Recording

Recordist records two channels, your microphone and your system audio, and only after you confirm. This page covers every setting around that.

How a meeting is noticed

Recordist watches for six signals. Each has its own switch in Settings → Detection, under Detect meetings and ask to record, which turns detection off altogether.

Signal	How it works	Default
Microphone in use by another app	Your operating system reports that an app opened the microphone. Works for any app, including ones Recordist has never heard of.	On
Identify the meeting app	Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Slack, Webex, FaceTime and Discord are recognised so the prompt can show the right name and title.	On
Chrome extension	The Chrome extension tells the app when a browser call starts, with its title.	On, once the extension is paired
Name meetings from my calendar (macOS Calendar)	Fills in the title and attendees from the macOS Calendar event happening now. Read-only.	On
Read the meeting app’s window title	When no title came from the extension or your calendar, names the meeting from the window title of the app using the microphone. Needs Screen Recording or Accessibility permission. When a browser starts using the microphone, its window titles are read even with this off, to tell which meeting site is open.	On
Calendar feeds (ICS)	Reads calendar feed addresses you add every five minutes and shows the card when an event with a meeting link starts.	On, with no feeds added

Detection happens on your own machine. Recordist never joins the meeting and never talks to the meeting provider.

The confirm prompt

When a signal fires, a card appears in the top-right corner of the screen (you can move it in Settings → Record prompt):

Record starts capture immediately. The card becomes a small recording strip.
Not this one keeps the card away for that app for 30 minutes, so one call does not prompt twice (Quiet period in Settings → Record prompt).
Snooze ▾ silences all prompts for the time you choose: the Snooze for time in Settings → Record prompt (10 minutes unless you change it), 1 hour, or until tomorrow.

The card dismisses itself after 45 seconds if you do nothing. With Wait for my answer on in Settings → Record prompt, it shows no countdown and stays up for up to 3 hours, or for 30 minutes once you shrink it to the one-line strip. A short sound plays when it appears; turn it off with Play a sound when the card appears in the same place.

There is no “always record” option on purpose. You can allow a specific app to record without asking (Settings → Detection → Record without asking for), and the app confirms the first such choice with you before it takes effect. Settings → Integrations → Allow agents to start recordings lets agents that use the local API, such as the MCP gateway, start a recording without the card. Both are off by default, so a detected call is recorded only after you click Record unless you change one of them.

The card also shows a one-line reminder that you are responsible for getting consent. Notice templates you can read out or paste into the chat are in the recording-law guide.

Hotkeys

Action	macOS	Windows / Linux
Start or stop recording	`⌘` `⇧` `R`	`Ctrl` `Shift` `R`
Drop a marker	`⌘` `⇧` `M`	`Ctrl` `Alt` `M`

Ctrl+Shift+M mutes Teams, so Windows and Linux use Ctrl+Alt+M for the marker.

Change either shortcut in Settings → General. The start shortcut opens the record card first, and a second press or a click on Record starts the recording; turn off Ask before a manual recording too in Settings → Record prompt to start at once. A recording started this way is a manual meeting.

Markers

A marker is a bookmark at the current moment. Drop one when someone says something you want to come back to. Markers are listed under the meeting’s transcript with their time; while the audio is kept, click one to play the recording from there. Exports do not include markers yet.

Manual recording

Click the menu bar icon → Record… to record without a detected meeting. The same record card appears first, with the notice reminder; press Record on it, or press the shortcut a second time. Turn off “Ask before a manual recording too” in Settings → Record prompt if you prefer the menu bar and the shortcut to start immediately. Useful for in-person meetings, voice memos and phone calls routed through your machine. The same consent rules apply: you are the one recording.

Audio quality

Your microphone and the system audio are captured separately, so what you said and what they said never get mixed up.
Noise suppression on your microphone (Settings → Audio) applies light noise reduction to your microphone before transcription. It does not touch the other side.
Microphone (Settings → Audio) lets you pin a specific device. By default Recordist follows the system default so it moves with your headset.
Everyone on the other side of the call shares one speaker label for now; you can rename that speaker per meeting.

How long audio is kept

By default audio files are deleted 30 days after the meeting; the transcript, notes and search index are kept until you delete the meeting, or until Delete meetings after removes it if you set a number of days. Change it under Settings → Privacy → Keep audio files: Forever, 90 days, 30 days, 7 days, or Delete right after transcription. Every choice works on every plan.

What Recordist does while recording

Writes both channels to disk continuously, so a crash loses at most a second.
Transcribes speech as it happens for the live transcript.
Shows the ember dot in the menu bar. It is never red; red in Recordist means an error.

Stopping

Recording stops when the meeting app releases the microphone, when you press the hotkey, or when you click the stop button on the recording strip. Recordist then finishes the transcript, writes the notes, and tells you when they are ready. If the app is closed or your machine restarts mid-way, the meeting is recovered on the next launch.

Developers: the prompt timing, cooldown and other details can also be set in the settings file; see the settings reference.