diff --git a/examples/stream/stream.cpp b/examples/stream/stream.cpp
index 190f68a2c3b..59f99a13152 100644
--- a/examples/stream/stream.cpp
+++ b/examples/stream/stream.cpp
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ struct whisper_params {
     std::string language  = "en";
     std::string model     = "models/ggml-base.en.bin";
     std::string fname_out;
+
+    std::string initial_prompt;
 };
 
 void whisper_print_usage(int argc, char ** argv, const whisper_params & params);
@@ -72,7 +74,7 @@ static bool whisper_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, whisper_params & params
         else if (arg == "-sa"   || arg == "--save-audio")    { params.save_audio    = true; }
         else if (arg == "-ng"   || arg == "--no-gpu")        { params.use_gpu       = false; }
         else if (arg == "-fa"   || arg == "--flash-attn")    { params.flash_attn    = true; }
-
+        else if (                  arg == "--prompt")        {params.initial_prompt = argv[++i]; }
         else {
             fprintf(stderr, "error: unknown argument: %s\n", arg.c_str());
             whisper_print_usage(argc, argv, params);
@@ -109,6 +111,7 @@ void whisper_print_usage(int /*argc*/, char ** argv, const whisper_params & para
     fprintf(stderr, "  -sa,      --save-audio    [%-7s] save the recorded audio to a file\n",              params.save_audio ? "true" : "false");
     fprintf(stderr, "  -ng,      --no-gpu        [%-7s] disable GPU inference\n",                          params.use_gpu ? "false" : "true");
     fprintf(stderr, "  -fa,      --flash-attn    [%-7s] flash attention during inference\n",               params.flash_attn ? "true" : "false");
+    fprintf(stderr, "            --prompt PROMPT [%-7s] initial prompt (max n_text_ctx/2 tokens)\n",       params.initial_prompt.c_str());
     fprintf(stderr, "\n");
 }
 
@@ -164,7 +167,13 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
     std::vector<float> pcmf32_new(n_samples_30s, 0.0f);
 
     std::vector<whisper_token> prompt_tokens;
-
+    prompt_tokens.resize(1024);
+    int n= whisper_tokenize(ctx, params.initial_prompt.c_str(),prompt_tokens.data(),1024);
+    if (n < 0) {
+        fprintf(stderr, "%s: error: failed to tokenize prompt '%s'\n", __func__, params.initial_prompt.c_str());
+        return 3;
+    }
+    prompt_tokens.resize(n);
     // print some info about the processing
     {
         fprintf(stderr, "\n");
@@ -318,8 +327,8 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
             //wparams.temperature_inc  = -1.0f;
             wparams.temperature_inc  = params.no_fallback ? 0.0f : wparams.temperature_inc;
 
-            wparams.prompt_tokens    = params.no_context ? nullptr : prompt_tokens.data();
-            wparams.prompt_n_tokens  = params.no_context ? 0       : prompt_tokens.size();
+            wparams.prompt_tokens    = prompt_tokens.data();
+            wparams.prompt_n_tokens  = prompt_tokens.size();
 
             if (whisper_full(ctx, wparams, pcmf32.data(), pcmf32.size()) != 0) {
                 fprintf(stderr, "%s: failed to process audio\n", argv[0]);
@@ -397,7 +406,13 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
                 // Add tokens of the last full length segment as the prompt
                 if (!params.no_context) {
                     prompt_tokens.clear();
-
+                    prompt_tokens.resize(1024);
+                    int n= whisper_tokenize(ctx, params.initial_prompt.c_str(),prompt_tokens.data(),1024);
+                    if (n < 0) {
+                        fprintf(stderr, "%s: error: failed to tokenize prompt '%s'\n", __func__, params.initial_prompt.c_str());
+                        return 3;
+                    }
+                    prompt_tokens.resize(n);
                     const int n_segments = whisper_full_n_segments(ctx);
                     for (int i = 0; i < n_segments; ++i) {
                         const int token_count = whisper_full_n_tokens(ctx, i);