Taking Notes Agent

Electron desktop app for CTM-style calls: capture browser tab audio + microphone, save call audio locally, transcribe with Groq (free tier, Whisper Large v3 Turbo), fill structured intake templates with Llama 3.3 70B, and review/edit sessions with a collaborative AI-style workflow.

Current features

• AI collaborator UX in Home (processing console + guided next steps)
• Recording flow: capture source picker + mic/system audio mix (Windows)
• Auto processing after stop:
  • transcription
  • template structuring
  • validation warnings
• Session History:
  • client-first list
  • transcript + template review/edit
  • deterministic Full paragraph output format
• Changelog tab in-app (reads CHANGELOG.md)

Visual demo

Home - AI Processing Console

History - Transcript + Template Workspace

Changelog Tab

Templates

The app currently supports 3 templates:

• generalNewClients
• lemonLaw
• uberRequest

detailedNarrative was removed and legacy records are normalized to supported templates when loaded.

Requirements

• Windows (primary target), Node 18+
• Chrome/Edge: when recording, share the CTM tab and enable tab audio

Setup

npm install

Copy .env.example to .env in the project folder or put .env in the app userData folder (same place SQLite is created) if you prefer not to store keys next to source.

Required:

• GROQ_API_KEY — free key at https://console.groq.com (no card required). Add it to your actual .env, not just .env.example.

Optional (for email):

• SMTP_HOST, SMTP_PORT, SMTP_SECURE (true for 465), SMTP_USER, SMTP_PASS, SMTP_FROM

Note: SMTP variables are optional and currently the in-app email send action is disabled in the UI.

Run (dev)

npm run dev

Build

Compile the app (output in out/):

npm run build

Create a Windows installer under release/:

npm run dist

Trial build (3-day read-only expiry after install): same installer flow, but the packaged app enforces a 3-day trial (recording + AI blocked after expiry; History + email still work). Development (npm run dev) never enables the trial.

npm run dist:trial

Trial packaging uses the product name Taking Notes Agent Demo so it is easy to tell apart from the normal build: installer release/Taking Notes Agent Demo Setup <version>.exe, unpacked app release/win-unpacked/Taking Notes Agent Demo.exe (version comes from package.json).

Windows EPERM unlink on better_sqlite3.node: That file is locked while Electron is running (for example npm run dev, the Taking Notes Agent window, or another Cursor terminal that started the app). Quit the app and stop the dev server, then run npm run dist or npm run dist:trial again. Native better-sqlite3 is rebuilt for Electron on npm install (postinstall); packaging is configured not to run a second rebuild that would delete that loaded .node file.

After changing the electron devDependency version, run npm run rebuild:native once before packaging.

Data & privacy

Sessions (audio file, transcript, template JSON, profile name, timestamps) are stored under the Electron userData directory. Recording laws and employer/CTM policies are your responsibility; the UI includes a short notice.

Routing

Edit resources/routing.json to map templateId → recipient emails (defaults mirror DTLA-style Zapier robot addresses from training material).

Changelog and app versioning

Generate/update changelog and bump patch version:

node scripts/generate-changelog.mjs

What it does:

• updates CHANGELOG.md using commits from main
• bumps package.json version by patch (x.y.z -> x.y.(z+1))
• writes newest block first using:
  • ## [vX.Y.Z] - YYYY-MM-DD
  • Summary
  • categorized sections

Scripts

• npm run dev — electron-vite dev (trial off)
• npm run build — compile + pack
• npm run dist — production installer (trial off)
• npm run dist:trial — production installer with 3-day trial enabled
• npm run typecheck — TypeScript checks