Quick Start
What do I need to run MimicScribe?
- macOS 15.0 (Sequoia) or later
- Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer)
- ~600 MB disk space for speech recognition, speaker diarization, and document retrieval models
How do I install it?
Download MimicScribe from mimicscribe.app. Drag to Applications and launch — it appears in your menu bar, not the Dock.
What happens on first launch?
A setup wizard walks through four pages:
- Models & permissions — Downloads speech recognition, speaker diarization, and document retrieval models (~600 MB). Also grants Microphone and System Audio Recording Only permissions. A progress bar shows status; if the download fails, a Retry button appears.
- Meeting shortcut — Practice the Meeting hotkey (default: Control+Space): hold to start and stop recording, tap during a meeting for talking points. Voice typing tools (Insert Mode and Transform Mode) are noted here but not turned on; you enable them later in Settings if you want them.
- Where should AI run? — Choose where the text-AI features (summaries, the live assistant, dictation and transform cleanup) run: Built-in cloud AI (Google Gemini through our proxy — the default), your own AI service (a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint — a local model or a provider you control), or No AI — Local Mode (transcription and speaker separation only, nothing sent anywhere). Picking Local Mode here also turns the usage and crash signals off automatically. You can change any of this later in Settings → AI & Data.
- Finish — Confirm launch-at-login, anonymous usage signals, and anonymous crash logs, and get a tip for finding the menu-bar icon.
What permissions does MimicScribe need?
| Permission | What it enables | When required |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone | All speech input | Always |
| System Audio Recording Only | Capturing audio from video calls | Always |
| Accessibility | Keyboard shortcuts, reading selected text, pasting results | Never during setup. Only if you turn on voice typing or automatic recording in Settings |
Grant or re-grant these in System Settings > Privacy & Security.
What are the default hotkeys?
| Action | Default |
|---|---|
| Start / Stop Meeting | Hold Control + Space |
| Meeting Assistant (toggle) | Control + Space (while recording) |
| Voice Input (meeting window) | Cmd + D (when meeting window is active) |
| Insert Mode | Left Option (tap to toggle, or hold for push-to-talk) |
| Transform Mode | Left Option + Shift (tap to toggle, or hold for push-to-talk) |
| Cancel | Escape |
Meeting hotkeys can be changed in Settings > Meeting Recording. Voice typing hotkeys are in Settings > Voice Typing.
How do I move around a meeting with the keyboard?
The meeting window has a full menu bar and standard shortcuts for finding and searching — they work while a meeting is live and after it’s saved:
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Find in Transcript | ⌘F |
| Find Next / Previous | ⌘G / ⇧⌘G |
| Search Meetings | ⌘K |
| Ask About Meeting (follow-up) | ⌘L |
| Show / Hide Transcript | ⌥⌘I |
These live under the Edit ▸ Find and View menus, so they’re discoverable without memorizing them.