In one paragraph
LokalBot is a free, open-source app for Mac, with Windows and Linux in alpha, that records meetings without a bot, transcribes and summarizes them on your computer, and lets you search what was said alongside what you saw on screen, if you turn that on. It is local-first: there is no LokalBot account, analytics, telemetry backend, or hosted AI service. It is built and maintained in the open on GitHub under the GPLv3 licence.
Fact sheet
| LokalBot | |
|---|---|
| Tagline | Your personal context engine. |
| Category | Local-first meeting notes and personal work memory |
| Platform | macOS 15.0 or later on Apple Silicon (M1 or later). In alpha: Windows 10 or 11 (x64) and Linux (x86_64, glibc 2.39 or later) |
| Price | Free, with no account or paid tier |
| License | GNU GPL v3 |
| Install | Mac: the DMG from GitHub Releases, or brew install --cask stevyhacker/tap/lokalbot. Windows: the installer or the portable zip, not code-signed yet. Linux: the archive and its install.sh, or the .deb, .rpm or Arch package from the same release |
| Updates | Signed in-app updates from GitHub Releases (Sparkle on Mac), installed only when you choose |
| Where data lives | On your computer: LokalBot's Application Support folder on a Mac, %LOCALAPPDATA%\LokalBot on Windows, ~/.local/share/LokalBot on Linux |
| Default speech model | Qwen3-ASR 1.7B on Mac (52 languages and dialects), since version 0.8.1; Qwen3-ASR 0.6B on Windows and Linux |
| Other speech models | Parakeet TDT, Whisper large-v3 turbo, SenseVoice, GigaAM for Russian, and on Mac, IBM Granite Speech |
| Summaries and chat | Qwen3.5 4B on llama.cpp, bundled on Mac and downloaded on first use on Windows and Linux |
| Search | Keyword plus semantic search with EmbeddingGemma 2 embeddings |
| Optional AI backends | Ollama, OpenAI-compatible servers, your ChatGPT or Claude plan, and Apple Intelligence on Mac (macOS 26+); remote servers and plans need approval |
| Source | github.com/stevyhacker/lokalbot |
What it does
- Bot-free meeting recording. It records your microphone and the meeting app's audio on separate tracks. On a fresh install, it asks through a notification before recording a detected meeting.
- Local transcripts and recaps. Transcripts, speaker separation, summaries, decisions, and action items are generated on-device, with citations back to the discussion. Audio and video files you import become meetings too.
- One search. Search meetings and any saved screen text by keyword or meaning, then jump to the matching passage.
- Optional workday memory. Day tracking starts with app names and window titles only. Saving visible text and encrypted screenshots is a separate opt-in; screenshots are deleted after 14 days by default.
- Dictation and autocomplete. Hold ⌥ Space (Alt+Space on Windows and Linux) to dictate into any app. Optional local autocomplete suggests the rest of a sentence as you type.
- Your files, your tools. Export to Markdown, Obsidian, or Logseq. A read-only CLI and MCP server let approved local agents query your library; both stay off until you enable Agent Access.
What it does not do
- It does not join calls, upload recordings, or require an account.
- It does not run on Intel Macs, iOS, Android, or the web. The Windows and Linux app is an alpha and doesn't have every Mac feature yet.
- It does not sync between devices. Any sync you set up for exported Markdown is under your control.
How it compares
Side-by-side pages cover Granola, Apple Notes, Otter, Fireflies, Hyprnote, Meetily, MacWhisper, Superwhisper, Wispr Flow, Screenpipe, and Rewind. Measured model results are on the benchmarks page.
Project and contact
LokalBot is developed publicly on GitHub, where releases, source, and issues live. For help, see the support page. Report security problems privately through the security policy. The privacy policy describes exactly when the app uses the network.