Transcribes on-device with Parakeet TDT v2 (via FluidAudio). UI adapted from Hex (MIT, see LICENSE-Hex).
Install
Paste this into Terminal:
curl -fsSL https://notesthing.yoelgal.com/install.sh | bash
It downloads the latest release to /Applications and opens it. Look for the red-capsule icon in your menu bar.
Or with Homebrew: brew install --cask yoelgal/tap/notes-thing
Requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or newer. The first run downloads the speech model (~650 MB).
Notes Thing isn't notarized by Apple (that needs a paid developer account). macOS blocks
unnotarized apps downloaded in a browser, but not ones fetched with curl, so the one-liner
just works. Read the script: it's 50 lines.
Manual install: download NotesThing.zip from the latest release,
unzip it, and drag Notes Thing to Applications. The first time you open it, macOS will say it
can't verify the developer. Click Done, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security,
scroll down, and click Open Anyway. You only need to do this once.
Update
Notes Thing checks for updates daily and shows Update to … in the menu. Updates are signed with an EdDSA key (Sparkle), and one started mid-session waits until the session is transcribed. Running the install command again also works.
Uninstall
Quit from the menu, then drag Notes Thing from Applications to the Trash. Your recordings stay in ~/Sessions.
Use
⌃⌥P: start a session / pause / resume- Calls and videos: Notes Thing records what your Mac plays as well as your mic (macOS 14.2+), so the other side of a call is transcribed even with headphones on. macOS asks for System Audio Recording permission the first time. Turn it off in Settings → Audio Input.
⌃⌥N: note field (Enter saves, Esc cancels). A note is timed from its first keystroke.- Change either shortcut, or the transcription model, in Settings… (
⌘, from the menu).
- History… lists every session: play the audio, open the transcript, copy
/notes <id>, or transcribe one you quit mid-recording.
- Menu bar → Stop & Transcribe: writes
~/Sessions/<id>/session.md and copies /notes <id> to the clipboard.
/notes <id> asks your AI agent about a session: it summarises it and explains each note in context. Install it with Get Started → Install in the app, or npx skills add yoelgal/notes-thing --skill notes -g (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other agents). Chat assistants: give them session.md.- More than one voice? The transcript labels each change of speaker (Speaker 1:, Speaker 2:…). Name them with the people button in History…; giving two the same name merges them.
Sessions live in ~/Sessions unless you pick another folder with Settings → Sessions Folder → Change…, which moves them for you. Don't move or rename the folder in Finder: History and /notes would lose track of it (the app will ask you to point it at the new place).
Each session folder: events.jsonl (written live), audio.caf while recording → audio.m4a after, session.md, and speakers.json (speaker names) when there's more than one voice.
Quit mid-session? The audio and notes are safe on disk; rebuild the transcript with
"/Applications/Notes Thing.app/Contents/MacOS/NotesThing" --finish ~/Sessions/<id>.
Build from source
git clone https://github.com/yoelgal/notes-thing && cd notes-thing
scripts/build.sh # → dist/Notes Thing.app
scripts/build.sh --install # also copies it to /Applications
swift build --package-path app && app/.build/debug/NotesThing --selfcheck # transcript + shortcut checks
swift scripts/icon.swift # cut scripts/icon-art.png into the app icon and site icons
Needs Xcode 16+ (Swift 6). Releases are built by GitHub Actions from tags (git tag v1.2.3 && git push --tags).
The site (site/) deploys to Vercel; site/install.sh is served at notesthing.yoelgal.com/install.sh.
