI/CD pipelines are mysterious black boxes
Your pipelines work, but nobody knows why. The gitlab-ci.yml file has no comments. The job descriptions are cryptic. When something breaks, everyone guesses. When you need to modify a pipeline, you reverse-engineer your own work. Documenting pipelines feels like a luxury you don't have time for.
Code review feedback becomes terse and unhelpful
You're reviewing a merge request and spot several issues. You know exactly what's wrong and how to fix each problem. But explaining each issue thoughtfully takes time. You're tempted to just leave 'change this' or a single line comment. The merge request author has no idea what you actually want. Back and forth ensues. A review that should take one round takes three.
How It Works
Blurt works everywhere in GitLab. Merge request descriptions, issue comments, wiki editors, CI/CD configuration comments, code review threads. If you can type it, you can speak it.
Hold your hotkey
Press your chosen shortcut while your cursor is in any GitLab text field. A small indicator shows Blurt is listening.
Explain naturally
Describe your changes, document your pipeline, write your wiki content. Talk like you're explaining to a teammate. Blurt handles punctuation automatically.
Release and done
Text appears in GitLab. Edit if needed, or submit directly. Your thoughts become documentation in seconds, not minutes.
Real Scenarios
Writing merge request descriptions that actually help reviewers
Your merge request touches a dozen files across multiple services. Hold the button and explain: 'This MR refactors the authentication service to use GitLab's OAuth provider instead of our custom implementation. The main changes are in the auth controller and the user session model. I've also updated the CI pipeline to run the new integration tests. Deployment notes: you'll need to set the GITLAB_CLIENT_ID and GITLAB_CLIENT_SECRET environment variables before deploying. Testing notes: use the test-oauth branch on staging.' Reviewers know exactly what they're looking at. Reviews go faster.
Documenting CI/CD pipelines so others can maintain them
Your gitlab-ci.yml is getting complex. Hold and document: 'This pipeline has three stages. The build stage compiles the application and creates a Docker image. The test stage runs unit tests, integration tests, and security scans in parallel. The deploy stage pushes to staging automatically on merge to main, and requires manual approval for production. The SAST job uses GitLab's built-in scanner and fails on high severity vulnerabilities.' Pipeline documentation that would take 10 minutes to type takes 30 seconds to speak.
Writing wiki pages while the knowledge is fresh
You just set up a new service and need to document it. Instead of putting it off, hold and speak: 'To deploy the notification service, first create the Kubernetes namespace using kubectl create namespace notifications. Then apply the ConfigMap from the deploy folder. Make sure Redis is running because the service uses it for queue management. The service exposes port 8080 and expects a health check endpoint at slash health. Environment variables needed are REDIS_URL, SMTP_HOST, and API_KEY.' Wiki page written in one minute while you still remember everything.
Responding to issues without the typing fatigue
A user reported a bug with detailed reproduction steps. Hold and respond: 'Thanks for the detailed report. I've reproduced the issue and it looks like a race condition in the cache invalidation logic. This was introduced in version 4.2. As a workaround, you can disable caching by setting CACHE_ENABLED to false in your environment. I'm marking this as a priority bug and will have a fix in the next release, probably within the week.' Issue triaged, user informed, timeline given. All in 20 seconds.
Thoughtful code review comments that teach
You spotted a potential performance issue in a merge request. Hold and explain: 'This database query runs inside a loop, which could cause N plus one query problems when processing large datasets. Consider using GitLab's preload method to fetch all related records in a single query, or batch the operations using find_each with a batch size. There's an example of this pattern in the reports controller if you want to see how we've handled it elsewhere.' Constructive feedback in 15 seconds.
Writing runbook entries during incidents
You just resolved a production incident and need to document it. Hold and speak: 'Incident summary: the API gateway started returning 502 errors at 3 AM UTC due to a memory leak in the connection pooler. Root cause was the new connection timeout setting deployed yesterday. Resolution was to roll back to the previous version and increase the connection pool size. Prevention: we need to add memory usage alerts to the connection pooler and load test timeout changes before deploying.' Runbook entry done while the incident is still fresh.
Commenting on epics and project planning
Your team is planning a major feature across multiple milestones. Hold and contribute: 'For the API redesign epic, I think we should tackle authentication first because it's a dependency for the other components. I estimate three sprints for the auth work: one sprint for the OAuth implementation, one for migration scripts, and one for documentation and rollout. We should consider keeping the old endpoints available during a transition period to avoid breaking existing integrations.' Strategic input without the typing marathon.
Why GitLab users choose Blurt over built-in dictation
| Blurt | macOS Dictation | |
|---|---|---|
| Activation | Single hotkey, instant start | Click microphone or double-tap function key |
| Speed | Text appears in under 500ms | 2-3 second delay before transcription |
| Technical terms | Handles GitLab and DevOps jargon (CI/CD, MR, pipeline) | Often mishears technical vocabulary |
| Reliability | Consistent accuracy in browser text fields | Sometimes fails in web apps |
| Price | $10/month or $99/year, free tier included | Free but limited |
Frequently Asked Questions
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