AI notes
After each meeting Recordist turns the transcript into a summary, decisions, open questions and action items. By default this happens on your machine with a local model, so no AI service sees the transcript or the notes. If you choose a cloud provider instead (Anthropic or an OpenAI-compatible service, with your own key), then each time notes are written, that meeting’s transcript text, title, attendee names, date and the template’s instructions go from your machine to that provider, and when you use Ask, so do the transcripts of the meetings it reads. Audio is never sent to the provider. Each of those requests is listed in the Privacy Ledger before it is sent, with where it goes and its size. Options B and C below say more.
Notes may be wrong. They are generated automatically from a transcript that may itself contain errors and mis-attributed speakers. Verify against the recording before acting on them, especially for legal, medical, financial, employment or safety decisions. The app shows this notice above the notes, unless you hide it under Settings → Appearance, and at the top of every Markdown export.
Option A: local model (default)
Recordist ships with a built-in engine. After setup, once the first speech model is on your machine, it downloads in the background an app-managed copy of Ollama (MIT licence) and an open-weight notes model into the app’s own data folder, and runs them on your machine only. There is nothing to install, no account and no key.
The model is chosen for your machine’s memory:
| Installed memory | Default model | Download |
|---|---|---|
| 8 GB | Qwen2.5 1.5B (fast) | 0.9 GB |
| 16 GB or more | Qwen3 4B (balanced) | 2.4 GB |
You can pick a different one under Settings → AI notes → Model at any time. Every download is listed in the Privacy Ledger with its purpose. The runtime and the notes model are checked as they download.
| Machine | Model | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| 8 GB | Qwen2.5 1.5B (default) | About 35 seconds for a 5-minute clip; roughly 6 to 8 minutes for an hour |
| 8 GB, best quality | Qwen3 4B | About 12 minutes for a 39-minute meeting; on a long meeting, basic notes show first and the full notes replace them by themselves |
| 16 GB or more | Qwen3 4B (default) | Handles long meetings in fewer steps than on 8 GB |
The transcript goes to the engine on your machine and the result is stored in your local database. With the built-in engine, no notes request takes meeting content anywhere else; the only downloads are the engine and the model described above. See Notes take too long on my machine for the measurements.
Already run Ollama? Choose Ollama I already run and Recordist uses your server and models instead (default http://127.0.0.1:11434). If that server is on another machine, the transcript text goes to that machine, and the Privacy Ledger marks those requests Local network or Internet.
Recordist doesn’t use Ollama cloud models for notes, because they run on Ollama’s servers. Settings lists them as unavailable for notes. If one is chosen, Recordist sends it nothing, and the built-in engine on your machine writes the notes instead, with a sentence that says why. If the built-in engine isn’t ready yet, those notes quote the transcript.
Option B: Anthropic, with your own key
Choose Anthropic under Settings → AI notes → Notes are written by and paste an API key. Recordist calls Anthropic directly from your machine with your key; there is no Recordist server in between. The key is stored in your operating system’s keychain, never in a settings file.
Each notes request sends the transcript text of that meeting, its title and attendee names, the date of the meeting, and the template’s instructions. Audio never is. Each request is written to the Privacy Ledger before it is sent, with the destination and the size. Anthropic’s own terms govern what it does with what you send.
Option C: OpenAI-compatible, with your own key
Choosing OpenAI-compatible under Settings → AI notes → Notes are written by takes a key and, optionally, a base URL. This covers OpenAI itself and anything that speaks the same API, including a server on your own machine or on your own network. Leave the base URL empty for OpenAI. The same applies: the transcript text, title, attendee names, date of the meeting and template go directly from your machine to that address, and each request is listed in the ledger, marked This machine, Local network or Internet by where the server is. If the base URL is an Ollama on your Mac or your local network, an Ollama cloud model named here is refused in the same way.
Automatic or on demand
Write notes automatically when a recording stops, in Settings → AI notes, is on by default and writes notes as soon as transcription finishes. Turn it off to write them yourself with the Generate button in the meeting’s AI notes panel. After the 7-day Pro trial, the Free plan includes 3 AI notes a month, so generating on demand lets you spend them on the meetings that matter.
Templates
A template decides what the notes look for and which sections they have. Built-ins:
| Template | Sections | What it asks for |
|---|---|---|
| General meeting | Summary, Decisions, Action items, Open questions, Follow-up email | Short, factual notes of what was said |
| Daily standup | Summary, Action items, Open questions, Follow-up email | Each person’s progress, plans and blockers |
| 1:1 | Summary, Action items, Open questions, Follow-up email | Feedback, career topics and commitments from both sides; it doesn’t describe anyone’s mood, health or personal life |
| Sales call | Summary, Decisions, Action items, Open questions, Follow-up email | Pain points, decision process, objections and the next step agreed |
| Interview | Summary, Open questions, Action items, Follow-up email | Evidence kept apart from interpretation, and short passages quoted exactly so you can check them against the recording; for hiring, what was said about each competency, with no rating, ranking or recommendation |
| Customer call | Summary, Action items, Follow-up email | The issue, its cause if found, the resolution or workaround, promises made, and signs of satisfaction or churn risk |
| Lecture / talk | Summary, Open questions | Study notes: key concepts, definitions and examples |
| Brainstorm | Summary, Decisions, Action items, Follow-up email | Every idea raised, who raised it, and the next steps |
The follow-up email is written on Pro: a short recap and the next steps, from you to the others on the call, for you to read, change and send from your own mail. Recordist sends nothing. From version 1.0.11, on the Fast built-in model no email is filled in for you. The notes offer the tasks and decisions as lines, each with what was said right after it, and the draft is made from exactly the lines you tick. Every built-in template except Lecture / talk has it, so there is nothing to set; a talk has nobody to write to. Choose the template for every meeting under Settings → AI notes → Default template, or pick another one in a meeting’s AI notes panel and regenerate. You can write your own under Settings → Templates, on every plan, or duplicate a built-in template and edit the copy. A copy keeps its own wording and sections when Recordist updates the built-in templates, so an older copy drafts a follow-up email only if you add one to it.
On the Fast built-in model
From version 1.0.11, notes on the Fast built-in model are a selection of lines, word for word, each with the time it was said. Quotes are word for word. Owners and due dates are worked out from them. A line is listed when it contains a promise or a decision. It does not carry what was said after it unless shown beside it, so each task and decision shows what was said right after it. A promise taken back in plain words such as “scratch that” is not listed, and anything else may be. Check any task against the end of the call.
Checked against the transcript
Before notes are saved, Recordist checks them against the transcript, whichever provider wrote them, without asking a model:
- Each decision, action item and open question must be said in the line it cites or in the lines beside it. If another line says it, it is linked there; if no line says it, it is removed.
- An owner, a due date or a date in an item must be said in those lines, or it is left blank or taken out. A decision or action item that was only asked as a question needs a reply that agrees, or it is removed.
- A quotation must be the transcript’s own words. A near miss is corrected to the words that were said; anything else is removed.
- In the summary and the follow-up email, a sentence that says something was decided is checked like a decision, and a sentence that gives a task to the wrong person is removed. In the follow-up email, a sentence made mostly of words nobody said is removed too.
When the check removed or changed anything, the meeting says so above the notes, for example “2 items were removed because the transcript did not support them.” The Markdown export repeats that sentence. Each decision, action item and open question ends with the time it was said; choose the time to scroll the transcript to that line.
The check compares words, so notes can still be wrong. In the summary, quotations and sentences that say something was decided are checked, and any other sentence is removed only when it repeats a decision the transcript does not support. A date in the follow-up email is not yet checked against the transcript, an item that leaves out a “not” can still pass, and an open question that is answered later in the meeting stays. Read the email against the transcript before you send it. Basic fallback notes, which only quote the transcript, are linked to their lines and otherwise left as they are.
Action items
Action items are listed separately, with an owner and a due date when the transcript states them; the check above leaves either one blank when the transcript doesn’t. A due date said as a day, such as “Friday” or “the 14th”, is worked out from the date of the meeting, also when you regenerate the notes later. Tick them off in the app. Open items also feed your Prep Briefs and are available to your agents.
Regenerating
Click Regenerate in a meeting’s AI notes panel to write the notes again, with the template chosen next to it; to use another provider, change it in Settings → AI notes first. The new notes replace the earlier generated notes and the open action items, while notes you typed yourself and ticked action items stay. After the 7-day trial, each regeneration counts as one AI note on the Free plan.
When no model is reachable
If the engine is still downloading, or the network is down for a keyed provider, Recordist produces a simple fallback note: the most informative sentences by topic and any lines that look like tasks. It is marked as such so you know to regenerate later.
Managed Macs
On a Mac your organisation manages, IT can set a policy with a configuration profile. It can keep notes on the Mac, or turn off the Anthropic and OpenAI-compatible providers. A refused provider is greyed out in Settings → AI notes, the controls carry a “Managed by” note, and the built-in engine writes the notes instead. Managed settings lists every key.
Qwen is released by Alibaba Cloud under Apache-2.0; Ollama is an open-source project under the MIT licence. “Powered by” statements are factual and imply no endorsement. Claude is a trademark of Anthropic, PBC; OpenAI is a trademark of OpenAI. They are named only to identify compatible providers.