Your workday, written down.
Meeting notes and a daily work log, made on your Mac. Local-first, private, open source and free.
macOS 14.6+ on Apple Silicon.
10:02:14 me The venue quote came in at 4,800. That's over budget.
10:02:21 Lena I can ask for the smaller room. Saves about a thousand.
10:02:30 me Can you get the new quote by Thursday?
10:02:33 Lena Sure, I'll send it Thursday morning.
## Next steps
- Lena: new quote for the smaller room, Thu
- Me: send the guest list to the caterer, Fri
## Decisions
- Keep the venue under 4,000
## Topics
- Venue quote 4,800, about 800 over budget
## Spring event
- Email: venue quote from the hotel
- Meeting: Event planning with Lena
- Open: final guest count
## Hiring
- Read 3 applications, 2 to interview
> what did Lena promise this week?
A new quote for the smaller room
by Thursday (Event planning, Tue 10:02).
Parakeet + Ollama · on your Mac · no bot joins the callNO CLOUD
Local-first
Transcription and notes run on your Mac. Works offline.
Private
No account, no bot in the call, no telemetry. Plain files in
~/merkwerk.Open source
MIT licensed. Every binary is built in public CI.
Free
No subscription, no seats, no minutes to run out of.
The app. Next steps first, then decisions.
How it compares.
| merkwerk | Granola | Otter, Fireflies | Screenpipe | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stays on your device | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| No bot in the call | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Daily work log | Text only | No | No | Screen recording |
| Works offline | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Price | Free | Per seat | Per seat | Paid |
From the vendors' public pages, November 2026. Product names are trademarks of their owners; merkwerk is not affiliated with them.
Install. Two commands.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ArzelaAscoIi/merkwerk/main/install.sh | shthe appollama pull gemma4notes modelBinaries are built by public CI with build attestations. Intel Mac? Build with cargo. Only record people who agreed to it; merkwerk asks before each call.