Which macOS permissions Recordist asks for, and why

Recordist asks for as little as it can and explains each request. Here is the full list.

Required to record

Microphone. Your side of the call. Without it, recordings contain only the other participants.

Screen & System Audio Recording. On macOS 14.6 and later, capturing the audio coming out of your computer (the other participants) goes through Apple’s audio-tap API, which macOS files under this permission. Recordist uses the audio tap only. It never captures screen contents, never takes screenshots and never requests Screen Recording for video. The name of the permission is Apple’s, not ours.

Optional

Calendars. Read-only, to title meetings, know the attendees and build Prep Briefs. Decline it and everything still works; meetings are titled from the transcript instead.

Notifications. To tell you when notes are ready. Decline it and you check the app instead.

Never requested

Accessibility, Contacts, Location, Camera, Photos, Full Disk Access, Automation, Input Monitoring. If a version of Recordist ever asks for one of these, treat it as a bug and tell us.

Granting and re-granting

First launch walks you through both required permissions. If a recording is silent on one channel, check System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone and → Screen & System Audio Recording. Unsigned early builds can lose grants after an update (why); toggling the permission off and on fixes it.

The Chrome extension

It requests access to the supported meeting sites and to the Recordist app on your own machine only, and pairs with the app through a one-time 6-digit code. It cannot read other tabs.