← MalibuDictate
MalibuDictate Help
On this page
Getting startedChoose a speech engine and languageRewrite your dictationDictionary, snippets and smart formattingRecord without holding the key and keep dictation on the clipboardHow to record a meetingReferenceHow to export meetingsTroubleshooting

Getting started

Before you start

You need a Mac with macOS 15 or later. MalibuDictate checks your trial or license with a license server when it starts and then every 24 hours. If dictation is locked, see the section "The trial has ended or dictation is locked" in Troubleshooting. The speech model of the selected engine is downloaded when it is not on your Mac yet, which needs an internet connection.

Enter your email address

When you start MalibuDictate for the first time, the Settings window opens with a welcome sheet. Enter your email address and click Start Trial. The button stays disabled until the address looks valid. The sheet cannot be dismissed without an address, and the dictation keys do nothing until you have submitted one. Your free trial starts after that.

Grant microphone and accessibility access

MalibuDictate asks macOS for both permissions as soon as it starts, before the email step, so you usually see the macOS prompts before the welcome sheet. Confirm the Microphone prompt. For Accessibility, switch MalibuDictate on in the Accessibility list in System Settings; MalibuDictate checks this every 2 seconds and starts listening for the keys once it is granted. After the email step, the setup assistant opens. Click Next on the welcome page. The next page, Permissions, lists Microphone and Accessibility. A row that is already active shows Granted. For a missing permission, click Request Microphone Access or Request Accessibility Access to repeat the request, and Open System Settings to open the matching list. Click Refresh Status if a row still shows Missing. Both permissions are required: without Microphone MalibuDictate cannot hear you, without Accessibility it cannot detect the key press or insert text. Click Next.

Choose a speech engine

The last page, Choose Speech Engine, lists four engines. Parakeet TDT is selected by default; keep it and click Get Started. Then open General in the Settings sidebar and wait until the Status row in the Speech Engine section shows Ready.

Dictate your first text

Click into a text field in any app, for example a note. Hold the right Command key, speak, and release the key. While you hold it, an indicator shows that MalibuDictate is recording. No indicator appears if Visibility in the Indicator section of General is set to Never; dictation still works. After you release, the text is transcribed and pasted at the cursor with a simulated Cmd+V. By default MalibuDictate restores your previous clipboard content right after the paste; if the clipboard was empty before, there is nothing to restore and the dictated text stays on it.

Choose a speech engine and language

Open the engine settings

Click the microphone icon in the menu bar, then click Settings in the popover. The Settings window opens. Click General in the sidebar and find the Speech Engine section at the top.

Choose an engine

Pick one in the Engine menu. MalibuDictate loads the engine right away; the Status row shows Downloading..., then Loading..., then Ready. If loading fails, the row shows the error text instead.

  • Parakeet TDT: the default.
  • WhisperKit (Large v3 Turbo): runs the Whisper Large v3 Turbo model.
  • Apple SpeechAnalyzer: needs macOS 26 or later. On an earlier macOS the engine reports an error and asks you to choose Parakeet or WhisperKit.
  • Nemotron 3.5 (Streaming): use it for English only. It is a streaming model for English only (FluidAudio lists it as an English Nemotron streaming model). It ignores the Language setting. While this engine is selected, Settings shows a note that it handles English only, ignores the language setting and recommends Parakeet for other languages.

Set the language

Pick Auto-Detect (the default) or one language in the Language menu. The menu offers these languages, shown by their own names: Deutsch, English, Français, Español, Italiano, Português, Română, Polski, Čeština, Slovenčina, Slovenščina, Hrvatski, Bosanski, Русский, Українська, Беларуская, Български, Српски.

The chosen language is passed to Parakeet and WhisperKit as a hint, and the hint works differently in each. For WhisperKit it sets the language Whisper decodes in. For Parakeet it is only a script filter: it keeps the decoder from emitting characters of a wrong writing system (Latin, Cyrillic or Greek), for example Cyrillic letters in a Polish sentence. It does not make Parakeet pick the spoken language. The engine's own list of 25 European languages does not include Bosanski or Беларуская; for these two the hint only restricts the script to Latin respectively Cyrillic.

Apple SpeechAnalyzer maps the language to an Apple language. If macOS provides no matching language, it falls back silently, without an error, to your Mac's language and then to English (US). MalibuDictate's own list for this engine names only en, de, fr, es, zh, ja, ko, pt, it, nl and ru. With Auto-Detect it uses your Mac's language settings and falls back to English (US).

If you dictate in one language, a fixed language is recommended, because multilingual engines otherwise may guess between several languages.

Spoken Punctuation and Remove Filler Words know German and English only. With Deutsch or English selected, only that language's word list is used. With Auto-Detect or any other language, both lists are active. This matters for fillers: the English "um" is then also removed from German text, including the German preposition in "um 3 Uhr", because the German list deliberately does not contain "um". Select Deutsch if you dictate German with Remove Filler Words on.

Use a different engine for one app

Open Claude in the sidebar and select a profile in the left list. Under ASSIGNED APPS, click Add to assign an app (not available on the default profile, which covers all apps not assigned elsewhere). Under SPEECH ENGINE, choose an engine instead of Default (App-Setting). Dictations in the apps assigned to that profile then use that engine. The first switch can take a few seconds while the model loads.

Fix a stuck WhisperKit download

If WhisperKit stays on Loading... or reports model errors, click Reset Model Cache in the Speech Engine section. It deletes the downloaded WhisperKit model and loads the engine again, so the model downloads from scratch. The button appears only while WhisperKit is the selected engine.

Rewrite your dictation

Choose a dictation mode by key

The key you hold decides what happens to your speech. Hold the key while you speak and release it to finish.

  • Dictation key (default: Right Command) inserts the transcript without a Claude or local rewrite. This is the raw mode. The local processing afterwards still applies: dictionary corrections, filler word removal (if enabled), spoken punctuation, snippets and smart formatting.
  • Claude key (default: Right Option) rewrites the transcript with the writing profile assigned to the active app, then inserts the result.
  • Clipboard rewrite key (default: Right Control) rewrites the text that is currently on the clipboard, following what you say as an instruction (for example "make this more formal"). The result replaces the clipboard content and is pasted with Cmd+V; your previous clipboard content is not restored. With an empty clipboard you get the error "Clipboard empty — copy text first". You can also hold Control together with a raw dictation key. Holding Control together with the Claude key does not change its mode: it stays a Claude dictation.

You can change or add keys under Keys in Settings: Dictation Keys (Raw), Dictation Keys (Claude) and Clipboard Rewrite Keys. Removing every key from a group turns that mode off.

Enter your Claude API key

Claude rewriting needs your own Claude API key. Open Settings, click Claude, paste the key into the field under API KEY and click the checkmark (Save API Key). The key is kept in the macOS Keychain. The dot next to API KEY turns green once a key is saved.

With the provider Claude (Cloud) and no key saved, both the Claude key and the clipboard rewrite key stop before recording: you see the error API Key missing and, if Sounds is on, hear the error sound. You see the error only while the indicator and its text are shown: with Visibility set to Never or Show Text Feedback switched off under General > Indicator, it appears only under Last Error in Diagnostics. One exception: if you add Control to a raw dictation key after you have already pressed it, the recording is not stopped; it runs and then fails with "No Claude API Key configured". Local (Apple Intelligence) needs no key. If a request is made and then fails (for example because of a network or API error), the Claude key inserts the text after the local processing steps (dictionary, filler words, spoken punctuation, snippets and smart formatting, as far as they are enabled) without a rewrite, and a clipboard rewrite shows an error instead.

Pick a Claude model

Under the key field, choose the model used for rewriting: Sonnet 5 (Recommended), Sonnet 4.6, Sonnet 4.5 or Haiku 4.5. The default is Sonnet 5 (Recommended).

Choose where the rewrite runs

Under REWRITE PROVIDER, choose one of two options. The choice applies to both the Claude key and the clipboard rewrite key.

  • Claude (Cloud) is the default. It sends text to Anthropic's API with your API key. The request contains text only: the dictated text (for a clipboard rewrite, the clipboard text), the prompt of the active profile (for a clipboard rewrite, your spoken instruction instead), the active app's name, your vocabulary list (which includes the technical terms that come with the app unless you edited it), the Backtrack rules if Backtrack (Self-Correction) is on and, for the Claude key only, the clipboard or window title if you enabled them in the profile.
  • Local (Apple Intelligence) runs on the Mac and needs no API key or network. It requires macOS 26 or later with Apple Intelligence enabled. When it is not available, the menu is disabled and the app says so.

Local rewriting is marked experimental in the app. On very short dictations or ones that sound like a question or command, Apple's model can answer like a chatbot instead of cleaning up your text. Switch to Claude (Cloud) if that happens.

Assign apps to a writing profile

Each profile holds a rewrite prompt. The Claude key uses the profile assigned to the app you are dictating into. Apps without a profile use the profile marked "default".

  1. Open Settings and click Claude.
  2. Select a profile in the sidebar, or click the plus button (Add Profile) to create one.
  3. Under ASSIGNED APPS, click Add, search for an app or pick a running one, and click Add in the Add App sheet. An app belongs to one profile at a time; adding it to another profile moves it.
  4. Edit the text under DICTATION PROMPT. Reset restores the text of a profile that comes with the app.

The clipboard rewrite does not use these profiles. It follows your spoken instruction.

Switch profiles with trigger words and add context

In a profile, the CONTEXT section has three settings. They are empty or off until you set them.

  • Trigger Words takes a list separated by commas. Say one of the words at the start or end of a dictation with the Claude key and that profile is used for this recording, whatever app is active. The word is removed from the text.
  • Clipboard as Context gives the rewrite the current clipboard content as extra information, for example to reply to a copied message. Off by default.
  • Window Title as Context (Developer Mode) passes the title of the focused window, for example the open file name in an editor. Off by default.

Let the rewrite drop self-corrections

Turn on Backtrack (Self-Correction) under Claude if you often correct yourself while speaking. Phrases such as "actually" or "scratch that" then make the rewrite discard the previous statement and keep only the correction. It is off by default and affects rewrites only, not raw dictation.

Dictionary, snippets and smart formatting

Know the order of local processing afterwards

After transcription, MalibuDictate cleans the text on your Mac in this order: Dictionary corrections, filler words, spoken punctuation, snippets, then smart formatting. Only after that does the Claude key hand the text to the rewrite. With the provider Claude (Cloud) the text then goes to Anthropic's API, including any clipboard content that a {{CLIPBOARD}} placeholder of a snippet inserted; with Local (Apple Intelligence) it stays on your Mac. Raw dictation inserts the result of these steps directly.

Fix recurring misheard words with the dictionary

Open Settings and click Dictionary. Each correction replaces a word or phrase the speech engine writes with the text you want.

  1. Under Add Correction, enter the text the engine produces in Source (what engine transcribes) and the text you want in Replacement.
  2. Switch on Case-sensitive match if capitalization must match exactly. It is off by default.
  3. Click Add.

A correction only replaces whole words, so a short entry does not change the middle of a longer word. A new correction is marked Global and applies in every app. To limit it to certain apps, click the plus button (Assign App) on its row and pick a running app. Corrections apply in raw and Claude dictation alike.

Click Reset under Defaults to restore the corrections that come with the app. This replaces all current entries, including ones you added.

Let the app learn corrections

Switch on Learn Corrections Automatically in the Dictionary tab and the app watches the focused text field for a short time after each dictation. If you fix exactly one word by hand, the fix is added to the dictionary and listed in a separate "Auto-Learned" group. The switch is off by default. It works only in apps that expose their text through macOS Accessibility.

Expand phrases with snippets

Open Settings and click Snippets. Say the trigger phrase and it is replaced by the snippet text.

  1. Under Add Snippet, enter the phrase you will say under Trigger (what you say) and the text under Replacement (multi-line, supports placeholders).
  2. Click Add.

Use the switch on a row to disable a snippet without deleting it. Use the pencil to edit it. A new installation starts with three snippets that come with the app: "todays date" inserts the date, "current time" inserts the time and "timecode note" inserts a timecode note. Reset under Defaults brings these three back. If you installed an earlier version, your snippet list is kept as it was stored and may still contain sample snippets for a signature or an address with another person's details; edit or delete those, otherwise their trigger phrases insert those details into your text.

The following placeholders are replaced when the snippet fires: {{DATE}}, {{DATE_ISO}}, {{TIME}}, {{DATETIME}}, {{CLIPBOARD}} (the current clipboard content), {{APP}} and {{NL}} (line break). {{DATE}} and {{DATETIME}} use the day.month.year order.

If the whole dictation is exactly a trigger, the whole text is replaced. Otherwise a trigger is replaced wherever it appears as a whole word. Because snippets run before the rewrite, the Claude key rewrites the expanded text too; with Claude (Cloud) that expanded text, including clipboard content from {{CLIPBOARD}}, is sent to Anthropic's API.

Teach Claude your terms in Vocabulary

Open Settings and click Vocabulary. The terms in Custom Vocabulary are separated by commas. They are passed to the rewrite, which is told to spell them exactly as written. Type a term in Term and click Add to append it. The list starts with a prefilled set of technical terms, so replace it with your own.

In dictation, the vocabulary is used by rewrites only (Claude key and clipboard rewrite). With Claude (Cloud) the terms are sent to Anthropic's API together with the text; with Local (Apple Intelligence) the Apple model on your Mac receives them instead. For raw dictation, add a dictionary correction instead. The terms are also added to the prompt of a meeting summary when Claude writes that summary.

Show Last Dictation (section Auto-Vocabulary) is off by default. When it is on, the text that your last dictation inserted (after dictionary, snippets, formatting and rewrite) appears on this page under LAST DICTATION, so you can copy a misheard word into Add New Term. The text is captured only while the switch is on and only for dictations that insert text, not for clipboard rewrites, so the section stays empty until your next dictation.

Switch smart formatting on or off

Open Settings, click General and find Smart Formatting. These four switches run locally, without Claude and without a network connection. They also apply to raw dictation.

  • Smart Capitalization is on by default. It capitalizes the first letter of the text and of each sentence.
  • Smart Paragraphs is on by default. It splits a long dictation (at least 280 characters, without a blank line) into paragraphs of three sentences.
  • Spoken Punctuation is on by default. It turns spoken words such as "comma", "period" or "new line" into the character. Word lists exist for German and English; the Language setting picks which one is used. Auto-Detect and any fixed language other than Deutsch and English use both.
  • Remove Filler Words is off by default. It strips the English fillers um, umm, uh, uhh and erm and the German fillers äh, ähm, hm, hmm, sozusagen and quasi, every occurrence, also where the word is meant literally. The German preposition "um" is deliberately not in the German list. With Auto-Detect or any language other than Deutsch and English, both lists are active, so the English "um" is also removed from German text such as "um 3 Uhr". Select Deutsch if you dictate German.

Record without holding the key and keep dictation on the clipboard

Turn on recording without holding the key

Recording without holding the key is off by default. To enable it, open Settings, click Keys, and switch on Double-Tap to Keep Recording under Hands-Free Recording.

Start, finish or discard a recording without holding the key

  1. Press and release a dictation key quickly, then press it again right away. Recording continues after you let go.
  2. Speak.
  3. Press the key once more to finish. The text is processed and inserted as usual.
  4. To discard the recording instead, press Esc. Nothing is transcribed or inserted.

Holding a key while you speak works as before. With this option on, a quick tap (under a quarter second) that ends a recording takes effect only after a wait of about a third of a second; a second tap in that time starts a recording without holding the key instead. A key press that is part of a shortcut with another key, such as Command and C with a Command key as the dictation key, is not counted as a tap. Esc only does something in MalibuDictate while a recording without holding the key is running. The key press is not blocked: the app in front still receives it and may react to it, for example by closing a dialog.

Start a continuous recording from the popover

Click the menu bar icon, then click Record in the icon bar of the popover. MalibuDictate records in raw mode, without a rewrite by Claude, until you finish it; you do not need to hold a key. To finish, click the menu bar icon and click Stop, or press and release one of your dictation keys once. With Double-Tap to Keep Recording on, a quick tap ends the recording only after a wait of about a third of a second, and a second tap in that time starts a recording without holding the key instead. The text is then processed and inserted as usual. Esc does not cancel a recording started this way. The Record button is disabled while dictation is blocked (for example by the license check or an email address that is still pending), while a previous dictation is being processed, and for about a second after it finishes or fails.

Keep the dictated text on the clipboard after pasting

By default, MalibuDictate puts the dictated text on the clipboard, pastes it and restores your previous clipboard content right away. If the clipboard was empty before the paste, there is nothing to restore and the dictated text stays on it. To keep the dictation available for a second paste, open Settings, click General and set Keep Dictation on Clipboard under Pasting:

  • Off is the default. Your previous clipboard is restored right after pasting.
  • 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds and 30 seconds keep the dictation for that long, then restore your previous clipboard.
  • Forever (until I copy something else) never restores your previous clipboard.

The previous clipboard is restored only if nothing else was copied in the meantime. This setting applies to dictation with the dictation key and the Claude key. A clipboard rewrite always leaves its result on the clipboard.

Paste manually when a password field is focused

While a password field or another secure input is active, macOS drops the keystrokes MalibuDictate uses to paste. In that case the app does not try to paste. It leaves the dictated text on the clipboard, and you press Command and V yourself in the field you want. The text stays on the clipboard until you copy something else, whatever the Keep Dictation on Clipboard setting is.

The same applies when another app comes to the front while MalibuDictate is pasting: the dictated text stays on the clipboard so you can paste it by hand.

How to record a meeting

Know the limits first

Meeting mode is a beta and is off until you turn it on. The transcript has exactly two speakers: You is your microphone, Others is all the audio your Mac plays except MalibuDictate's own sound, mixed together: the call, but also music, other apps and notification sounds. The app does not tell individual participants apart and does not know their names. Transcription runs on this Mac; only the optional summary step can send text to Claude. Record only when all participants know and agree.

Turn on Meeting mode

Click the MalibuDictate icon in the menu bar and click Settings in the popover, then open the Meetings tab. Under Meeting Mode, switch on Enable Meeting Mode. Until you do, the rest of the tab is hidden and no meeting can start.

Check the permissions

Meeting mode needs the Microphone permission that dictation already uses; it never shows its own prompt for it. It records the input device you picked for dictation (Settings > General > Microphone > Input Device). To capture Others, macOS asks for System Audio Recording access when the first meeting starts recording. Without it only You is transcribed.

Settings > Meetings > Permissions lists the optional ones: System Audio Recording, Calendar (for calendar events with a meeting link), Notifications (asks before recording a detected meeting) and Automation (Notes & Mail) (needed only for the Apple Notes and Mail exports). They are requested only when a feature needs them.

Meeting detection is active as soon as Meeting mode is on. Under Settings > Meetings > Automatic Start, Calendar events and Meeting apps using the microphone are both set to Ask by default: the app shows a notification before it records and does not start by itself. Choose Automatic to start right away or Off to turn a source off. If you have not yet decided on Calendar access, macOS asks for it when you switch Meeting mode on while Calendar events is not Off.

Start a meeting

Click the menu bar icon, then click Meeting in the icon bar of the popover. The Meetings window opens with the New Meeting sheet, as long as no meeting is running or starting; otherwise it opens without the sheet. Meeting only appears while Meeting mode is on (see "Turn on Meeting mode"). You can also click the Meetings icon at the top of the popover, or click Open Meetings … at the top of Settings > Meetings, and then click the plus button (New Meeting, Command and N).

In the sheet, type a title (an empty title becomes "Meeting"), pick a Summary template or keep the default, and click Start Recording. The first meeting may have to download speech models; recording starts once they are ready.

Tell the participants

Click Copy Recording Notice in the sheet or in the live view, then paste the text into the call chat. The notice is in English. It says that you are transcribing the call on your Mac for your own notes. With Claude as summary provider it adds that the written transcript may be sent to an AI service (Anthropic). With Basic format (no AI) it says that audio and transcript stay on your computer. The wording follows the Provider setting, not whether an API key is saved: with Claude selected and no key, the app writes the basic format on this Mac, but the notice still says the transcript may be sent. The button reads "Copied" for two seconds.

Follow the live view

The header shows the recording state, the title and the elapsed time. Pause stops recording until you click Resume; nothing is recorded while paused. Transcript lines appear after each sentence, labeled You or Others with the meeting time. Click a line to copy it.

If the call audio cannot be captured, a warning appears and only You is recorded. If transcription falls behind, a warning says how much audio was not transcribed live; the audio is saved and you can transcribe the meeting again afterwards.

Without headphones your microphone also hears the call, so the app removes You lines that repeat what the others just said. If you wear headphones, switch on I'm using headphones (turn off the echo filter) under Settings > Meetings > Transcript.

Add notes and markers

Type into the quick note field and click Add Note. Each note is stamped with the meeting time. Click Mark to flag the current moment as important.

You can also press the marker shortcut. The default is ⌃⌥M (Control, Option and M). To change it, open Settings > Meetings > Transcript and pick another entry for Marker shortcut: ⌃⌥⇧M, ⌃⌥K or Off. The list is fixed; there is no free key recorder. The shortcut works while any app is in front and needs the Accessibility permission, like the dictation keys. Use the left Control key; with the right one alone the combination is ignored. The key press is also passed on to the app in front, so pick a combination that app does not use. Nothing happens while no meeting is recording.

Markers appear in the notes and in the transcript, and the summary treats them as important.

Stop the meeting

Click Stop (Command and period), or click the menu bar icon and click End meeting in the popover. The app saves the transcript, then writes the summary. The finished meeting has three tabs: Summary, Transcript and Notes.

In Transcript you can search and click Copy All. In Notes you can write notes as free text, which are saved automatically; the notes you typed during the meeting are listed with their times. Notes are used the next time you click Regenerate.

Choose how the summary is written

Open Settings > Meetings > Summary and pick the Provider:

  • Claude: Default. Sends the transcript and your notes to Claude (Anthropic) over the internet. It uses your own API key from the Claude tab and the model chosen there. If no key is saved, the app writes the basic format instead.
  • Basic format (no AI): Stays on this Mac. Lists your notes and the first transcript lines, without an AI summary.

The Summary tab shows which one wrote the text. The summary step is the only part of a meeting that sends text to Claude.

Use summary templates

Two templates ship with the app: Standard and Quick Recap. Choose the one new meetings use under Settings > Meetings > Summary > Default template, or pick Summary template for a single meeting in the New Meeting sheet.

For a finished meeting, open the Summary tab, pick a Template and click Regenerate (the button reads Summarize while there is no summary yet).

Click Edit Templates… to add or duplicate templates and to edit their sections; each section becomes a heading in the summary and changes save automatically. Use Add Section for another heading and Use as Default to make the template the default. A template that comes with the app cannot be deleted, but Reset restores its shipped sections.

Use the time references in a summary

Summaries cite times such as (at 12:34). MalibuDictate shows them as links. Click one and the Transcript tab opens at the nearest line, highlighted.

A warning sign after a time means the app found no matching passage in the transcript around that time, or the time lies more than 30 seconds after the end of the transcript. Check such a reference before you rely on it. The check runs on this Mac and does not call the API.

The check is a heuristic, not a verification. The rule about a missing shared content word is switched off when a summary has fewer than 3 time references or when more than 70 percent of them would be flagged. A time without a warning sign has not been confirmed as correct.

Keep or delete the recorded audio

Under Settings > Meetings > Storage, Keep recorded audio sets how long the audio files are kept: 7, 14, 30 (default) or 90 days, 1 year, or Keep forever. Only the audio is deleted after that time; transcripts, notes and summaries are always kept. The cleanup only touches finished meetings (done or failed) and counts from the time the meeting ended (from its start if there is no end time). The audio of an interrupted meeting is never deleted by it; once you click Keep As Is on such a meeting, it counts as finished. Without audio a meeting cannot be transcribed again. Expired audio is cleaned up once per app launch, when Meeting mode first becomes active: at app start with Meeting mode on, or when you switch it on during that session. The cleanup does not run again until the app is restarted. Show in Finder opens the storage location.

To remove a whole meeting, use Delete Meeting… in the menu at the top right of the meeting. It deletes the transcript, notes, summary and audio permanently.

Reference

Menu bar icon and popover

MalibuDictate runs from the menu bar, with no Dock icon by default. A click on the microphone icon opens a popover under the icon; a right click opens the same popover. There is no separate menu for the right mouse button. Click the icon again, click outside the popover, press Esc or switch to another app to close it. Clicking a command in the popover closes it, except Marker, the three switches and the choices below the icon bar.

The top row shows the app icon and the name MalibuDictate. A dot on the icon shows the state: a working dot while a dictation records or is being processed or a meeting records, a problem dot when dictation is blocked (for example by the license check or an email address that is still pending) or dictation is in an error state. During the trial a badge with the number of trial days left appears at the left end of the top row, whether or not Meeting mode is on; it is not shown once a license is active.

The icon bar under the top row has these buttons. Each shows its name as a tooltip:

  • Record: starts a continuous raw dictation, without holding a key. While it runs, the button reads Stop and is highlighted; click it to finish. Pressing and releasing a dictation key also finishes it. The button is disabled while dictation is blocked (for example by the license check or an email address that is still pending), while a previous dictation is being processed, and for about a second after it finishes or fails.
  • Copy last: copies the last inserted text to the clipboard. It is disabled until there is a last text. The text is stored only when Show Last Dictation (Settings > Vocabulary > Auto-Vocabulary, default off) is on at the moment a dictation is inserted. Switching it off later does not clear it; it stays until you quit the app. The result of a clipboard rewrite is not stored.
  • Meeting: shown only while Meeting mode is on. Opens the Meetings window with the New Meeting sheet; recording does not start until you click Start Recording there. While a meeting is running or starting, the window opens without the sheet. While a meeting records, the button reads End meeting and stops it.
  • Marker: shown only while Meeting mode is on. Disabled unless a meeting records; adds a marker to the running meeting.
  • Sounds, Pause media, History: switches at the end of the bar; a tinted button is on. They set the same options as Sounds and Pause Media During Recording in Settings > General and Enable History in Settings > History.

Below the icon bar:

  • Microphone (microphone icon, name as tooltip): the input device, the same choice as Input Device in Settings > General.
  • Rewrite: chooses Claude or Local for rewriting. Local is disabled while the model on your Mac is not available.

When Meeting mode is on, a Meetings icon at the end of the top row (tooltip Meetings) opens the Meetings window. The bottom row has an update button at the left (tooltip "Check for Updates"), which checks for a new version, then Settings (⌘,), which opens the Settings window, and Quit (⌘Q), which quits the app.

Buying is not in the popover: with no active license, Settings > License > License Key has a Buy … button that opens the purchase page in your browser.

Settings window

The Settings sidebar lists General, Keys, Claude, Vocabulary, Dictionary, Snippets, History, Meetings and License. The Meetings tab holds the meeting mode (beta) and is not covered here. The Help menu of the app menu bar contains Send Feedback …. The button at the top right of the Settings window (tooltip Status) opens a panel with the state of Microphone, Accessibility, License and the engine.

Hotkeys and defaults (Keys)

Each action has one or more keys; recording runs while you hold the key that started it.

  • Dictation Keys (Raw). Default: right Command. The text is inserted without a rewrite by Claude.
  • Dictation Keys (Claude). Default: right Option. The text is rewritten with the profile assigned to the active app.
  • Clipboard Rewrite Keys. Default: right Control. Your spoken instruction rewrites the current clipboard content. Holding Control together with a key of Dictation Keys (Raw) does the same. Holding Control together with a key of Dictation Keys (Claude) does not change the mode: it stays a Claude dictation.
  • Add Another Hotkey: adds a further key to an action; the minus button next to a key removes it. An action without keys shows No Hotkey Assigned and is disabled.
  • A warning appears when the same key occurs more than once in the three key lists together, whether in two actions or twice in one action.
  • Double-Tap to Keep Recording (section Hands-Free Recording). Default: off. Tap a dictation key twice to keep recording without holding it. Tap the key once more to finish and insert the text; press Esc to discard the recording. With this option on, a quick tap that ends a recording takes effect only after a wait of about a third of a second, because a second tap in that time starts a recording without holding the key instead.

Available keys: F1 to F16, F17, F18 and F20 (no physical key on standard Mac keyboards), the right Command, Option, Shift and Control keys, fn (Globe), and Caps Lock. When Caps Lock is assigned, MalibuDictate maps it to F19 with macOS's own tool hidutil (no extra permission). Caps Lock then no longer toggles uppercase while MalibuDictate runs; the mapping is reverted when you quit or unassign the key. fn (Globe) may only work if the macOS setting "Press fn key to" is set to "Do Nothing" in System Settings.

General: Speech Engine

  • Engine. Default: Parakeet TDT. Choices: Parakeet TDT, WhisperKit (Large v3 Turbo), Apple SpeechAnalyzer, Nemotron 3.5 (Streaming).
  • Language. Default: Auto-Detect. Otherwise one of 18 languages. Nemotron 3.5 ignores it.
  • Status: shows Not loaded, Downloading..., Loading..., Ready or an error text.
  • Reset Model Cache: shown only with WhisperKit selected. Deletes the downloaded WhisperKit model and loads it again.

General: Microphone

  • Input Device. Default: the system default input. Choose one of the listed input devices to use it instead.

General: Indicator

  • Style. Default: Notch. Choices: Notch, Overlay, Minimal.
  • Visibility. Default: During Activity. Choices: Always, During Activity, Never. Only Never has an effect (no indicator is shown); Always and During Activity behave the same.
  • Position. Default: Top (Island). Choices include Top (Island) and Bottom (Dock). It applies to the Overlay and Minimal styles only; the Notch style ignores it.
  • Show Text Feedback. Default: on.
  • Live Transcript Preview (Experimental). Default: off. It is experimental.

General: Audio

  • Sounds. Default: on.
  • Pause Media During Recording. Default: off.
  • Duck Audio During Recording. Default: off.
  • Duck Level: shown while ducking is on. Default: 20%. Range: 5% to 50%.

General: Pasting

  • Keep Dictation on Clipboard. Default: Off. Choices: Off, 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, Forever (until I copy something else).

With Off, MalibuDictate restores your previous clipboard right after the paste. If the clipboard was empty before, nothing is restored and the dictated text stays on the clipboard, with Off as well. With a time, the dictated text stays on the clipboard that long and your previous clipboard is restored afterwards (unless you copied something else meanwhile). With Forever, your previous clipboard is never restored. The restore is also skipped, and the dictated text stays on the clipboard, if the frontmost app changed or secure input became active right after the paste.

If macOS secure input is active (for example a password field has focus), MalibuDictate does not paste. The dictated text stays on the clipboard instead.

General: Smart Formatting

These run locally, without Claude or any cloud service.

  • Smart Capitalization. Default: on. Capitalizes the first letter of each sentence.
  • Smart Paragraphs. Default: on. Breaks long dictations into paragraphs at sentence boundaries.
  • Spoken Punctuation. Default: on. Turns spoken words such as "comma", "period", "new line" into the character. German and English only. With Auto-Detect or any language other than Deutsch and English, both word lists apply.
  • Remove Filler Words. Default: off. Removes the English fillers um, umm, uh, uhh and erm and the German fillers äh, ähm, hm, hmm, sozusagen and quasi. German and English only. With Auto-Detect or any language other than Deutsch and English, both lists apply, so the English "um" also removes the German preposition "um" from German text. Select Deutsch to avoid this: the German list does not contain "um".

General: Appearance

  • Preset: selects a color preset for the Settings window. The default is the Claude Colors preset.
  • Transparency: slider from 0% to 100%. Higher is darker and more opaque, lower is more transparent.

General: System and Diagnostics

  • Show Dock Icon. Default: off.
  • Check for Updates …: checks for a new version.
  • Show Onboarding Again: opens the setup assistant again.
  • Send Feedback …: opens the feedback sheet.
  • Quit MalibuDictate: quits the app.

The Diagnostics section shows Accessibility (Active, or Missing with a Request button), Event Tap, Last Key Event, Dictate Keys, Claude Keys, State and, after a failure, Last Error.

Claude

  • REWRITE PROVIDER. Default: Claude (Cloud). The other choice, Local (Apple Intelligence), runs on the Mac and needs macOS 26 or later with Apple Intelligence enabled; the menu is disabled otherwise.
  • API key: your own Claude API key, saved with the check mark button and stored in the Keychain. Claude (Cloud) needs it. With the provider Claude (Cloud) and no key saved, both the Claude key and the clipboard rewrite key show the error API Key missing instead of recording; it is visible only while the indicator and its text are shown (see General: Indicator). Exception: if you add Control to a raw dictation key after pressing it, the recording runs and fails with "No Claude API Key configured". Local (Apple Intelligence) needs no key. With Claude (Cloud) the dictated text is sent to the Claude API (api.anthropic.com).
  • Model. Default: Sonnet 5 (Recommended). Other choices: Sonnet 4.6, Sonnet 4.5, Haiku 4.5.
  • Backtrack (Self-Correction). Default: off. Phrases such as "actually" or "scratch that" discard the previous statement and keep only the correction.
  • Profiles: the list on the left; the plus button adds one. The default profile applies to all apps not assigned to another profile. Per profile: ASSIGNED APPS, SPEECH ENGINE, Trigger Words, Clipboard as Context, Window Title as Context (Developer Mode) and the DICTATION PROMPT. If the Claude request of a dictation fails (for example a network or API error), the text is inserted without a rewrite, after the local processing steps (dictionary, filler words, spoken punctuation, snippets and smart formatting, as far as they are enabled). A failed clipboard rewrite shows an error instead.

Vocabulary

  • Custom Vocabulary: a list of terms separated by commas. It is given to the rewrite (Claude or local) as correction context, so it has no effect on raw dictation. It is also added to the summary request of a meeting when Claude writes the meeting summary. The field starts with a list of technical terms that comes with the app and that you can edit.
  • Add New Term: type a term and click Add.
  • Show Last Dictation (section Auto-Vocabulary). Default: off. Shows the text that the last dictation inserted (after dictionary, snippets, formatting and rewrite) under LAST DICTATION, so you can add a misheard word as a term. The text is captured only while this switch is on and only for dictations that insert text, not for clipboard rewrites; it stays empty until your next dictation.

Dictionary

  • Corrections replace a source phrase with a replacement in every transcription, locally and before any rewrite. Whole words only. Each correction is global or assigned to specific apps.
  • Add Correction: fields source and replacement, the toggle Case-sensitive match, and Add.
  • Learn Corrections Automatically. Default: off. After a dictation, watches the focused text field for about 18 seconds and learns a single corrected word. It works only in apps that expose their text via Accessibility.
  • Defaults: Reset replaces all corrections, including ones learned automatically, with the defaults that come with the app after a confirmation.

Snippets

  • A snippet expands a spoken trigger phrase into a replacement text. If the whole dictation equals a trigger, the whole text is replaced; otherwise the trigger is replaced inside the text.
  • Add Snippet: fields trigger and replacement (several lines), the toggle Case-sensitive trigger (default: off), and Add.
  • Placeholders in a replacement: {{DATE}}, {{DATE_ISO}}, {{TIME}}, {{DATETIME}}, {{CLIPBOARD}} (current clipboard content), {{APP}} (active app name), {{NL}} (line break).
  • Defaults: Reset replaces all snippets with the defaults that come with the app after a confirmation. The list that comes with the app has three snippets: "todays date", "current time" and "timecode note". An installation from an earlier version keeps its stored list, which may still contain sample snippets for a signature or an address with another person's details; edit or delete those.

History

  • Enable History. Default: off. When on, each dictation is stored locally with its text, time and target app. It never leaves your Mac.
  • Search history: filters the entries by text or app name.
  • Delete All: removes all entries after a confirmation; the x button on an entry removes that entry.

License

  • A free trial starts when you submit your email address; after the trial a license key is required.
  • Check Again: checks the license status now. MalibuDictate also checks once a day.
  • Redeem License Key …: enter the license key from your purchase confirmation. This works before the trial ends, too.
  • Switch Device …: frees the activation of this Mac so you can redeem the same key on another Mac. Dictation is locked here afterwards until you redeem the key again.
  • Tester Email and Device ID: the stored email address and an ID you can give to support. Copy copies the ID.
  • When the trial or license has expired, dictation is locked and the Settings window shows a sheet that cannot be dismissed. Buy Now opens the purchase page.

Requirements and limits

  • macOS 15 or later.
  • Apple SpeechAnalyzer needs macOS 26 or later. Local (Apple Intelligence) rewriting needs macOS 26 or later with Apple Intelligence enabled.
  • Microphone and Accessibility permission are required for dictation.
  • An internet connection is needed for model downloads and for Claude (Cloud) rewrites. The license check also uses it and repeats every 24 hours; offline, a first check with nothing cached yet blocks you (for other blocking messages see Troubleshooting).
  • Claude (Cloud) needs your own Claude API key.
  • Text is inserted with Cmd+V into the focused field. While macOS secure input is active, the text stays on the clipboard.
  • The Language menu offers 18 languages. Nemotron 3.5 (Streaming) ignores it and supports English only; use it for English only. While Nemotron is the selected engine, Settings shows a note that recommends Parakeet for other languages.
  • On macOS 15.4 or later, clipboard rewrite fails with an error when macOS is set to always deny this app's clipboard access; the error points to System Settings, Privacy & Security, Paste from Other Apps. Earlier macOS versions do not have this error.

How to export meetings

Save one meeting as a Markdown file

Open the meeting, choose the Summary tab and click Save as .md in the bar at the bottom. Pick a location in the save panel. The suggested name is the start date and the title, for example 2026-09-27 Weekly Sync.md.

The file starts with the title as a heading, followed by lines for date, duration and app, and then a summary section, a notes section and a transcript section. Empty parts are left out. This file has no YAML header. If the summary was written in the basic format, the summary section is left out, because your notes and the full transcript follow anyway. The button also works while the meeting has no summary yet.

Copy the summary or send it to Apple Notes or Mail

The other buttons in the same bar need a finished summary:

  • Copy Markdown: Copies the summary as Markdown to the clipboard.
  • Apple Notes: Creates a note in the default Notes account with the title, the summary and the transcript.
  • Mail Draft: Opens a new, unaddressed message in Mail. The subject is "Follow-up: " followed by the meeting title, or just "Follow-up" if the title is empty. The body starts with "Hi all," and the line "Here are the key points from our meeting" with the title in quotation marks (without a title if it is empty), then the summary as plain text, and ends with "Best,". It is never sent automatically; you add recipients and send it yourself.

The first time you use Apple Notes or Mail Draft, macOS asks whether MalibuDictate may control that app. If access is denied, the app says so and shows Open Automation Settings. Turn the app on under MalibuDictate in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation, then try again.

Export finished meetings to a folder automatically

This is off by default. Open Settings > Meetings > Export (the section is shown while Meeting mode is on), switch on Export finished meetings to a folder and click Choose Folder …. The folder row shows the chosen path, or "No folder chosen".

From then on, each meeting that finishes while the switch is on is saved once as a Markdown file with its summary, notes and transcript. A meeting counts as finished when it is marked as done. That happens when the summary step succeeds (also with the basic format), when you click Keep As Is on an interrupted meeting (no summary step runs), and after you transcribe the meeting again; each of these can write a file. If the summary fails, the file is written after a successful Try Again. After an export, the Export section shows the file name as "Last export".

  • Existing files are never replaced or deleted.
  • Meetings that finished before you turned the export on are not exported.
  • A meeting is written once; summarizing it again later does not write a second file.
  • A meeting without any transcript text and without notes (free text or typed) writes no file; markers alone do not count.

How the files are named

Each file is named YYYY-MM-DD Title.md, with the day the meeting started and the meeting title. The characters /, : and \ in the title are replaced by -; an empty title becomes "Meeting"; a file name longer than 200 bytes (without .md) is shortened.

If a file with that name already exists, the new file gets a number: YYYY-MM-DD Title 2.md, then 3, and so on. The save panel of Save as .md suggests the same day and title with the same character replacement, but never shortens a long title and never adds a number.

What the YAML header contains

Files from the folder export start with a YAML header between two --- lines, meant for a notes app such as Obsidian. The key names and the fixed values cannot be changed in the app. The body below the header is the same as in Save as .md.

  • title: The meeting title in quotes; "Meeting" if empty.
  • art: Always notiz.
  • thema: A list with the fixed entries besprechung and meeting-notes.
  • quelle: Always the fixed text "Malibu Diktat".
  • datum: The day the meeting started, as YYYY-MM-DD.
  • uhrzeit: The start time, as "HH:MM".
  • dauer_min: The duration in whole minutes, rounded up, as a number.
  • app: The app the meeting was recorded in. Only written when it is known.
  • meeting_id: The unique ID of the meeting.
  • vertraulich: Always true. A constant marker the app writes for tools for notes apps; the app itself does not use it.
  • blockwerk: Always true. A constant marker the app writes for tools for notes apps; the app itself does not use it.

When the folder is not available

If the folder is missing, is not a folder or sits on a volume that is not connected, the Export section shows "The export folder is not available" with the path. The app never creates the folder for you. The meeting is kept and written later: when the next meeting finishes, when you turn the export on or choose a folder, and when Meeting mode first becomes active in a session (at app start with Meeting mode on, or when you switch it on).

If the export is on but no folder is chosen, the section says: "Choose a folder, otherwise finished meetings are kept and written once you do." Other problems, such as a file that could not be written, are shown in the same place.

Synced folders leave the Mac

Meetings are stored on this Mac. Text leaves it in these cases: the summary step sends the transcript and your notes to Claude (Anthropic) when the summary provider is Claude and an API key is saved; the app's own wording is "Only the summary step sends text to Claude, if selected above." Apple Notes and Mail Draft hand the content to those apps. And exported files are ordinary files: if the export folder is synced, for example by a cloud drive or inside a notes vault, they leave this Mac with it. The exported files contain the summary, your notes and the full transcript.

Troubleshooting

The engine is stuck on "Loading..." or shows model errors

Open Settings > General > Speech Engine. The Status row shows the state of the selected engine. If the engine is WhisperKit (Large v3 Turbo), a row appears with the question "Stuck on "Loading..." or seeing model errors?" and the button Reset Model Cache. Click it: the app deletes the downloaded WhisperKit model and loads the engine again, so the model downloads from scratch. The button only resets WhisperKit and is not shown for the other engines.

Nothing is inserted, or the hotkeys do not react

Both need the Accessibility permission. Open Settings > General > Diagnostics. If Accessibility shows "Missing", click Request and allow MalibuDictate in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility. Event Tap shows "Error" while the key listener could not start, and Last Key Event shows the last key press the app saw. If the permission was missing when the app started, the app notices the grant within a couple of seconds and reinstalls the hotkeys; you do not have to restart it.

To see the permission step again, click Show Onboarding Again under Settings > General > System.

Until the email address of the trial has been submitted, the keys do nothing either; see the section on the email request below.

Dictation fails with a microphone error

If the microphone permission is missing, the indicator shows "Microphone permission denied" and no recording starts. The permission can be withdrawn while the app keeps running, for example in System Settings or after an update relaunch, so the app checks it right before each recording start. Allow MalibuDictate under System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone. The onboarding sheet (Settings > General > System > Show Onboarding Again) has the buttons Request Microphone Access and Open System Settings.

"Microphone unavailable" means the permission is there but the recording could not start. Check the device under Settings > General > Microphone > Input Device.

The text is not pasted and stays on the clipboard

When a password field has focus, macOS blocks simulated key presses (secure input). MalibuDictate then does not try to paste; it puts the dictated text on the clipboard instead. Click into a normal field and press Command and V.

The same happens when another app or a system dialog takes focus during the paste: the dictated text is kept on the clipboard instead of restoring your previous clipboard.

After a normal paste, Keep Dictation on Clipboard under Settings > General > Pasting controls how long the dictated text stays on the clipboard before your previous clipboard comes back.

"API Key missing" appears with a Claude key

If you press a Claude dictation key or the clipboard rewrite key while Claude (Cloud) is the rewrite provider and no API key is saved, no recording starts and the indicator shows "API Key missing". You see it only while the indicator and its text are shown: with Visibility set to Never, or with Show Text Feedback switched off (both under Settings > General > Indicator), the message is visible only under Last Error in Diagnostics. The error text for a Claude request without a key is "No Claude API Key configured".

One exception: if you add Control to a raw dictation key after you have already pressed it, the recording is not refused. It runs and then fails with "No Claude API Key configured". Last Error under Settings > General > Diagnostics shows the last such message.

Open Settings > Claude, paste your key into the field below API KEY and click the checkmark button (Save API Key). Alternatively, switch REWRITE PROVIDER to Local (Apple Intelligence) if it is available on your Mac.

If a Claude request fails for another reason, for example the network, a normal dictation inserts the text after the local processing steps (dictionary, filler words, spoken punctuation, snippets and smart formatting, as far as they are enabled) without a rewrite, not the plain transcript.

Local rewrite is not available

Under Settings > Claude, the REWRITE PROVIDER picker is disabled and says that "Local" needs macOS 26 or later with Apple Intelligence enabled. Local (Apple Intelligence) works only when the model on your Mac is ready. If Local was selected and then became unavailable, the selection stays on Local and the picker stays disabled, so you cannot switch to Claude (Cloud) in this state; the app does not fall back to Claude (Cloud) on its own. A normal Claude dictation then inserts the text after the local processing steps (dictionary, filler words, spoken punctuation, snippets and smart formatting, as far as they are enabled) without a rewrite, and a clipboard rewrite reports "Apple Intelligence is not available on this Mac". To get rewriting back, use macOS 26 or later and enable Apple Intelligence; the picker works again as soon as the model on your Mac is ready.

The app labels the local provider "Experimental": on very short dictations or dictations that sound like a question or a command, such as "yes", "stop" or "can you...", the Apple model sometimes replies like a chatbot instead of just cleaning up the text. The settings text suggests using Claude if that happens.

The trial has ended or dictation is locked

When the license check blocks the app, a sheet that cannot be dismissed says so and "Dictation is locked". It offers Buy Now, Check Again, I already have a license and Lost your license key?. A recording start is refused and shows the same message.

Settings > License > Status shows the state, for example "Trial — 12 days left" or "Trial/license expired — contact support for a renewal". If you bought a license, click Redeem License Key … and enter the key; this also works before the trial ends. If the key is already used on the maximum number of devices, click Switch Device … on the old Mac first: it frees the activation there, and dictation is locked on that Mac until you redeem the key again. To buy before the trial ends, click Buy … under License Key in the same tab; it is shown while no license is active. The Device ID section shows the ID support asks for.

The check itself can produce these messages:

  • "Your system clock appears to have moved backward. Please correct it and try again."
  • "Couldn't verify your license yet — please connect to the internet once."
  • "A license check failed integrity verification. Please contact support."
  • "A license check returned mismatched data for this device. Please contact support."
  • "The license key on file is invalid or has been revoked. Please contact support."

The Status row of Settings > License can also read "Access revoked — contact support". For the last three messages and for the revoked status, the app only tells you to contact support.

The app asks for an email address and the keys do nothing

On first launch a sheet that cannot be dismissed asks for your email address to start the free trial. Enter a valid address and click Start Trial. Until you do, the keys do nothing. The address is shown afterwards in Settings > License > Tester Email. Meetings are refused with "Enter your email in MalibuDictate's settings before recording." until the address is entered.

Caps Lock behaves differently

When you assign Caps Lock to a dictation key (the Caps Lock entry in the key lists under Settings > Keys), MalibuDictate remaps it to F19 with macOS's own tool hidutil, so that it works as a normal hold key. While the app runs, Caps Lock no longer toggles uppercase and its light stays off. The remap applies to every keyboard connected to the Mac and needs no extra permission, but the app still needs the Accessibility permission to see the key. Caps Lock returns to normal when you quit the app normally or remove it from all key lists. The revert does not run after a crash or a force quit: Caps Lock then stays mapped to F19 and does nothing useful until the app is started again or you restart or log out of the Mac.

The Meetings window says Meeting mode is off or unavailable

"Meeting Mode Is Off" and "Meeting mode is off. Turn it on in Settings → Meetings to record." mean that Enable Meeting Mode is off. Turn it on under Settings > Meetings.

"Meetings Unavailable" appears when Meeting mode is on but the meeting library could not be opened; the message names the reason. Click Try Again, or Open Settings.

A meeting does not start

If the license check blocks the app or the email is missing, the meeting is refused with that message; see the sections above. If the message ends in "Microphone access has not been granted", allow MalibuDictate under System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone and start again.

Only "You" appears in the transcript

The live view shows "Other participants' audio is not being captured" or "No system audio captured yet". The app then records only your microphone. Typical causes are that System Audio Recording access is denied, that the default output is an aggregate device or a device with several outputs, or that the call plays on another device.

Open Settings > Meetings > Permissions, click Open System Settings on the System Audio Recording row and allow MalibuDictate under Privacy & Security > Screen & System Audio Recording. Make sure the call plays on your default output device.

Some of your own sentences are missing from a transcript

Without headphones your microphone also hears the call. The echo filter then removes You lines that repeat what Others just said, so a sentence that closely matches the call audio can disappear. If you wear headphones, switch on I'm using headphones (turn off the echo filter) under Settings > Meetings > Transcript; the filter is then off for new meetings. The app also detects Bluetooth headphones and the headphone jack when a meeting starts.

The summary is missing or says "Basic format (no AI)"

If Claude is the summary provider but no API key is saved, the app writes the basic format without telling you in a message; the Summary tab then ends with "Basic format (no AI)". Save your key under Settings > Claude, open the meeting and click Regenerate.

If the summary failed, the Summary tab shows the reason, for example "Network error: …" or "Claude API error (…)", and Try Again. The transcript and notes are kept. A meeting with no transcript and no notes reports that there is nothing to summarize.

A meeting shows "Interrupted"

After the app quit or crashed during a recording, the meeting shows a banner that begins "The recording was interrupted. The transcript saved so far is kept" and says whether audio was recovered. Click Re-transcribe from Saved Audio to transcribe the saved audio again, or Keep As Is. The first button appears only while the audio files of the meeting still exist. The Keep recorded audio cleanup does not touch the audio of an interrupted meeting; once you click Keep As Is, the meeting counts as finished and its audio can expire under that setting, after which transcribing it again is no longer possible.

The folder export writes nothing

Check Settings > Meetings > Export:

  • "No folder chosen": click Choose Folder …. Finished meetings are kept and written once you do.
  • "The export folder is not available": the folder is missing or its volume is not connected. The app never creates it; the meeting is retried later.
  • "Meetings exported earlier may be written again": the app could not read its list of exported meetings, so a file may be written a second time.
  • No message and no file: the meeting finished before you turned the export on, or it had no transcript text and no notes (markers alone do not count).

Apple Notes or Mail refuses the export

The message says that MalibuDictate isn't allowed to control Notes or Mail. Click Open Automation Settings and turn the app on under MalibuDictate in Privacy & Security > Automation, then try again. If Notes or Mail cannot be launched, the message says that the app could not be reached.

Written for version 0.10.10.