Local meeting transcription for macOS. No cloud. No API keys. Your data stays on your machine.
HushScribe is a macOS menu bar app that captures meetings and voice memos, transcribes them on-device, and writes structured .md files to a folder of your choice (eg. including your Obsidian vault).
Every step runs locally. Transcription uses on-device models (Parakeet-TDT v3, WhisperKit, or Apple Speech). The AI summary is generated on-device via Apple's NaturalLanguage framework. No audio, no transcripts, and no data of any kind is ever sent to the internet.
Via Homebrew (recommended):
brew tap drcursor/hushscribe https://github.com/drcursor/HushScribe
brew install --cask hushscribeManual: Download the DMG from the latest release and drag HushScribe to /Applications.
- Entirely local. Transcription and AI summary both run on-device — Parakeet, WhisperKit, Apple Speech, and Apple's NaturalLanguage framework. Nothing ever leaves your machine.
- Your data, your files. Output is plain
.mdwith YAML frontmatter, timestamps, and speaker labels. No proprietary export, no lock-in, no copy-paste. - No accounts, no subscriptions, no API keys, no additional background services Download and run.
speak → capture → md transcription → knowledge base
- Multilingual transcription via Parakeet-TDT v3 (FluidAudio) — 25 European languages, auto-detected, runs on Apple Silicon ANE.
- Multiple transcription models. Choose between Parakeet-TDT v3 (default, fastest), WhisperKit Base, WhisperKit Large v3, or Apple Speech (built-in, no download required). All run entirely on-device.
- Auto-record meetings. Enable from the menu bar — recording starts automatically when a meeting app (Zoom, Teams, Slack, FaceTime, Webex, Discord, Google Meet, Loom) is running and the microphone is actively in use. Stops automatically when the call ends; configurable stop delay in Settings. Note: browser-based meetings (e.g. Google Meet in a browser) are not detected.
- Call Capture grabs mic + system audio. Detects which conferencing app you're in (Teams, Zoom, Slack, etc.) and filters audio to just that app.
- Voice Memo is mic-only. Saves to a separate folder so it doesn't clutter your meeting transcripts.
- On-device AI summary. Each transcript includes a Summary section with Topics, Highlights, and To-Dos, generated locally using Apple's NaturalLanguage framework — no API key, no network. (Experimental)
- Speaker diarization runs after the call ends. Splits remote audio into labelled speakers; post-session prompt lets you assign real names.
- Split VU meters. Separate level meters for microphone and system audio, each with an independent mute toggle.
- Obsidian Vault-native compatible. Writes
.mdwith frontmatter:type,created,attendees,tags,source_app. - Silence auto-stop. Configurable timeout (default 2 min); countdown shown during recording.
- Privacy mode. Hidden from screen sharing by default. No audio saved to disk — transcripts only.
- All transcription models run entirely on-device. No audio is ever sent anywhere.
- AI summaries are generated on-device using Apple's NaturalLanguage framework. No external API. (Experimental)
- No network calls. No analytics. No telemetry.
- No audio is saved to disk. Only text transcripts.
- The app window is hidden from screen sharing by default.
- Transcripts are saved as plain
.mdfiles to a folder you choose.
- Apple Silicon only. Parakeet and FluidAudio need Metal / ANE. No Intel.
- macOS 26+ only.
- Screen Recording re-prompts monthly. OS limitation.
- AI Summaries are not there yet.
- Diarization is imperfect. Works well with headset mics. Laptop speakers with crosstalk will give worse speaker separation.
- No live speaker labels. Diarization runs after the session ends.
- Microphone input may stop working. If no audio is captured, switching to a specific input device in Settings → Recording (instead of "System Default") usually resolves it.
- Local sound input sometimes fails. System audio capture may silently stop capturing. Changing the input device and restarting the recording session fixes it.
- Auto-record meetings detction only for Applications Browser-based meetings (e.g. Google Meet in a browser) are not detected.
---
type: meeting
created: "2026-03-23"
time: "10:00"
duration: "18:42"
source_app: "Zoom"
attendees: ["You", "Speaker 2"]
tags:
- log/meeting
- status/inbox
- source/hushscribe
---
# Call Recording — 2026-03-23 10:00
## Transcript
**You** (10:00:03)
Morning. Quick sync on the product launch. Where are we at?
**John** (10:00:07)
We're in good shape. QA signed off yesterday, marketing assets
are locked, landing page is live in staging.- Voice memos use
type: fleetingwith a single speaker. Same structure, same frontmatter. - User can generate AI Summaries of the transcript (Experimental)
See ARCHITECTURE.md for the full build instructions and project structure.
| Permission | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone | All modes | Captures your voice |
| Screen Recording | Call Capture only | ScreenCaptureKit needs this for system audio from conferencing apps |
| Speech Recognition | Apple Speech model only | Required by SFSpeechRecognizer; one-time prompt |
macOS re-prompts for Screen Recording permission roughly monthly. That's an OS thing, not HushScribe.
See ARCHITECTURE.md for the full architecture overview and source tree.
HushScribe is a fork of Tome by Gremble-io, which itself started from OpenGranola, substantially extended with additional features. Code is generated with help of Claude Code.
Models and libraries:
- FluidAudio by FluidInference — Parakeet-TDT v3 ASR and Silero VAD, used for the default transcription model and voice activity detection across all backends.
- WhisperKit by Argmax — on-device Whisper inference on Apple Silicon, used for the Whisper Base and Whisper Large v3 model options. Whisper was originally developed by OpenAI.
- pyannote.audio — speaker diarization model used for post-session speaker separation.
See CHANGELOG.md for the full release history.