Patter

A personal meeting notebook for Mac. Record conversations, transcribe locally, and keep your notes, summaries and audio together.

Download for Mac · Guide · Installation reference · First setup · Development

Overview

A personal, local-first meeting notebook for Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 15 or later. Built with Tauri 2, Rust, SQLite, Swift audio/calendar and Parakeet helpers, and React + Vite. No hosted backend, account system, analytics, Electron runtime, or bundled model weights.

Patter is in active personal development. v0.6.2 adds focused Settings tabs and fixes the missing Calendar entitlement. Calendar consent has been confirmed in a packaged local test build. Native audio capture and summary-model inference still need a supervised setup and reliability pass before relying on Patter for important meetings.

Install and updates

Download the latest Mac installer. Drag Patter into Applications. Later, use Settings → General → Updates → Install and restart. Read installation, release and recovery instructions, including the ad-hoc signing caveat. No Apple Developer membership or notarization is used.

Recording now targets the selected conversation, with Record here and Record… actions for Upcoming meetings. After Stop finalizes new audio, Patter transcribes it and generates a summary using the existing local model/template settings. Saved processing stages support retry after interruption without repeating a completed transcription. Empty/failed captures and very short transcripts skip automatic summaries. Calendar refresh runs on return to the app and via Upcoming → Refresh; all meetings are reachable through Show all.

Run

Requires Node 24.14, pnpm (pinned in package.json), Rust 1.96, and Swift 6.2+ / Xcode 26 command-line tools (Swift/C++). CI uses Xcode 26.3. The checked-in Cargo/CMake configuration targets a portable M1 CPU baseline while keeping Metal acceleration enabled.

pnpm install
pnpm dev                 # browser design preview, with labelled examples
pnpm desktop             # native development app; stop a separate pnpm dev first
pnpm desktop:build       # standalone local Mac application
pnpm test
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml

Application: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/macos/Patter.app. Model weights are downloaded separately from the application. It is not a signed/notarized distribution release. The native app starts with an empty library; the browser examples never populate it. One clearly labelled welcome/test note and synthetic audio were added during native QA on this Mac.

Features

• Cream, ink and teal split-view notebook with Fraunces headings, Nunito Sans body text, the vector Patter mark and Phosphor icons.
• Editable conversation titles/notes, summaries, decisions, action checkboxes, transcripts, search, Today filter and archive/restore.
• General meeting, One-to-one, Interview, Brainstorm and Custom summary templates, with editable instructions, a default preference and per-conversation choices.
• Immutable SQLite versions; restoring creates a new version. Existing audio attachments cannot be detached or repointed by ordinary saves. No delete/retention-cleanup commands.
• Audio import with a durable copy, playback, timestamp seeking, speed control, and consecutive chunk playback within the selected track.
• Swift Core Audio audio-only taps plus AVAudioEngine microphone capture; approximately five-second CAF chunks, unique capture-session filenames, startup recovery of surviving chunks, and WAV playback derivatives. No screen video is stored.
• Local Parakeet v3 inference through FluidAudio/CoreML and Whisper through whisper.cpp/Metal. In-app model downloads are pinned by revision, size and SHA-256; partial downloads can resume. Existing user-selected Whisper .bin files remain supported. Summaries use a separate local OpenAI-compatible server restricted to loopback, with proxy forwarding and redirects disabled.
• EventKit calendar reading, including Google calendars already synced to macOS; upcoming events can create or reopen linked notes. No Google OAuth application is needed for this route.
• JSON conversation export and native library backup (SQLite online backup plus original recording files). Browser preview data uses IndexedDB and is separate from the permanent Mac library.

First setup

Calendar: Add the Google account in macOS Internet Accounts and enable Calendars. Confirm the events appear in Apple Calendar, then use Patter Settings → Calendar → Connect calendar and grant access. macOS requires full calendar access for EventKit reads; Patter's implementation only reads. Events refresh every minute while Patter runs. Direct Google OAuth remains future work.

Join meetings: Google Meet and Zoom links appear as Join actions in Upcoming, reminders and linked notes. Patter finds links in the calendar event’s URL, location or notes and opens them in your default browser. Joining does not start recording.

Calendar permission recovery: Update to v0.6.2 or later, which includes the required Calendar entitlement. Open the packaged Patter app, then choose Settings → Calendar → Connect calendar. macOS lists an app in Calendar permissions after it requests access; there is no manual add button. Patter requests access from the app itself, shows the current permission state and keeps errors beside Connect. If access was denied, use Calendar permissions to enable Patter, return to the app and reconnect. Check again refreshes the status without requesting access. Connection help includes permission shortcuts and Google account setup. Notification settings and recording-permission shortcuts are available in the same dialog. Unbundled tauri dev builds explain that permission setup requires a packaged app.

Summaries: Start a model in LM Studio's local server, then use http://127.0.0.1:1234/v1. For an existing Ollama server use http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1. Choose Find models, enter/select a model, and Save. The endpoint/model are preferences, not credentials. No cloud fallback is implemented.

Templates: In Settings → Models → Templates, choose a default and edit its instructions. Each template retains its own edits; Reset restores its built-in instructions. In a conversation's Overview, expand Template to override the default or add extra instructions. Changes apply on the next generation, using the same summary, decisions and next steps layout. Long-transcript processing also uses the selected instructions. Generated versions retain the exact instructions, template name, model and generation time; changing a template does not rewrite past summaries. Existing libraries default to General meeting without a database migration.

Transcription: In Settings → Models → Transcription, select Parakeet v3 (632 MB), Whisper Base (148 MB), or Whisper Small (488 MB), choose Download, then Save. Downloads come from Hugging Face; each file is verified before the model is marked ready. Cancellation/interruption keeps partial files for retry, and Verify / repair checks installed files. Once installed, transcription stays offline. Parakeet v3 supports English and 24 other European languages; Whisper supports broader language coverage. The manual Whisper file option accepts compatible whisper.cpp GGML .bin files, and older configured paths are preserved. Import or record audio, open Transcript, and choose Transcribe recording. Audio track labels (Microphone / Computer audio) are not speaker diarization. Captured chunks are still transcribed individually; improving long-call context remains future work.

Recording: Record → Record microphone & computer audio. On launch, the packaged app offers setup for missing microphone permissions, plus Calendar and notifications if enabled. System audio uses the separate macOS System Audio Recording Only grant, checked by macOS when recording starts; Patter does not request screen access. Choose Allow, Open settings, or Later to dismiss setup until the next launch. The check never starts a recording. Capture was compiled but not activated during QA. Test permissions and playback on a short disposable conversation first.

Permanent library

On this Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/gr.tau.patter/.

• patter.sqlite3: current conversations, immutable versions and preferences.
• recordings/<conversation-id>/: original imported files and captured chunks; playback derivatives may also live here.
• processing/: retained conversion files and Parakeet outputs from transcription attempts.
• models/: versioned model downloads and partial files. Library backups include the database and original recordings; downloadable models can be downloaded again.

Patter never automatically purges these files. Archive changes visibility. Each committed edit/regeneration is versioned; draft keystrokes are coalesced with a 600 ms debounce, and normal closing/quit waits for pending saves. Forced termination can lose an unsaved draft or the currently open capture chunk. App retention cannot protect against disk failure or manual filesystem deletion: use library backups.

For manual library restore, quit Patter and preserve the current library separately before restoring. Recording paths are absolute, so moving a manual backup to another account/path requires migration. Google Drive restore validates backups, remaps recording paths and retains a safety copy of the previous library; see backup and restore instructions. Real Drive backup/restore and LaunchAgent catch-up with Patter closed have passed. After an ad-hoc update, Patter may require Drive reconnection using the original Google setup JSON. That recovery path and resumed background backup have been verified; see the backup guide for the evidence and remaining checks. Low-disk, long-call, sleep/wake and device-change checks are also outstanding.

Verified here

• Production TypeScript/Vite build and Tauri .app packaging.
• Frontend storage/search/template tests and Rust storage/model/template/update-safety tests, including a mock local-model server that checks template guidance through long-transcript processing. Backup fixtures cover snapshot/restore integrity, scheduling and upload behavior; see validation coverage and remaining checks. These checks do not verify real model output quality or Google authorization.
• Browser flows: note editing, retained versions, restore, archive/restore, text search, action checkbox persistence, tabs, sample audio play/seek, desktop and compact layouts. No browser console errors in the final inspection.
• Native app launch, creating/editing a note, Cmd-Q and reopening with notes intact, importing synthetic WAV audio, and native playback.
• Real Parakeet v3 and Whisper Base downloads and inference on the synthetic 15-second sample, preserving audio bytes and track offsets. Packaged Mac app: Parakeet download, saved selection, successful transcription, and cancellation/retry of Whisper Small. Long meetings and additional hardware still need validation.

Not yet verified: live capture, Google/EventKit permission flow, live-meeting transcription quality or LLM output, full backup/restore round trip, long-session recovery/performance. No real microphone/system capture or personal calendar reading was performed.

Attribution and licensing

Patter is a fresh implementation inspired by Anarlog; no upstream application source was copied. The bundled example conversation and narration are synthetic. The vector logo was created for Patter. Fonts are Fraunces and Nunito Sans, with Phosphor icons.

No source-code license has been selected yet; public visibility does not grant a general license to this application's original code. Third-party components retain their own licenses; see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.txt.

Parakeet implementation

The small patter-parakeet executable links pinned FluidAudio 0.17.1 and uses its offline loadLocal API. Python and a model server are not required. Optional NeMo text-processing is disabled. src-tauri/transcription-models.json pins the Hugging Face repositories, revisions, file sizes and SHA-256 values. The Parakeet weights are from FluidInference's CoreML conversion of NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3, under CC-BY-4.0; Whisper weights are MIT-licensed. Model files are not bundled or uploaded with recordings.

An opt-in smoke test downloads a model into a separate test directory, transcribes the supplied audio, checks offsets and verifies that the original audio is unchanged:

cargo run --locked --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml --example transcription-smoke -- /tmp/patter-transcription-proof parakeet-v3 public/sample-conversation.wav

Moving from Anarlog 1.0.27: Settings → Library → Import from Anarlog previews and imports a copied Content/sessions folder, including notes, summaries, transcripts and retained audio. Original session files are preserved, repeat imports skip unchanged conversations, and existing Patter edits are never overwritten. See the transfer instructions and format limits. Available from v0.4.0.

Google Drive backup

Connect your own Google Drive in Settings, choose a nightly time, or back up manually. Patter uploads new/changed recordings, readable transcripts/summaries, complete version history and nonsecret configuration. Previous backups are kept. A verified restore remaps paths for another Mac and preserves the current library in a safety folder. Setup, coverage and validation limits.

Connect an AI agent (MCP)

Available from v0.5.0. Patter includes a local MCP server for Codex, Claude Desktop, Claude Code and other clients that support stdio. No separate server install or runtime is needed. Keep the Mac app open while connected.

1. In Settings → Agents, enable Read entire library.
2. Optionally enable Edit notes, titles and actions or Transcribe and summarize. Permissions save immediately and apply to all connected agents.
3. Use the copyable setup prompt in Codex or Claude Code on your Mac. It configures that client, preserves existing settings and checks the connection without reading conversations. For development builds or custom installs, append the JSON from Connection setup → Copy settings.
4. Keep Patter open. Restart your client or start a new session if needed, then ask it to call patter_status.

For a standard installation, these commands register the connection directly:

Codex:

codex mcp add patter -- /Applications/Patter.app/Contents/MacOS/patter --mcp
codex mcp list

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --scope user --transport stdio patter -- /Applications/Patter.app/Contents/MacOS/patter --mcp
claude mcp get patter

For custom paths and development sockets, use the command and complete arguments from Patter’s Connection setup. The full guide includes Codex’s TOML configuration, Claude Code, and Claude Desktop’s JSON setup. Client configuration follows the official Codex and Claude Code documentation.

Tool	What it does
search_conversations	Search text or dates, including archived conversations.
get_conversation	Read notes, summaries or timestamped transcripts, including older versions.
conversation_history	List saved versions and agent attribution.
edit_conversation	Update a title or notes, or check/uncheck an existing action. Requires edit permission.
list_templates	List summary templates.
start_processing	Transcribe saved audio or generate a summary using local models. Requires processing permission.
job_status	Check a processing job’s progress or result.
open_conversation	Show a conversation in Patter.
patter_status	Check the app version, recording state and backup progress.

Read access covers the whole library, including archives and history. Cloud agents may send returned text to their model provider; Patter’s own processing stays local. Edits preserve history and reject stale revisions. Agents cannot delete data or start recording.

See the full setup guide for example configuration, permissions, troubleshooting and developer checks.

Zoom and meeting reminders

Available from v0.6.0. Meeting reminders are off until you enable them.

• Zoom: use View → Zoom In / Zoom Out / Actual Size, ⌘+ / ⌘− / ⌘0, or Settings → Appearance → Zoom. Levels range from 75% to 200% and are remembered on this Mac, separately from library backups.
• Reminders: connect your Mac calendar, then enable Settings → Calendar → Meeting reminders and allow macOS notifications. Choose the lead time (at start, or 1–30 minutes before), sound, meeting-title visibility and calendars, then Save. No calendar selection means all connected calendars.
• Patter refreshes calendar events every minute and checks reminders every ten seconds while running, including in the background. Keep Patter open; reminders do not run after quitting or while your Mac sleeps. After wake, upcoming meetings or meetings that started less than a minute ago can still remind you. All-day, cancelled and declined events are skipped.
• A reminder offers Record…, Open notes and Dismiss in Patter. The macOS Record… action opens a confirmation in Patter. Recording starts only after Start recording, and uses the meeting’s existing conversation when available. Finish any active recording or task first.
• Use Test notification to check macOS delivery without calendar access. Test reminders use a synthetic meeting and never start recording automatically. If banners are hidden, check macOS System Settings → Notifications → Patter and Focus. The browser preview has Preview reminder for inspecting the flow.

Each meeting occurrence is remembered to avoid repeated reminders across restarts. Rescheduled occurrences can notify again. Configuration is included in normal library backups, but macOS notification permission must be granted separately on each Mac. macOS controls final banner and sound delivery.