StenoAI

Your very own stenographer for every meeting

</div> <a href="https://github.com/ruzin/stenoai/actions/workflows/build-release.yml"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/ruzin/stenoai/build-release.yml?branch=main&style=for-the-badge" alt="Build"></a> <a href="https://github.com/ruzin/stenoai/releases"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/ruzin/stenoai?style=for-the-badge" alt="Release"></a> <a href="https://discord.gg/DZ6vcQnxxu"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Discord-Join%20Server-5865F2?style=for-the-badge&logo=discord&logoColor=white" alt="Discord"></a> <a href="LICENSE"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-blue?style=for-the-badge" alt="License"></a> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Platform-macOS-000000?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple&logoColor=white" alt="macOS"> AI-powered meeting intelligence that runs entirely on your device, your private data never leaves anywhere. Record, transcribe, summarize, and query your meetings using local AI models. Perfect for healthcare, legal and finance professionals with confidential data needs. Trusted by users at AWS & Deliveroo. <div align="center"> <img src="website/public/app-demo-3.png" alt="StenoAI Interface" width="800">

</div> Disclaimer: This is an independent open-source project for meeting-notes productivity and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with any similarly named company.

📢 What's New

2026-03-23 🗣️ Speaker diarisation — [You] vs [Others] labels for system audio recordings
2026-03-23 🌍 Auto-detect language — 99 languages supported out of the box
2026-03-04 🏷️ Auto-generated meeting titles — AI creates short titles from your transcripts
2026-03-04 ⌨️ macOS Shortcuts support — Start/stop recordings via Apple Shortcuts deep links
2026-03-04 🤖 Updated model lineup — Qwen 3.5 9B, DeepSeek-R1 14B, GPT-OSS 20B; Ollama v0.17.5
2026-03-04 🙈 Hide dock icon — Run StenoAI in menu-bar-only mode
2026-02-22 🌍 Multi-language support — Transcribe and summarize in 10 languages
2026-02-19 🎧 System audio capture — Record both sides of virtual meetings, even with headphones on

Features

Local transcription using whisper.cpp
AI summarization with Ollama models
Privacy-first - 100% local processing, your data never leaves your device
Multiple AI models - Choose from 5 models optimized for different use cases
Ask Steno - Query your meetings with natural language questions
Multi-language support - Auto-detect and transcribe 99 languages
Speaker diarisation - [You] vs [Others] labels for system audio recordings
Remote Ollama server - Run AI models on another machine on your network
System audio capture - Record mic + system audio simultaneously for virtual meetings with headphones
macOS desktop app with intuitive interface

macOS Shortcuts (Optional)

<details> <summary>Expand setup and calendar automation guide</summary>

StenoAI supports Apple Shortcuts via deep links using the stenoai:// URL scheme.

Start recording: stenoai://record/start?name=Daily%20Standup
Stop recording: stenoai://record/stop

How to set it up

Open the Shortcuts app on macOS.
Create a new shortcut (for example: "Start StenoAI Recording").
Add the Open URLs action.
Use one of the URLs above.
(Optional) Add a keyboard shortcut from the shortcut settings.

Calendar event naming (optional)

If you want calendar-based names, resolve the event title in your Shortcut workflow and pass it as the name query value in the start URL.

Example:

stenoai://record/start?name=Weekly%20Product%20Sync

Calendar event start automation (via Rules bridge)

macOS Shortcuts cannot natively trigger exactly at Calendar event start.
To run this automatically on event timing, a third-party automation app is required.

This addon uses:

Apple Shortcuts: builds the stenoai://record/start?... action.
Rules – Calendar Automation: watches Calendar events and triggers the shortcut.

Architecture overview

Rules App monitors upcoming Calendar events.
Rules checks the event note/body for a marker keyword (for example stenoai).
If matched, Rules runs a Shortcut.
The Shortcut gets the next event title and opens:
- stenoai://record/start?name={calendar_event_title}
StenoAI receives the URL and starts recording with that name.

Step-by-step setup

Install Rules – Calendar Automation on macOS.
Create a Shortcut in Apple Shortcuts (example name: StenoAI Start From Calendar Event).
In that Shortcut, add actions in this order:
- Find Calendar Events (limit to 1, sorted by start date ascending, upcoming only)
- Extract the event title from the found event
- URL Encode the title
- Open URLs with:
 - stenoai://record/start?name=<encoded title>
Open Rules and create a calendar-trigger rule:
- Source: your target calendar(s)
- Trigger window: event start (or preferred offset)
- Condition: event note contains stenoai
- Action: run Shortcut StenoAI Start From Calendar
In your Calendar event notes, add the word stenoai for meetings that should auto-start recording.
Test with a near-future event:
- create event with stenoai in notes,
- wait for trigger,
- confirm StenoAI starts and uses the event title as session name.

Notes

Without Rules (or another automation bridge), this cannot be fully event-driven from Calendar start time.
Keep using regular manual shortcuts (Open URLs) for non-automated scenarios.

Have questions or suggestions? Join our Discord to chat with the community.

</details>

Models & Performance

Transcription Models (Whisper):

small: Default model - good accuracy and speed on Apple Silicon (default)
base: Faster but lower accuracy for basic meetings
medium: High accuracy for important meetings (slower)

Summarization Models (Ollama):

llama3.2:3b (2GB): Fast and lightweight for quick meetings (default)
gemma3:4b (2.5GB): Lightweight and efficient
qwen3.5:9b (6.6GB): Excellent at structured output and action items
deepseek-r1:14b (9.0GB): Strong reasoning and analysis capabilities
gpt-oss:20b (14GB): OpenAI open-weight model with reasoning capabilities

StenoAI Local Model Performance vs Claude Sonnet 4.6: Closing the Gap! 🚀

YouTube Video Summary Challenge (11m 36s): High-Speed Rail Systems Around the World

Scored on: overall quality, factual accuracy, completeness, and hallucination (each out of 10).

| # | Provider | Model | Overall | Accuracy | Complete | No Halluc. | Notes | |:-:|----------|-------|:-------:|:--------:|:--------:|:----------:|-------| | 1 | Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | 9.8 | 9.8 | 9.5 | 10.0 | Most precise; perfect framing | | 2 | Anthropic | Claude Haiku | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.0 | 10.0 | Very strong; slightly less detailed | | 3 | StenoAI | DeepSeek R1:8B | 8.8 | 9.0 | 8.0 | 8.5 | Broad coverage; fewer numerical details | | 4 | StenoAI | Qwen 3:8B | 8.5 | 9.0 | 7.5 | 8.5 | Accurate but more compressed | | 5 | OpenAI | GPT-4.1 | 8.3 | 9.0 | 8.0 | 6.5 | Accurate but invented meeting framing | | 6 | OpenAI | GPT-4o Mini | 8.0 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 6.0 | Invented framing and participants | | 7 | StenoAI | Gemma 3:4B | 7.0 | 8.5 | 7.0 | 3.5 | Fabricated participants and action items |

Future Roadmap

Enhanced Features

Custom summarization templates
Speaker Diarisation

StenoAI Med

HIPAA compliance for healthcare workflows
EHR integration for medical notes

Installation

Download the latest release for your Mac (requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later):

Apple Silicon (M1-M5)
Intel Macs Performance on Intel Macs is limited due to lack of dedicated AI inference capabilities on these older chips.

Installing on macOS

Download and open the DMG file
Drag the app to Applications
When you first launch the app, macOS may show a security warning
To fix this warning:
- Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security and click "Open Anyway"
Alternatively:
- Right-click StenoAI in Applications and select "Open"
- Or run in Terminal: xattr -cr /Applications/StenoAI.app
The app will work normally on subsequent launches

You can run it locally as well (see below) if you don't want to install a DMG.

Local Development/Use Locally

Prerequisites

Python 3.9+
Node.js 18+

Setup

git clone https://github.com/ruzin/stenoai.git
cd stenoai

# Backend setup
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Download bundled binaries (Ollama, ffmpeg)
./scripts/download-ollama.sh

# Build the Python backend
pip install pyinstaller
pyinstaller stenoai.spec --noconfirm

# Frontend
cd app
npm install
npm start

Note: Ollama and ffmpeg are bundled - no system installation needed. The setup wizard in the app will download the required AI models automatically.

Build

cd app
npm run build

Project Structure

stenoai/
├── app/                  # Electron desktop app
├── src/                  # Py

Stenoai

Install / Use

README