Meeting notes without a bot
Recording starts from your calendar or when Whimbrel hears a call begin. You get a transcript with speakers, notes blended with your own, and decisions and action items when the meeting ends.
How meeting capture works →Desktop AI assistant for Mac & Windows
The AI assistant that remembers your work.
Whimbrel records your meetings without a bot, keeps a private, searchable memory of what you worked on, and turns it into briefings, answers, and follow-ups.
Meeting notes
What we heard
- Customer targets a Q3 implementation window.
- Pricing needs VP approval before the next review.
- Follow up with a rollout plan and security questionnaire.
Open questions
- Who owns final implementation sign-off?
Ask about this meeting… Send ↑
Live transcript
10:17 · ThemWe want to confirm the rollout timeline before we commit.
10:18 · YouI’ll map the decision path.
10:19 · ThemThat would let us move to a Q3 implementation discussion.
Bot-free captureZoom, Teams, Meet, Slack huddles, and in-person.
Text, not screenshotsA memory of your work that stays light and searchable.
Local firstYour data lives on your machine. Sync is end-to-end encrypted.
Any modelOllama on-device, or your own Anthropic, OpenAI, or Gemini key.
Features
One assistant that sees the whole picture of your work.
Meeting tools only hear your calls. Search tools only see your files. Whimbrel captures both, and everything it does downstream gets better because of it.
Screen memory, as text
Whimbrel reads the text of the window you are working in and builds a timeline of everything you saw and wrote. Find that number, that thread, that doc, without remembering where it was.
How screen memory works →Ask your work history
"What did we decide about pricing with Acme?" Chat answers from your own meetings, screen history, and email, and cites the moment each answer came from.
Routines that brief you
Scheduled routines prepare you before each meeting, recap your day at the end of it, protect focus time on your calendar, and summarize your week.
See routines →Connected to your tools
Gmail, Google Calendar, and Outlook 365 connect in a click. Whimbrel is built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), and other AI tools can query your Whimbrel memory through its local MCP server.
One timeline, every device
Use Whimbrel on your work laptop and your desktop, Mac or Windows. Each device adds to one end-to-end encrypted timeline, labelled with where it happened.
How it works
Install it once. Then just work.
Install and grant access
A guided setup walks you through each permission Whimbrel needs, such as microphone and screen text, and explains why.
Work the way you do now
Whimbrel captures meetings and screen text in the background. Pause it from the menu bar or tray whenever you like.
Ask, brief, follow up
Search your history, ask questions with citations, and let routines draft the recap and the follow-up email.
Product tour
See Whimbrel in under a minute.
Privacy by architecture
Your memory belongs on your machine.
An assistant that remembers everything has to be one you can trust with everything. Whimbrel is built so that trust does not depend on a promise.
- Stored locallyMeetings, transcripts, and screen history live in a database on your own computer.
- End-to-end encrypted syncDevice keys never leave your devices. The sync service stores only ciphertext.
- You choose where AI runsKeep everything on-device with Ollama, or route chosen work to the hosted model you pick.
- Exclusions and retentionExclude apps from capture and set how long history is kept.
- Open sourceApache 2.0, with no telemetry. Read how it works, or run your own sync relay.
Download
Available for Mac and Windows.
Whimbrel for Mac
- Requires
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple silicon (M1 or newer)
- Install
- Signed and notarized by Apple
- Updates
- Automatic, in the background
Whimbrel for Windows Early access
- Requires
- Windows 11, 64-bit (x64)
- Install
- Per-user installer, no admin rights needed
- Updates
- Automatic, signature-verified
Get early access
Register to download Whimbrel.
Tell us a little about yourself and your download starts right away. Early-access users get a direct line to the team building it.
- Free and open source
- No credit card
- We never sell or share your details
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Is Whimbrel the app that used to be called Kestrel?
Yes. Kestrel was renamed Whimbrel in October 2026. Installed copies update themselves to the new name, and your meetings, notes, settings and sync stay exactly as they are.
Does a bot join my meetings?
No. Whimbrel records system audio and your microphone directly on your computer, so nothing joins the call and other participants see no extra attendee. It works with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Slack huddles, and in-person conversations.
Where is my data stored?
On your own computer, in a local database. If you turn on sync between your devices, the data is end-to-end encrypted before it leaves the machine, so the sync service only ever stores ciphertext. See the privacy page for what the website itself collects.
Which AI models does Whimbrel use?
Your choice. Run models fully on your machine with Ollama, or bring your own API key for Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google Gemini. Routing lets you keep sensitive work on a local model while using a hosted model for everything else.
Does Whimbrel take screenshots of my screen?
No. Screen memory reads the text of the window you are working in through the operating system's accessibility interfaces, which is lighter and more private than storing images. You can exclude any app from capture.
Is Whimbrel free?
Yes, and open source under the Apache 2.0 license. Every feature in the app is free, with local models or your own AI key. Planned paid plans only cover servers we run for you, such as hosted sync for any number of devices; see pricing and open source.
Which computers are supported?
Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or newer) running macOS 14 Sonoma or later, and 64-bit PCs running Windows 11. Intel Macs are not supported.
Is it legal to record my meetings?
Recording-consent laws differ by country and state, and some require every participant to agree. Whimbrel shows when it is recording, but you are responsible for telling participants and getting consent where the law requires it.