diff --git a/Justfile b/Justfile
index a0ea8397dfe2..c4a71219a4b6 100644
--- a/Justfile
+++ b/Justfile
@@ -162,6 +162,16 @@ debug-ui-main-process:
 	npm install && \
 	npm run start-gui-debug
 
+# Package the desktop app locally for testing (macOS)
+# Applies ad-hoc code signing with entitlements (needed for mic access, etc.)
+package-ui:
+    @just release-binary
+    @echo "Packaging desktop app..."
+    cd ui/desktop && npm install && npm run package
+    @echo "Signing with entitlements..."
+    codesign --force --deep --sign - --entitlements ui/desktop/entitlements.plist ui/desktop/out/Goose-darwin-arm64/Goose.app
+    @echo "Done! Launch with: open ui/desktop/out/Goose-darwin-arm64/Goose.app"
+
 # Run UI with alpha changes
 run-ui-alpha:
     @just release-binary
diff --git a/crates/goose/src/dictation/providers.rs b/crates/goose/src/dictation/providers.rs
index 356c1f61d755..37d864107c8f 100644
--- a/crates/goose/src/dictation/providers.rs
+++ b/crates/goose/src/dictation/providers.rs
@@ -222,6 +222,8 @@ pub async fn transcribe_with_provider(
             anyhow::bail!("Invalid API key");
         } else if status == 429 || error_text.contains("quota") {
             anyhow::bail!("Rate limit exceeded");
+        } else if error_text.contains("too short") {
+            return Ok(String::new());
         } else {
             anyhow::bail!("API error: {}", error_text);
         }
diff --git a/ui/desktop/src/audio-capture-worklet.js b/ui/desktop/public/audio-capture-worklet.js
similarity index 100%
rename from ui/desktop/src/audio-capture-worklet.js
rename to ui/desktop/public/audio-capture-worklet.js
diff --git a/ui/desktop/src/hooks/useAudioRecorder.ts b/ui/desktop/src/hooks/useAudioRecorder.ts
index ef218e063f27..5e53cac17713 100644
--- a/ui/desktop/src/hooks/useAudioRecorder.ts
+++ b/ui/desktop/src/hooks/useAudioRecorder.ts
@@ -16,8 +16,9 @@ const MIN_SPEECH_MS = 200;
 // without clipping early speech onsets. Determined empirically for 16kHz mono input.
 const RMS_THRESHOLD = 0.015;
 
-// Import the worklet module - Vite will handle this correctly
-const WORKLET_URL = new URL('../audio-capture-worklet.js', import.meta.url).href;
+// Resolve worklet URL at runtime from window.location so it works under both
+// the dev server (http://localhost) and packaged builds (file://).
+const WORKLET_URL = new URL('audio-capture-worklet.js', window.location.href.split('#')[0]).href;
 
 function encodeWav(samples: Float32Array, sampleRate: number): ArrayBuffer {
   const buf = new ArrayBuffer(44 + samples.length * 2);