chirp-notes-ai 0.0.1a0

Meeting recorder CLI that transcribes and generates AI notes

Chirp

Chirp is a local-first CLI for recording meetings, transcribing audio, generating notes, and searching past conversations from your terminal.

Features

• Record audio into a new note workspace
• Stream live transcription in a Rich dashboard while recording
• Transcribe recordings with faster-whisper
• Generate structured notes with Ollama
• Browse, edit, and delete saved notes from the terminal
• Ask questions or run keyword search across your note history

Prerequisites

Chirp currently targets macOS for audio capture.

• Python 3.11+
• Ollama for note generation and retrieval
• BlackHole 2ch for system-audio capture
• Homebrew if you want chirp init to install missing macOS dependencies for you

Install

pip install chirp-notes-ai

Quick start

1. Run the guided setup:

   chirp init
   

2. Record a meeting:

   chirp record --title "Team Standup" --live-transcribe
   

3. Transcribe audio and generate notes:

   chirp transcribe
   

4. Browse or edit saved notes:

   chirp notes
   chirp notes view 1
   chirp notes edit 1
   

5. Search or chat across your history:

   chirp search "timeline" --since 14d
   chirp ask -q "What action items did we capture?"
   

Command overview

Command	What it does
chirp record	Capture audio to a new note, optionally with live transcription
chirp transcribe [N]	Process pending recordings into transcripts and notes
chirp notes	List saved notes; view, edit, and delete are subcommands
chirp ask	Ask questions about your meetings, or open interactive chat
chirp search	Run keyword or regex search across transcripts and notes
chirp init	Guided setup, dependency checks, and model selection
chirp about	Show the animated bird and version info

Common workflows

Recording

# Timed recording
chirp record --duration 30 --title "Customer Interview"

# Auto-stop after a timeframe
chirp record --title "Sprint Planning" --timeframe 45m

# Add tags at capture time
chirp record --title "Roadmap Review" --tag roadmap --tag planning

Transcription and notes

# Process all pending notes
chirp transcribe

# Process only the oldest 5 pending notes
chirp transcribe 5

# Rebuild notes from existing transcripts
chirp transcribe --regen

# Override the Whisper model for one run
chirp transcribe --model medium

Notes, search, and chat

# Filter note list by tags
chirp notes --tag roadmap,planning

# Open interactive chat
chirp ask

# Ask with a time filter
chirp ask -q "What changed this week?" --when "last week"

# Regex or JSON search output
chirp search "action item" --since 30d
chirp search "owner: .*" --regex --json

Setup details

chirp init is the recommended setup path. It verifies Homebrew, ffmpeg, BlackHole, Ollama, and your configured models, then helps install or pull anything missing.

If you prefer to set things up manually on macOS:

1. Install dependencies:

   brew install portaudio ffmpeg ollama blackhole-2ch
   

2. Create a Multi-Output Device in Audio MIDI Setup with your speakers plus BlackHole.

3. Create an Aggregate Device with your microphone plus BlackHole.

4. Start Ollama:

   ollama serve
   ollama pull llama3.1:8b
   ollama pull nomic-embed-text
   

5. Re-check your environment:

   chirp init --recheck
   chirp devices
   

Configuration and storage

• Config file: ~/.chirp/config.toml
• Default notes root: ~/Documents/chirp

Each note is stored in its own directory:

~/Documents/chirp/<note-slug>/
├── audio.wav
├── transcript.txt
├── notes.md
└── meta.toml

For advanced maintenance, Chirp also exposes hidden commands such as:

chirp config --list
chirp devices
chirp index --force

Troubleshooting

BlackHole not detected Install it with brew install blackhole-2ch, then confirm your Audio MIDI setup and run chirp init --recheck or chirp devices.

Recording fails immediately Check macOS microphone permissions and confirm your default input / aggregate device settings.

Transcription or notes generation fails Make sure Ollama is running and the configured models are installed. chirp init --recheck will show what is missing.

No notes found Run chirp transcribe first, or check chirp config --list to confirm the notes root you are using.

More documentation

For repository docs and contributor guidance, see the top-level README.md, AGENTS.md, and .docs/DEVELOPMENT.md in the GitHub repository.