Loofah is a free, open-source meeting transcription app for Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 15 or later. Record without a bot, transcribe on-device, and keep your notes as Markdown files.
A native Windows 11 port for x64 and ARM64 is in preview. See the Windows preview guide for downloads, setup, and known limitations. Publisher signing is pending; in-app updates remain cryptographically verified.
I wanted a meeting notetaker that did a few things well: transcribe locally, keep my notes as ordinary Markdown files, and stay out of the way. I couldn't find one without accounts, subscriptions, or a cloud service in the middle, so I built Loofah on anarlog.
There is no backend, account, billing, telemetry, or premium tier. Your notes live on your computer and remain usable without this app. If you want AI-generated summaries, connect your own LLM—OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenRouter, Ollama, LM Studio, or another OpenAI-compatible provider.
This is software I built for my own day-to-day use. It may be rough around the edges, but if you want the same kind of tool, I hope it is useful to you too.
Download the signed and notarized Apple Silicon build using the button above. That link always points to the latest published version; previous versions are available on the releases page. You can also build it from source using the instructions below.
Open the app, start a session, and join your meeting. The app records and transcribes on your Mac, then saves the notes as Markdown in your vault.
- The files are yours. Notes and summaries are Markdown files you can read, search, edit, back up, or sync. Transcripts are stored as structured JSON; export a session when you want the transcript in Markdown too.
- Transcription stays local. Your meeting audio does not need to be sent to a transcription service.
- AI is optional and bring-your-own. Use a hosted provider or run a local model with Ollama or LM Studio.
- No account or tracking. Install the app and use it. There is nothing to sign up for.
- CLI and MCP support. The included
loofCLI and MCP server can give your scripts and coding agents read-only access to meeting notes through MCP. The CLI also creates notes, imports recordings, and saves agent work.
Read the first-meeting guide, prepare an offline workflow, or compare meeting tools.
This is a pnpm workspace containing a Tauri desktop app (apps/desktop/) and a
Rust CLI (apps/cli/). There is no database: the files in the vault are the
source of truth. The vault format lives in crates/vault-read/; the interface
uses Zustand for state and TipTap for editing.
To run it locally on macOS:
pnpm install
pnpm -F @hypr/desktop tauri:dev # run the desktop app
cargo build -p loof-cli # build the loof CLIFor Windows, the native CI workflow contains the build and installer checks for both architectures, including the dependency setup needed for ARM64.
See AGENTS.md for development notes, including formatting, typechecking, and code-style conventions.
MIT. See LICENSE for the complete license and copyright history, including the original anarlog copyright.