meeting-noter 3.3.4

Offline meeting transcription for macOS with automatic meeting detection

Meeting Noter

Offline meeting transcription tool for macOS. Captures both your voice and meeting participants' audio, saves to MP3, and transcribes locally using Whisper.

Features

• No setup required - Just install and run
• Captures both sides - Your mic + system audio (meeting participants)
• Offline transcription - Uses Whisper locally, no API calls
• Auto-detection - Detects active meetings (Zoom, Teams, Meet, Slack)
• Multiple interfaces - Menu bar app, desktop GUI, or CLI
• Auto-segmentation - One file per meeting (detects silence)

Installation

pipx install meeting-noter

For corporate/offline environments (bundles Whisper model, no download needed):

pipx install "meeting-noter[offline]"

Upgrading

# Standard
pipx upgrade meeting-noter

# With offline model
pipx reinstall "meeting-noter[offline]"

No system dependencies required - ffmpeg is bundled automatically.

Quick Start

Menu Bar App (recommended):

meeting-noter menubar

Desktop GUI:

meeting-noter gui

CLI Recording:

meeting-noter start "Weekly Standup"

The app will request microphone and Screen Recording permissions on first use.

Usage

Recording

• The menu bar app auto-detects meetings and prompts to record
• Or manually start recording via the GUI/CLI
• Press Ctrl+C (CLI) or click Stop to end recording

Transcription

Recordings are auto-transcribed by default. Or manually:

# Transcribe the most recent recording
meeting-noter transcribe

# Transcribe a specific file
meeting-noter transcribe recording.mp3

# List all recordings
meeting-noter list

Commands

Command	Description
meeting-noter	Launch desktop GUI
meeting-noter menubar	Launch menu bar app
meeting-noter gui	Launch desktop GUI
meeting-noter start [name]	Interactive CLI recording
meeting-noter list	List recent recordings
meeting-noter transcribe	Transcribe a recording
meeting-noter devices	List audio devices
meeting-noter status	Check daemon status

Options

start

• First argument: Meeting name (optional, auto-generates timestamp if omitted)

transcribe

• -m, --model: Whisper model size (tiny.en, base.en, small.en, medium.en, large-v3)
• -o, --output-dir: Directory with recordings

list

• -n, --limit: Number of recordings to show
• -o, --output-dir: Directory with recordings

How It Works

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│         Your Meeting App            │
│      (Zoom/Teams/Meet/Slack)        │
└──────────────────┬──────────────────┘
                   │
     ┌─────────────┴─────────────┐
     ▼                           ▼
┌─────────┐               ┌─────────────┐
│   Mic   │               │ System Audio│
│(default)│               │(ScreenCaptureKit)
└────┬────┘               └──────┬──────┘
     │                           │
     └───────────┬───────────────┘
                 ▼
         ┌─────────────┐
         │Meeting Noter│
         │  (capture)  │
         └──────┬──────┘
                │
                ▼
    ~/meetings/2024-01-15_Weekly_Standup.mp3
                │
                ▼ (auto or on-demand)
         ┌─────────────┐
         │   Whisper   │ (local)
         └──────┬──────┘
                │
                ▼
    ~/meetings/2024-01-15_Weekly_Standup.txt

Permissions

On first use, macOS will ask for:

1. Microphone - For capturing your voice
2. Screen Recording - For capturing system audio (meeting participants)

Grant these in System Settings > Privacy & Security.

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/meeting-noter/config.json

{
    "recordings_dir": "~/meetings",
    "transcripts_dir": "~/meetings",
    "whisper_model": "tiny.en",
    "auto_transcribe": true,
    "silence_timeout": 5,
    "capture_system_audio": true
}

Whisper Models

Model	Size	Speed	Accuracy
tiny.en	~75MB	Fastest	Good
base.en	~150MB	Fast	Better
small.en	~500MB	Medium	High
medium.en	~1.5GB	Slow	Very High
large-v3	~3GB	Slowest	Best

Requirements

• macOS 12.3+ (for ScreenCaptureKit)
• Python 3.9+

License

MIT