Minutes: Open Source AI Interaction & Interfaces

What is Minutes?

What it is

Minutes is open-source MIT Rust local-first conversation memory app. It lives in AI and MCP ecosystem. It records and transcribes meetings, calls, voice memos, and dictation on device. It lets Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or another MCP client search history user chooses to share.

Problem solved: meeting audio and notes leaving user control. Capture, transcription, and storage run locally. Records are Markdown files user owns in ~/meetings/. If user chooses cloud AI assistant or summarizer, only meeting context user authorizes is sent to provider.

Key capabilities

Local capture and transcription for meetings, calls, voice memos, and dictation.
Markdown and YAML records stored in ~/meetings/, so user owns files instead of hosted workspace.
MCP access for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Pi, Gemini CLI, Claude Desktop, Mistral Vibe, Cowork, Dispatch, Obsidian, Logseq, and any MCP client.
Direct search through MCP, with calls such as search_meetings({"query":"monthly billing decision"}).
Desktop app surface with menu bar capture, Recall, documents, and Coach.
CLI surface with 58 commands for local recording and processing.
Demo workflow seeds five sample meetings with no microphone using minutes demo --full, then removes samples with minutes demo --clean.

Who uses it and how

Agent-first users treat Minutes as capture layer of local second brain. They search meetings through Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, MCP, or CLI, then fold useful context into vault or wiki they own.
Desktop notetaker users record and read results in app. They value reliable setup, clear processing and recovery, Recall, documents, Coach, and summary quality.
Users add Minutes to agent, seed five sample meetings, then ask what was decided about monthly billing and whether it stuck.
Users record real meeting with minutes record, then stop with minutes stop to transcribe it.

Getting started

Install with brew install --cask silverstein/tap/minutes, brew install silverstein/tap/minutes, cargo install minutes-cli, or npx minutes-mcp. Add Minutes to Claude with claude mcp add minutes -- npx -y minutes-mcp, and if Homebrew reports untrusted tap, run brew trust silverstein/tap once.

When to use it — and when not to

Use Minutes when local-first ownership matters more than hosted workspace; Granola and Otter.ai provide hosted meeting notepad and hosted meeting assistant with hosted workspace, hosted MCP or integrations, and cloud transcription, while Anarlog provides local meeting notepad with local SQLite plus files, CLI plus MCP, and local AI with providers. Minutes uses local Markdown plus YAML, local transcription, and user choice of AI provider, so self-hosters must operate local files, CLI, desktop app, and MCP client, and must decide whether to send authorized meeting context to cloud AI assistant or summarizer. Facts show repo age 0 years, 80 open issues, and 0 listed contributors, so early-stage maintenance is weakness.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

minutes

useminutes.app

Minutes is a free, open-source conversation memory app for the AI you already use. Record and transcribe meetings, calls, voice memos, and dictation on your device, then let Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or another MCP client search the history you choose to share. Your records are Markdown files you own in ~/meetings/.

Capture, transcription, and storage run locally. If you choose a cloud AI assistant or summarizer, the meeting context you authorize is sent to that provider.

Your conversations. Your memory. Ready for the AI you use.

Install

brew install --cask silverstein/tap/minutes
brew install silverstein/tap/minutes
cargo install minutes-cli
npx minutes-mcp  # or: claude mcp add minutes -- npx -y minutes-mcp

If Homebrew reports an untrusted tap, run brew trust silverstein/tap once.

Ask your agent

Add Minutes to your agent, seed five sample meetings (no mic needed), then ask about them:

claude mcp add minutes -- npx -y minutes-mcp
minutes demo --full

What did we decide about monthly billing, and did it stick?

The answer spans two meetings a month apart: launched on Feb 28, reversed on Mar 25.

A direct MCP call uses the same local meeting files:

search_meetings({"query":"monthly billing decision"})

Record a real one with minutes record, then minutes stop to transcribe. minutes demo --clean removes the samples. Setup: Codex, Gemini CLI, and Claude Desktop, Cursor, OpenCode, Pi, Mistral Vibe, and Cowork or Dispatch.

Works with

Claude Code · Codex · Cursor · OpenCode · Pi · Gemini CLI · Claude Desktop · Mistral Vibe · Cowork · Dispatch · Obsidian · Logseq · any MCP client

How it compares

Workflow	Granola	Otter.ai	Anarlog (formerly Hyprnote)	Minutes
Product	Hosted meeting notepad	Hosted meeting assistant	Local meeting notepad	Local conversation memory
Agent access	Hosted MCP	Hosted integrations	CLI + MCP	Local files, MCP, CLI, SDK
Primary storage	Hosted workspace	Hosted workspace	Local SQLite + files	Local Markdown + YAML
Local AI	Cloud transcription	Cloud transcription	With local providers	Local transcription; AI provider of your choice

Reviewed September 5, 2026 against Granola MCP, Otter privacy and security, and the Anarlog repository. Anarlog's community app is MIT; its enterprise components use a commercial license. See the detailed comparison and open-source alternatives for fit and limitations.

Who it's for

Agent-first users treat Minutes as the capture layer of a local second brain. They search meetings through Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, MCP, or the CLI, then fold useful context into a vault or wiki they own.

Desktop notetaker users record and read results in the app. They value reliable setup, clear processing and recovery, Recall, documents, Coach, and summary quality. See the full persona notes.

Surfaces

Surface	What it provides	Docs
Desktop app	Menu bar capture, Recall, documents, and Coach.	Install
CLI (58 commands)	Local recording, processing, search, import, and automation.	Commands
MCP server (34 tools)	Local meeting tools and resources for any MCP client.	MCP reference
Claude Code plugin (23 skills)	Prep, capture, live help, debrief, and memory workflows.	Client setup
SDK	TypeScript access to meeting files without MCP.	Agent architecture

Output format

Meetings are plain markdown with structured YAML frontmatter:

---
title: Q2 Pricing Discussion with Alex
type: meeting
date: 2026-03-17T14:00:00
duration: 42m
context: Discuss Q2 pricing
action_items:
  - assignee: mat
    task: Send pricing doc
    due: Friday
    status: open
decisions:
  - text: Test monthly billing with 10 advisors
---

See the frontmatter schema. Files work with Obsidian, grep, and any markdown tool.

Privacy & consent

Transcription and speaker processing run on-device. Audio stays on your machine.
Sensitive meetings save typed markers without audio and default to restricted.
Consent reminders, acknowledgement, and provenance help you disclose recording.
Text leaves the machine only when you send authorized context to a cloud agent or summarizer.

See the security documentation and consent enforcement design.

Docs

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Minutes is MIT licensed and staying that way: no relicensing, no paid tier for anything in this repo.

MIT. Built by Mat Silverstein, founder of X1 Wealth.

Star History

Frequently asked questions

Is Minutes free to use?

Minutes is open source under the MIT licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does Minutes do?

Local meeting recorder that keeps your audio off the cloud

What is Minutes written in?

Minutes is primarily written in Rust. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/silverstein/minutes, and it has 1,484 GitHub stars.