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Build a workspace for your domain

In this tutorial you'll build a real, domain-specific workspace from scratch — a legal email workspace — and watch InkSpoke switch it on automatically the moment you start dictating in the right app.

A workspace teaches InkSpoke your field's vocabulary, tone, and instructions, then applies them based on the window you're typing into. Once it's set up, you never pick it from a menu again — it just happens.

What you'll learn​

  • How to create a workspace with the 3-step wizard (Purpose + Domain)
  • How the wizard seeds vocabulary and a domain-context note for you
  • How to add your own domain vocabulary and a Custom Instruction knowledge entry
  • How to tag the apps and sites where the workspace should switch on
  • How smart matching applies the workspace automatically — and how pinning differs
  • How to confirm it's working from the listening overlay

Prerequisites​

  • InkSpoke installed and running on your desktop — see Install and set up InkSpoke.
  • You've sent at least one dictation, so the flow is familiar — see Your first dictation.
  • AI Refinement is on. Workspace tone and knowledge only apply when refinement runs. The master toggle lives at Settings → Home (General) → AI Refinement; leave it on for this tutorial. (When it's off, InkSpoke injects your raw transcription and uses no workspace prompt data.)
New to the concept?

Read What are workspaces? first for the big picture. This tutorial is the hands-on build.

Time estimate​

About 10 minutes.

What we're building​

We'll create an Email — Legal workspace for a lawyer who drafts client correspondence in Gmail and Outlook. Here's the whole journey:

Swap in your own field as you go — the same steps build a Software Engineering, Finance, or Healthcare workspace just as well.

Step 1 — Open the workspace wizard​

  1. Open Settings → Workspaces.
  2. Choose create workspace. A modal wizard opens with three steps: Purpose, Domain, and Activation.

You can skip any step, and there's a Switch to custom escape hatch if you'd rather start from a blank workspace. We'll use the guided path.

Step 2 — Pick a Purpose​

Purpose sets how your words should be shaped. Choosing one automatically adds a Tone Adjustment and an Output Style knowledge entry to the workspace.

Select Email. This tunes refinement toward clear, well-structured email drafts and replies.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  New workspace                                     ✕        │
│                                                             │
│   ●━━━━━━━━━○━━━━━━━━━○                                     │
│   1 Purpose  2 Domain   3 Activation                        │
│                                                             │
│   What will you use this workspace for?                     │
│                                                             │
│   ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐                    │
│   │ ✔ Email  │ │   Chat   │ │  Coding  │                    │
│   │          │ │          │ │ comments │                    │
│   └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘                    │
│   ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐                    │
│   │ Meeting  │ │ Creative │ │  Voice-  │                    │
│   │  notes   │ │ writing  │ │ to-Text  │  … 11 in total     │
│   └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘                    │
│                                                             │
│   [ Switch to custom ]              [ Skip ]   [ Next → ]   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

There are 11 purposes: Voice-to-Text, Email, Chat, AI Prompting, Social Media, Meeting Notes, Documentation, Creative Writing, Customer-Facing, Code Comments, and Custom.

One purpose turns refinement off

Voice-to-Text intentionally sets the workspace's AI refinement disabled flag for verbatim capture — great for code or exact quotes, but it means tone and knowledge won't apply. We want refinement on, so pick Email, not Voice-to-Text.

Choose Next.

Step 3 — Pick a Domain​

Domain sets what world you're writing in. Choosing one adds a Domain Context knowledge entry and seeds a starter vocabulary of terms common to that field — so InkSpoke recognizes and spells them correctly from the very first dictation.

Select Legal.

There are 18 domains: Software Engineering, Project Management, Legal, Healthcare, Finance, Marketing, Customer Support, Academic Research, Human Resources, Data Science, Product Management, Sales, Real Estate, Journalism, Education, Cybersecurity, DevOps, and Accounting.

The name writes itself

InkSpoke auto-composes the workspace name from your two picks: Email — Legal. Choose both steps and you get a clear, descriptive name for free.

Choose Next.

Step 4 — Tag the apps that activate it​

Activation decides when the workspace switches on. You tag the apps and sites where it belongs, and smart matching turns it on automatically when you dictate there. You have three ways to add tags:

  1. Pick apps — open the app picker and select running or installed apps. Each becomes a tag matched against the foreground window. Add your mail clients here (for example, Outlook).
  2. Add a website by URL — paste a site address and InkSpoke auto-fetches the page's title to use as the tag. Paste https://mail.google.com and you'll likely get a Gmail tag without typing it.
  3. Add a manual tag — type any word that appears in the target window's title, such as mail.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  New workspace                                     ✕        │
│                                                             │
│   ●━━━━━━━━━●━━━━━━━━━●                                     │
│   1 Purpose  2 Domain   3 Activation                        │
│                                                             │
│   Turn this workspace on for…                               │
│                                                             │
│   [ + Pick apps ]   [ + Add website URL ]   [ + Add tag ]   │
│                                                             │
│   Tags:  ⟨ Gmail ✕ ⟩ ⟨ Outlook ✕ ⟩ ⟨ mail ✕ ⟩               │
│                                                             │
│   ☐ Pin this workspace (always use it)                      │
│                                                             │
│   [ ← Back ]                       [ Skip ]   [ Create ]    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Leave the Pin this workspace toggle unchecked for now — we want to see smart matching do its job first. (More on pinning in Step 7.)

Choose Create. The workspace lands in the grid with its Purpose/Domain knowledge entries, seeded vocabulary, and tags already in place.

Step 5 — Add your own domain vocabulary​

The Legal preset gives you a head start, but every practice has its own terms. Add the words your matters actually use so InkSpoke transcribes them cleanly.

  1. In the Workspaces grid, click the Email — Legal card to open its detail panel.

  2. In the panel header, find Vocabulary and choose edit.

  3. Add the terms you rely on, for example:

    indemnification, force majeure, estoppel, tortious,
    plaintiff, deposition, subpoena duces tecum

These terms are fed to speech recognition as hints and to the AI as known vocabulary, so a spoken "force majeure" comes out spelled correctly instead of guessed.

Add proper nouns too

Client names, matter numbers, and your firm's name are worth adding — they're exactly the words generic speech models get wrong.

Step 6 — Add a Custom Instruction​

Vocabulary fixes words; a Custom Instruction shapes behavior. Knowledge entries belong to one of four categories — Tone Adjustment, Output Style, Domain Context, or Custom Instruction — and InkSpoke folds the active ones into the refinement prompt under labeled sections.

  1. In the detail panel, find the Knowledge entries list.

  2. Choose + Blank to create a new text entry, and set its category to Custom Instruction.

  3. Type your rule. For our legal workspace:

    Always refer to our client as "the Client" and opposing parties by name. Keep the tone formal and professional, and never use contractions.

That's it — the next time this workspace is active, refinement follows your instruction.

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Email — Legal                        ☆ pin   ⋯ (menu)     │
│  Tags:  ⟨ Gmail ⟩ ⟨ Outlook ⟩ ⟨ mail ⟩            [ edit ] │
│  Vocabulary:  indemnification, force majeure …    [ edit ] │
│                                                            │
│  ▸ Speech        ▸ AI        ▸ Global Layer                │
│                                                            │
│  Knowledge entries                                         │
│   [TONE ADJUSTMENT]   Clear, well-structured …    ⋯        │
│   [OUTPUT STYLE]      Complete sentences …        ⋯        │
│   [DOMAIN CONTEXT]    Legal correspondence …      ⋯        │
│   [CUSTOM INSTRUCTIONS] Refer to "the Client" …   ⋯        │
│                                                            │
│   [ + Blank ] [ From clipboard ] [ Preset ] [ From file ]  │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Keep entries focused

All active knowledge across the workspace shares a content budget (40,000 characters by default, adjustable at the top of the Workspaces page). InkSpoke truncates at the last complete sentence if you exceed it, so write tight instructions rather than pasting whole documents. You can also import text with From file (.txt, .md, .csv, .json, .pdf, and more).

Step 7 — (Optional) Pin it for a heads-down session​

If you're spending the afternoon entirely in client correspondence, you can pin the workspace so it's used everywhere, regardless of the window. Flip the pin (★) control on the card or in the detail panel.

Pinning bypasses smart matching

A pinned workspace is used even in apps it wasn't tagged for — smart matching is effectively turned off while the pin is on. If auto-matching later seems "stuck," check whether something is pinned. To get automatic behavior back, unpin it.

For the next step, make sure nothing is pinned so you can watch smart matching work.

Step 8 — Watch smart matching apply it automatically​

This is the payoff. With the workspace tagged and unpinned:

  1. Open Gmail (or Outlook) and click into a message so your cursor is in the compose box.
  2. Start dictation with the activation hotkey — default Alt + Space (⌥ + Space on macOS).
  3. Look at the listening overlay. InkSpoke read the window title, scored it against your tags, and pre-selected Email — Legal — shown with a green indicator.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  ●  Listening…                          Alt+Space  │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   ▁▃▅▇▅▃▁▂▄▆▄▂                                     │
│                                                    │
│   [ Workspace: ● Email — Legal ▾ ]  [ EN ▾ ] [Send]│
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
  1. Speak your draft and send it. The result is injected with your legal vocabulary respected, your formal tone applied, and your "the Client" instruction followed.

Not the workspace you wanted for this one message? Open the workspace picker on the overlay and choose another — or Auto to hand control back to smart matching. That override lasts only for the current session and is never saved.

Expected result​

You've got a working Email — Legal workspace that:

  • carries preset tone, output-style, and domain-context knowledge from your Purpose + Domain picks;
  • knows your domain vocabulary, including the terms you added by hand;
  • follows your Custom Instruction every time it's active;
  • switches on automatically when you dictate into Gmail or Outlook, shown on the overlay.

You never open a menu to use it — the right window brings the right workspace.

Troubleshooting​

The overlay doesn't pick my workspace. Smart matching scores your tags against the window title first, then the app name. If nothing matched, the tag probably isn't in the title — open the app, read its exact window title, and add a manual tag for a word that appears there (for example inbox or compose). Also confirm Smart Injection is on at Settings → Workspaces, and that the workspace is active (a deactivated workspace is skipped).

My legal terms still come out wrong. The workspace has to be the one that's active for its vocabulary to apply — confirm the overlay shows Email — Legal. If a term is a fixed, exact substitution (like an abbreviation you always want expanded), a personal dictionary entry is more reliable than vocabulary hints.

My tone and Custom Instruction are ignored. Knowledge only applies when refinement runs. Check that the master AI Refinement switch is on (Settings → Home), and that you didn't pick the Voice-to-Text purpose (it disables refinement for the workspace). You can re-enable refinement in the detail panel's AI section. Full rules are in How refinement works.

The wrong workspace keeps winning. Something more specific — or a pin — is beating it. On macOS, add a bundle:<id> tag (it scores highest and wins ties). And double-check nothing is pinned, since a pin overrides the window entirely. See Smart matching and precedence.

Next steps​