# Rice: Meeting notes that stay on your computer > Rice records your calls, transcribes them on your Mac and writes the notes with the Claude or ChatGPT plan you already pay for, or with a model on your Mac. No extra subscription, no bot in the call, no Rice server. Open source (MIT) · Free · No account. Updated 2026-10-13. Rice 0.4.0. https://ricenotes.app/ ## Use the AI you already pay for Rice writes the notes and answers your questions with the Claude, ChatGPT or OpenCode subscription you already have, or with a model running on your Mac. There is no Rice plan and no other app to pay for. - **Your subscription:** Claude, ChatGPT, OpenCode. Sign in once; Rice uses the plan you already have. - **A model on your Mac:** Ollama, LM Studio. Also llama.cpp, MLX and Jan. Free, and nothing leaves your computer. - **Or an API key:** Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini. Billed by the provider, only for what you use. Names and logos are trademarks of their respective owners. Rice is not affiliated with or endorsed by them. ## Install Rice Rice is built on your Mac from the source code, so macOS does not block it and there is nothing to allow by hand. Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) and macOS 14 or newer, with the Xcode Command Line Tools, Homebrew and Node.js 22. ### One command Paste this in Terminal. It clones Rice into `~/rice`, checks your setup, installs what is missing with Homebrew, builds the app and copies it to Applications. Run it again to update. ```bash curl -fsSL https://ricenotes.app/install | bash ``` Or straight from GitHub: ```bash curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WalissonCF/rice/main/get.sh | bash ``` ### Or, step by step The same thing by hand, in the folder you prefer: ```bash git clone https://github.com/WalissonCF/rice.git cd rice ./install.sh ``` ### To update Run this in the clone folder. It shows what changed, rebuilds and reopens Rice. ```bash ./update.sh ``` Then open Rice. It downloads the transcription model (about 0.6 GB) and walks you through the permissions. ### Prefer the ready-made app? - Mac (.dmg): https://github.com/WalissonCF/rice/releases/latest - Windows (Preview): https://github.com/WalissonCF/rice/releases/latest The .dmg is not notarized by Apple. After dragging Rice to Applications, install the transcription server with `brew install whisper.cpp` and allow the app in Terminal: ```bash xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Rice.app ``` Windows 10 (22H2) or 11, x64. Built and tested automatically, but not yet tried on a real PC. The installer is not signed: if SmartScreen shows “Windows protected your PC”, click **More info**, then **Run anyway**. ## What makes Rice different Rice works from your computer, not from a server. That changes who sees your meetings and what you pay for. - **No bot in the call.** Rice records your microphone and the sound coming out of your computer. Nobody new appears in the participant list, and it works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or any other app. - **Transcription on your computer.** The audio is transcribed on your machine with whisper.cpp and never leaves it. Only text goes to an AI, and only when you ask for notes or an answer. - **Your AI, your subscription.** Use the Claude or ChatGPT plan you already pay for, an API key from Anthropic, OpenAI or Google, or a model that runs on your computer, so nothing leaves it. - **Free, open source, no account.** MIT license. Rice has no servers, no sign-up and no telemetry, and you can read every line of code that touches your meetings. - **Portuguese for real.** The app, the transcription and the notes work in Portuguese as well as in English. Notes come out in the language of the meeting, with the names and acronyms you teach it. ## What Rice does Everything in this section is in the current version of Rice, and every screenshot is the app itself. ### Notes written from a template When you stop recording, Rice fills in the sections of a template: summary, decisions, next steps. Switch templates with one click, edit the ones that come with Rice or write your own. What you typed during the meeting stays in, highlighted. ### Ask across your meetings Ask about one meeting or about all of them. Rice picks the meetings that matter, answers with numbered sources, and each source opens the meeting at that passage. Ready questions such as “Summary for someone who missed it” are one click away, and you can save your own. ### Memory across meetings Rice remembers what each person and company asked for, promised and decided. Before the next call, a “What to remember” card shows the open points, each linked to the meeting it came from. The memory stays on your computer, and you can edit it, erase it or turn it off. ### Follow-ups that keep track of themselves Rice gathers what you promised and what others promised you, in every meeting, with due dates, and sorts them into overdue, today, this week and later. When someone says in a later meeting “I sent the proposal”, Rice marks it done and links the source. ### Live ideas and War room While you record, Rice can suggest ideas, questions and risks every few minutes. In War room mode it also investigates the sources you allow and lists what it finds, each with its source. ### Screenshots tied to what was said Optional and off by default. When someone says “take a look at the chart I am sharing”, Rice takes a screenshot and places it right below that sentence in the transcript. You can also attach images and files to any meeting. ### Calendar and Record now Connect the macOS Calendar or Google Calendar, read-only, and Home shows your next seven days. About a minute before a meeting, a small notice in the corner of the screen offers **Join and record**. When Zoom, Teams or a call in the browser starts using the microphone, Rice asks whether to record, with the event title filled in. **Record now** does the same from Home. ### Folders and search Keep meetings in nested folders, like a notes app. **⌘K** searches titles, notes, annotations and transcripts, ignoring accents, and opens the meeting at the exact passage. ### Pause and a global shortcut Pause for a side conversation: the microphone is released, nothing is recorded and the transcript marks the gap. **⌥⌘R** starts or stops a recording from any app, and you can change it in Settings. ### A model on your Mac Run the AI on your computer with Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp, MLX or Jan. Rice finds the server by itself and picks a model, so notes and chat cost nothing and never leave your Mac. ### Also in Rice - **A receipt for every meeting.** “What left this computer” lists each send to the AI, when and to which provider, never the content. Copy it or save it as PDF. - **Consent notice.** When recording starts, Rice suggests telling the participants and offers a ready sentence to copy, in the language of the meeting. - **Web search in the chat.** Optional and off by default. Turn on Web and the answer can cite sources from the internet. Your question goes to the provider’s search; meeting notes still go only to the AI. - **Retention per folder.** Per folder, the audio after 7, 30 or 90 days, or whole meetings after 6 months or a year, move to the Trash in a daily sweep. ## What stays on your computer, and what goes to the AI Rice has no servers. The only thing that leaves your computer is text, sent to the AI you picked, when you ask for something. ### Stays on your computer - The audio, recorded and transcribed locally - Transcripts, notes, chats and annotations, as plain Markdown files in a folder you choose - What each person asked for, promised and decided, in the memory across meetings - API keys and tokens, in the system keychain - Search, which runs on your machine - Your calendar, which is only read ### Goes to the AI you chose - The transcript, when Rice writes the notes - Your question and the relevant passages, when you use the chat - The notes of each meeting, once, to update the memory across meetings - Recent transcript text, if live ideas or automatic screenshots are on Nothing else is sent: no account, no telemetry, no error reports. Each meeting has a receipt of what left the computer, and personal data such as emails, phone and document numbers can be hidden before sending. Once a day Rice asks GitHub whether there is a new version, with an anonymous request you can turn off. **100% local mode.** With a model on your computer (Ollama, LM Studio and others), turn on 100% local mode in Settings › Privacy. Rice then talks only to your own machine and blocks every other connection, so nothing about your meetings leaves it. Details for companies and regulated teams: https://ricenotes.app/business ## Open source, MIT license All of Rice’s code is public on GitHub under the MIT license, the same code that builds the app on your Mac. - **Read it.** Every line that records, transcribes or sends text to an AI is in the repository. - **Audit it.** Check for yourself what leaves your computer, or have your security team do it. - **Change it.** Fork it, adapt it to your team and use it commercially. The license allows all of that. - **Contribute.** Report bugs, suggest features or send a pull request. - Repository: https://github.com/WalissonCF/rice - Issues: https://github.com/WalissonCF/rice/issues - MIT license: https://github.com/WalissonCF/rice/blob/main/LICENSE ## Questions about Rice ### How much does Rice cost? Rice is free and open source under the MIT license. There is no paid plan and no account. The AI part runs on your own Claude or ChatGPT subscription, or on an API key billed by the provider. ### Do I need to pay for another subscription? No. Rice uses the Claude, ChatGPT or OpenCode subscription you already pay for, or an API key from Anthropic, OpenAI or Google Gemini, billed by the provider for what you use. With a model on your Mac, such as Ollama or LM Studio, there is nothing to pay at all. ### Does Rice record meetings without a bot? Yes. Rice records your microphone and your computer’s audio, so nobody joins the call and it works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or any other app. Recording laws vary: in many places you must tell participants that the meeting is being recorded. ### Does Rice work offline? Yes, with a model on your computer. Recording and transcription are always local; with the local model (Ollama, LM Studio and others) and 100% local mode, notes and chat are too, and nothing leaves your Mac. With a cloud AI, notes and chat need the internet. ### Which AI can Rice use? Claude and ChatGPT with your subscription or an API key, Gemini with an API key, OpenCode or Antigravity with your own sign-in, or a local model through Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp, MLX or Jan. You can connect more than one and switch at any time. ### Is Rice safe for confidential meetings? The audio never leaves your computer and Rice has no servers. You can hide personal data before text is sent, mark folders as sensitive, check a receipt of what left for each meeting, or use 100% local mode so nothing leaves at all. The page for companies lists every connection Rice makes. ### Does Rice remember earlier meetings? Yes. The memory across meetings keeps what each person and company asked for, promised and decided, on your computer, and shows it before the next call. You can edit or erase any of it, or turn it off. ### Does Rice transcribe Portuguese? Yes. Transcription uses whisper.cpp with the large-v3-turbo model, which handles Portuguese and English, and the notes are written in the language of the meeting. ### Which computers does Rice run on? Macs with Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) and macOS 14 or newer. A Windows 10 and 11 version is in preview. Intel Macs are not supported yet. ### Why install Rice from Terminal? Rice is not notarized by Apple. Building it on your Mac avoids the macOS block on downloaded apps, and it takes one command in Terminal, curl -fsSL https://ricenotes.app/install | bash, which also updates Rice when you run it again. ### Where does Rice save my meetings? In a folder you choose, one subfolder per meeting, with the transcript, notes and chat as Markdown files that any app can open.