trnscrb

trnscrb is an offline meeting transcription tool built for macOS. It monitors microphone activity and detects when meeting applications are in use, then starts recording on its own. You can record only the microphone, or both the microphone and system audio through the BlackHole virtual driver, which matters when you need to capture a remote participant. Transcription happens on your own machine using the Whisper model with Metal acceleration on Apple Silicon, so the audio itself does not need to travel to a server. Afterward, all meeting records are saved as plain text and become searchable inside Claude Desktop through an MCP tool. The product is described as free.

- Detect meetings automatically and start recording without clicking anything

- Record microphone audio, or microphone plus system audio via BlackHole

- Transcribe on-device with the Whisper model and Metal acceleration

- Search every past transcript from Claude Desktop using MCP

- Use simple commands such as start recording and stop recording

- Keep meeting text in plain files you control

- Business people who need searchable records of what was decided

- Students recording online classes and group discussions

- Freelancers who handle client calls where accurate notes matter

It is a good fit for anyone on a Mac who wants private, offline transcription rather than a cloud service.

trnscrb is macOS only, so Windows and Linux users cannot run it. Installation runs through Homebrew and a command line, which assumes some technical comfort, and setup also handles a virtual audio driver, HuggingFace tokens, and model downloads. Because transcription runs locally, it uses your computer's processor and memory, so long meetings on an older machine may be slow. Accuracy depends on audio quality and accents, and recording meetings still requires consent from participants and compliance with local rules. As a free tool, its availability and setup steps can change over time.