LocalFlow 2.0.0 Beta

[2.0.0] - 2026-10-04

This is the first LocalFlow beta. Requires an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS
26 or later. The beta is signed with the maintainer's Developer ID and notarized
by Apple for distribution outside the Mac App Store.

Added

• Bundled LocalFlow English speech recognition, derived from NVIDIA Parakeet
  v2, with no API key, provider account, or model download required.
• Model preparation at startup and reuse throughout the session. First-time
  preparation can take several minutes; Settings shows progress and offers a
  retry if preparation fails.
• LocalFlow app and menu-bar icons, with attribution to FreeFlow and the model's
  original authors included in the application.

Changed

• Speech recognition runs entirely on the Mac. Cloud transcription, LLM
  cleanup, translation, Edit Mode, and screenshot/app context capture have
  been removed.
• Microphone and Accessibility are the only dictation permissions. Setup
  guidance reflects macOS 27's Device Control and Data Access permission pane.
• Hold to Talk, Tap to Toggle, Paste Again, deterministic voice macros, and
  local history/retry remain available. Existing preferences and local history
  keep their compatible storage locations.
• Update checks use the LocalFlow fork's releases. The updater may contact
  GitHub; audio and transcripts remain local.

Beta limitations

• English dictation only; Intel Macs and macOS versions earlier than 26 are
  not supported by this model bundle.
• Dictations longer than 15 seconds use independent chunks and can lose
  context at chunk boundaries. There is no LLM cleanup or cloud fallback.
• Live microphone dictation and paste worked in the preceding local build;
  the packaged beta still needs tester verification of shortcuts, permissions,
  and installation on other Macs.

Download and installation

Download LocalFlow-Dev.dmg (205.4 MB).

1. Open the DMG and drag LocalFlow Dev.app to Applications.
2. Open the app and allow Microphone and Accessibility access. On macOS 27,
   Accessibility is named Device Control and Data Access. Screen Recording
   is not required. Existing local testers may need to refresh their approval
   because the app now uses Developer ID signing.
3. Wait for the model to become ready before dictating. First-time preparation
   can take several minutes.

The app and DMG are signed with the maintainer's own Developer ID and Apple
secure timestamps. Apple accepted the notarization submission; the ticket is
stapled to the DMG. Gatekeeper accepts both the DMG and the packaged app as
Notarized Developer ID. A normal first-open confirmation and microphone/
Accessibility approval may still appear. No original FreeFlow signing
certificate, Apple account, or release credentials were used.

The LocalFlow Dev name and development bundle identifier are retained for
beta testing and compatibility with the existing local test build. Existing
preferences/history retain their compatible storage locations. The beta name
and development badge do not mean the package is unsigned or unnotarized.

Only Apple Silicon and macOS 26 or later are supported. All inference assets,
application and model licenses, and FreeFlow attribution are included. No model
download, cloud transcription, or LLM cleanup is used. The app can contact
GitHub for manual update checks; dictation stays on the Mac.

This prerelease is built locally from the release-preparation commit on
feat/localflow-name. It does not require merging the draft PR. The release tag
is 2.0.0 (without a v prefix), so the inherited FreeFlow tag workflow is not
triggered. No production/dev release workflow, original creator's credentials,
or GitHub signing secrets are used for this local release.

Validation: full optimized arm64 build, make check, git diff --check, strict
app/DMG signature verification, Apple notarization acceptance, stapled-ticket
validation, read-only mounting and packaged-file comparison, and all model
asset SHA-256 checks. The packaged app and DMG both pass Gatekeeper assessment.
Live dictation and paste were confirmed by the user in the preceding local
build. Packaged installation, permission approval, shortcuts, and operation
on another Mac still need beta testing.

SHA-256: aac1792a4fe21034dacc024c66486c808ecc4ac6da050802b5211662dc9e903c. A checksum file is attached alongside the DMG.