What works on Linux
LokalBot for Linux is a native app written in Rust with GPUI, the UI framework behind the Zed editor. It has the same pages as the Mac app (Today, Meetings, Timeline, People, Projects, Ask, and Settings) and reads the same library format, so a library recorded on a Mac opens on Linux. It's an alpha.
- Meetings without a bot. LokalBot records your microphone and your computer's audio through a PulseAudio or PipeWire monitor, so nothing joins the call. On Linux the second track is everything your computer plays, not one app. When it detects a meeting, it asks with a notification.
- On-device transcription. Qwen3-ASR 0.6B through sherpa-onnx by default, with Parakeet v3, SenseVoice, and Whisper turbo as options. Speakers are separated with pyannote segmentation and TitaNet.
- Notes and Ask. Summaries, decisions, action items, and answers with citations come from Qwen3.5 4B in the built-in llama.cpp, or from Ollama, an OpenAI-compatible server you approve, or your ChatGPT or Claude plan.
- Search. Keyword and meaning search across your meetings, with SQLite full-text search and EmbeddingGemma 2, plus Quick Recall from a shortcut.
- Agent access. A read-only CLI and MCP server lets Claude Code, Codex, and other agents search your meetings, off until you allow it.
Your desktop matters
Meetings, transcription, notes, search, and Ask work on any desktop. A few features depend on what your desktop lets apps do:
| Feature | X11 | Wayland |
|---|---|---|
| Day memory (app and window activity) | Yes | Hyprland, Sway, and KDE; GNOME with the Window Calls extension |
| Screen context (visible text, optional encrypted screenshots) | Yes | Sway and Hyprland with grim; other desktops through the screenshot portal when it can capture just the active window |
| Dictation | Yes | Bind lokalbot dictate to a shortcut in your compositor |
| Autocomplete in other apps | GTK apps; Qt, Chromium, Electron, and Firefox once system accessibility is on | Only in the practice editor in Settings |
| Tray icon | Yes; GNOME needs the AppIndicator extension | |
On Omarchy and other Hyprland desktops, grim, wtype, wl-clipboard, and PipeWire are already there, and the dictation pill and Quick Recall float instead of tiling.
Install and stay updated
- Debian and Ubuntu:
sudo apt install ./LokalBot-<version>-linux-amd64.deb. It adds the LokalBot repository at pkg.lokalbot.com, sosudo apt upgradebrings later versions. - Fedora:
sudo dnf install ./LokalBot-<version>-linux-x86_64.rpm, thensudo dnf upgradefor later versions. On openSUSE the same package installs, and LokalBot tells you when a new version is out. - Arch and Omarchy:
sudo pacman -U ./LokalBot-<version>-linux-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst. LokalBot tells you when a newer package is out. - Any distribution: extract the
.tar.gzand run./install.sh. It installs into~/.local/bin, adds LokalBot to your applications menu, and lets the app update itself after checking each download's signature.
All of them are on the latest release. LokalBot needs x86_64 with glibc 2.39 or later (Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 13, Fedora 40, or newer), PulseAudio or PipeWire, and a Vulkan or OpenGL driver; Mesa is fine. See the system requirements.
Models and hardware
On first launch LokalBot asks what to remember and downloads the models you choose: about 4 GB for the default transcription, notes, and search models. llama.cpp runs on any Vulkan GPU or on the CPU. On an NVIDIA GPU you can choose CUDA (experimental) in Settings → Models → llama.cpp; in testing, CUDA read a long prompt into Qwen3.5 4B 44% faster than Vulkan on an RTX 3060. Without a capable GPU, notes on the CPU are slow, so you can point notes and Ask at Ollama on another computer or at a server you approve.
What's not there yet
- Selection actions, meeting note export and daily memory notes, Personal Context, spoken summaries, and coding-agent sessions in day memory are Mac only for now.
- There's no Flatpak or Snap. An AUR package,
lokalbot-bin, is on its way. - Bot-free is not consent-free. Tell the people in your meeting that you're recording, and follow the rules that apply to them.