Network activity

A complete list of the network calls MimicScribe makes, what each one carries, and how to inspect them.

The built-in Network Log

Settings → Network Log shows every request the app sends, as it happens — what it was for, where it went, the HTTP status, and how long it took.

The Network Log pane listing a session's requests — AI calls routed to a custom endpoint, connection warm-ups, opt-in analytics events, and a license validation

Each entry records metadata only: purpose, method, host and path, status, latency, and response size. Bodies, headers, and query strings are not recorded — a query string is where your own Gemini API key travels if you use one, so the log never holds anything worth protecting. The log lives in memory for the current session and clears when the app quits.

Two channels use their own networking and can’t appear in the log request-by-request: Sparkle update checks and model downloads. Both are disclosed in the pane’s “Where this app connects” card, and both are in the endpoint table below.

The log is the app’s own accounting. To check it against what actually crosses the wire, see Inspect it yourself.

Endpoints

Host	When	What’s in it
`mimicscribe.app/api/gemini/...` (Cloudflare)	Cloud meeting summary, talking points, Q&A, transform, dictation refinement	Transcript text and your prompt. Not raw audio.
`mimicscribe.app/api/warm`	When a recording starts and periodically while one is active — only for features routed through the proxy	Empty GET — TLS handshake to shave latency off the first real call.
`mimicscribe.app/appcast.xml`	At launch, then every 24h (Sparkle)	GET request. App + macOS version in the User-Agent.
`mimicscribe.app/api/analytics`	App launch and selected events, only if analytics is on	Event name, app version, OS version, anonymous device hash, timestamp.
`mimicscribe.app/api/crash-report`	When a queued crash exists, only if crash reporting is on	Exception name, top stack frames (function names + offsets), app version. No exception reason strings.
`mimicscribe.app/api/validate-license`	At launch and periodically, paid plans only	License key. Nothing else.
`mimicscribe.app/api/report-usage`	Every ~15 min, paid plans only	Aggregate token counts per feature for billing. No transcript content.
`mimicscribe.app/api/free-usage`	At launch, free tier only — seeds the local usage meter	Anonymous device hash, local date.
`generativelanguage.googleapis.com`	Only with your own Gemini API key (BYOK)	Transcript text and your prompt, sent directly to Google with your key. Bypasses our proxy. Warm-up and keep-alive pings go here too (a one-model list request), not to `/api/warm`.
Your custom endpoint	Only if configured in Settings → AI Provider	Transcript text for the features you routed there, plus warm-up and keep-alive pings (`GET /models`) while recording. Localhost endpoints skip the pings.
HuggingFace CDN (`huggingface.co` via CloudFront)	When MiniLM, Parakeet, and LocalVQE models load	Manifest revision check. No user data.

Audio capture, transcription (Parakeet), speaker diarization, echo cancellation, and VAD run on-device. Audio bytes are never sent anywhere.

The Gemini proxy is open source: github.com/mimicscribe/mimicscribe-proxy.

Inspect it yourself

The Network Log is self-reported — the app telling you what it sent. The tools below observe from outside the app, so you don’t have to take its word for it.

macOS ships nettop (live byte counters per process) and lsof (open sockets):

PID=$(pgrep -x mimicscribe)
nettop -x -L 1 -J bytes_in,bytes_out -p $PID
lsof -i -nP -a -p $PID

For a UI alternative, Little Snitch ($69) prompts on each connection and works on macOS Tahoe. LuLu (free, by Objective-See) is the usual recommendation but currently has a NetworkExtension provider issue on Tahoe 26.2+ — verify it’s actually catching traffic before relying on it.

Local Mode

Local Mode disables every cloud feature for a meeting. The on-device pipeline still runs — transcription and diarization. Summaries and other AI features are skipped (you can backfill them later by turning Local Mode off for that meeting). What changes on the network:

No /api/gemini/... calls. No transcript leaves the Mac during or after the meeting.
No /api/warm prewarm at meeting start.
Analytics and crash reporting stay off if you turned Local Mode on during onboarding.

appcast.xml and HuggingFace model checks are unchanged — they’re per-app, not per-meeting.

Run a Local Mode meeting with the Network Log open and you can watch this hold: no AI requests appear for that meeting.