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Listen mode

Toby records microphone and/or system audio on macOS, saves recordings under ~/.toby/listen/recordings/<recording-id>/, and can transcribe them with your configured transcription provider.

Record in Toby.app​

Use Record Audio (or equivalent recording controls) in Toby.app. Capture runs inside the app so Microphone and Screen/System Audio permissions stay tied to Toby.app’s bundle identity.

While a recording is in progress, open Recordings in the sidebar and select the in-progress row to see live capture details and use Stop Recording there—the same stop action as the toolbar button and menu bar. Starting a recording while you are already in Recordings selects that take.

By default Toby records both your microphone and system audio (other apps such as meetings). You can turn either source off under Settings → Transcription (Record microphone / Record system audio).

For a live transcript, select Apple — On Device under Settings → Transcription → Provider, then start a recording. The active recording shows microphone and system-audio text as it arrives. Recent words may change before becoming final. Recognition runs on your Mac without an API key; the first use may download language assets before capture begins. See Transcription settings for language support and setup.

When you stop and save:

  1. Capture stops immediately. Long recordings then take a while to prepare final audio (especially when both mic and system tracks were captured). Toby shows a processing state — not the red live-recording indicator — on the toolbar, sidebar, menu bar, Dock, and Recordings window. Pressing Stop or Record again during this step does nothing; wait for the “Processing recording” toast to finish.
  2. Source tracks (mic.wav / system.wav) and a combined.m4a file are written under the recordings folder. If both sources were captured, combined is stereo dual-mono (left = your mic, right = system audio)—not a mix that stacks both onto one channel (that causes echo from headphone bleed). Raw tracks are always kept.
  3. Toby saves the finalized Apple live transcript, or requests transcription through the local service using your selected provider. A completed live transcript does not require another transcription pass.
  4. Once transcription succeeds, Toby deletes the recording's audio files by default (Delete audio after transcription, under Settings → Transcription). The recording entry, transcript, and any summary are kept; audio is kept instead when transcription fails or the setting is off. You can also delete just the audio at any time with Delete Audio in the Recordings toolbar (disabled when the recording has no audio). A recording without audio cannot be re-transcribed.
  5. The result appears in the Recordings window (transcript, summary, delete). Opening a long recording shows the window title and date subtitle immediately; the transcript, summary, and player fill in after a short skeleton so the window stays responsive. Use Edit Recording to rename the take, inspect metadata, and play audio. The player defaults to System (clean meeting audio) and can switch to Mic or Both (L/R) when available. Summary and transcript are separate tabs. When the transcription model returns timed segments, the transcript tab shows start timestamps on each line (for example [0:12] …); Copy transcript includes those times.

Summarize a recording​

After a recording is transcribed, open it in Recordings and use Summarize (or Re-Summarize if a summary already exists) in the toolbar, or the Summarize link on the Summary tab when no summary exists yet. Toby generates a concise markdown summary with the persona you choose under Settings → Transcription → Persona for recording summaries (or your default persona). The summary is stored with the recording and shown on the Summary tab. While Toby is generating the summary, the Summary card shows a rainbow outline; if a summary already exists, that text stays visible until the new one arrives.

You can still start a chat about a recording for deeper Q&A.

Retry transcription​

If a recording failed to transcribe or you changed your transcription settings:

  1. Open Recordings in the sidebar.
  2. Select the recording.
  3. Use Transcribe / Re-Transcribe in the Recordings toolbar (or ask in chat to re-transcribe that recording).

Re-transcribing clears any existing summary so it cannot outlive a new transcript. Run Summarize again after re-transcription if you still want a summary.

Permissions​

Depending on selected sources, macOS may request Microphone, Screen/System Audio Recording, and related permissions for Toby.app.

Transcription settings​

Provider, model, and API key for speech-to-text are under Settings → Transcription, along with the persona used for recording summaries. See Transcription.