diff --git a/crates/transcription/Cargo.toml b/crates/transcription/Cargo.toml
index 8069037..3587ddf 100644
--- a/crates/transcription/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/transcription/Cargo.toml
@@ -21,3 +21,7 @@ futures-util = "0.3"
 sha2 = "0.10"
 
 whisper-rs = { version = "0.16", default-features = false, features = ["vulkan"] }
+
+# Direct whisper-rs backend (WhisperRsBackend): thread pool sizing + typed errors.
+num_cpus = "1"
+thiserror = "2"
diff --git a/crates/transcription/src/lib.rs b/crates/transcription/src/lib.rs
index 8c297fd..84afc65 100644
--- a/crates/transcription/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/transcription/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 pub mod concurrency;
 pub mod local_engine;
 pub mod model_manager;
+pub mod whisper_rs_backend;
 
 pub use concurrency::run_inference;
 pub use local_engine::{
diff --git a/crates/transcription/src/whisper_rs_backend.rs b/crates/transcription/src/whisper_rs_backend.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..673a307
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/transcription/src/whisper_rs_backend.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+//! Direct whisper-rs backend. Owns a WhisperContext; each call builds a
+//! fresh WhisperState (state can be reused, but fresh-per-call is simpler
+//! and matches the transcribe-rs call style we are replacing).
+//!
+//! Exists because transcribe-rs does not expose set_initial_prompt; this
+//! wrapper is the only path that can pipe per-capture vocabulary context
+//! into Whisper.
+
+use std::path::Path;
+
+use whisper_rs::{FullParams, SamplingStrategy, WhisperContext, WhisperContextParameters};
+
+use kon_core::types::{Segment, TranscriptionOptions};
+
+#[derive(Debug, thiserror::Error)]
+pub enum WhisperBackendError {
+    #[error("whisper-rs load failed: {0}")]
+    Load(String),
+    #[error("whisper-rs state creation failed: {0}")]
+    State(String),
+    #[error("whisper-rs transcribe failed: {0}")]
+    Transcribe(String),
+}
+
+pub struct WhisperRsBackend {
+    ctx: WhisperContext,
+}
+
+impl WhisperRsBackend {
+    pub fn load(model_path: &Path) -> Result<Self, WhisperBackendError> {
+        let ctx = WhisperContext::new_with_params(
+            model_path,
+            WhisperContextParameters::default(),
+        )
+        .map_err(|e| WhisperBackendError::Load(e.to_string()))?;
+        Ok(Self { ctx })
+    }
+
+    /// Synchronously transcribe 16 kHz mono f32 PCM.
+    ///
+    /// `options.initial_prompt` is piped directly to whisper-rs.
+    pub fn transcribe_sync(
+        &self,
+        samples: &[f32],
+        options: &TranscriptionOptions,
+    ) -> Result<Vec<Segment>, WhisperBackendError> {
+        let mut state = self
+            .ctx
+            .create_state()
+            .map_err(|e| WhisperBackendError::State(e.to_string()))?;
+
+        let mut params = FullParams::new(SamplingStrategy::Greedy { best_of: 1 });
+        if let Some(lang) = options.language.as_deref() {
+            if !lang.is_empty() {
+                params.set_language(Some(lang));
+            }
+        }
+        if let Some(prompt) = options.initial_prompt.as_deref() {
+            if !prompt.is_empty() {
+                params.set_initial_prompt(prompt);
+            }
+        }
+        params.set_n_threads(num_cpus::get() as i32);
+        params.set_print_special(false);
+        params.set_print_progress(false);
+        params.set_print_realtime(false);
+
+        state
+            .full(params, samples)
+            .map_err(|e| WhisperBackendError::Transcribe(e.to_string()))?;
+
+        let n = state.full_n_segments();
+
+        let mut out = Vec::with_capacity(n.max(0) as usize);
+        for i in 0..n {
+            let Some(seg) = state.get_segment(i) else {
+                continue;
+            };
+            let text = seg
+                .to_str()
+                .map_err(|e| WhisperBackendError::Transcribe(e.to_string()))?
+                .to_string();
+            // whisper-rs timestamps are centiseconds (10ms units). Convert to seconds (f64).
+            let start = seg.start_timestamp() as f64 * 0.01;
+            let end = seg.end_timestamp() as f64 * 0.01;
+            out.push(Segment { start, end, text });
+        }
+        Ok(out)
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn backend_error_displays() {
+        let e = WhisperBackendError::Load("oops".into());
+        assert!(e.to_string().contains("oops"));
+    }
+}