Shorthand

AI meeting notes and personal note taking using your existing AI subscription (ChatGPT, Claude, or Cursor).

Take meeting notes, think out loud, or tidy up your writing directly in Obsidian. Shorthand organizes conversations and dictated thoughts into clear notes as you speak.

• Meeting notes — capture your microphone and system audio for notes that keep up with the discussion, whether you use Zoom, Meet, Teams, or another calling app.
• Personal notes — think out loud, dictate your thoughts, or improve writing without a recording.
• Your writing style — customize how Shorthand structures and writes your notes.
• Linked transcripts — optionally save the transcript so you can revisit the original conversation.
• More AI options — connect another AI agent via ACP, choose an API provider, or use a local model with Ollama.

Live transcription runs locally using the Shorthand desktop app, which is required for note taking.

By default, Shorthand deletes recordings, transcripts, and AI agent sessions when you finish. It is free and open source.

Start here

1. Install Shorthand from Settings → Community plugins in desktop Obsidian.
2. Install and run the Shorthand desktop app.
3. In Shorthand's plugin settings, choose the note taker: Claude, ChatGPT (Codex), Cursor, another app (ACP), or your own API key.
4. Open the note you want to update, then open Shorthand panel from the command palette or microphone ribbon icon.
5. Choose Meeting for a conversation or Assisted notes for solo thinking. Stop from the panel or status bar when you are done.

Requires Shorthand 0.5.0 or newer for the OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, OpenAI-compatible, and ACP network backends.

The first start adds Shorthand's note section automatically. Turn off Automatic note scaffolding in settings if you prefer to approve it first.

What you get

• A right-sidebar panel that always shows the current state, elapsed time, and the note being updated. Below the mode cards, one quiet line names the note taker (for example "Note taker: Claude · Opus"). Click it to choose a different one for the next meeting or to check the connection. If your note taker is signed out or unreachable, the panel says what to do, and a notice at the start of a capture warns you.
• Live meeting notes that improve as new transcript arrives.
• A linked transcript note when you turn on Transcript notes.
• Enhance now for a saved transcript, or Clean up this note for writing with no transcript.
• If enhancement fails during a capture, the transcript is kept in memory and the panel offers Take notes again once you have fixed your note taker.
• In Meeting mode, a 30-second countdown you can cancel before Shorthand stops recording when the transcript suggests the meeting has ended. This applies even if Control Shorthand transcription is off or the recording began with Shorthand's hotkey. Turn it off with Detect meeting end and stop recording.

Note writing

Shorthand checks its ownership markers before every update and preserves the existing text if the note is no longer safe to change. Under Note writing, you can set your name, adjust mode-specific prompts, and choose the headings in a new note. See note-writing options.

Privacy and access

• Shorthand transcribes locally and does not collect telemetry.
• The plugin reads and updates your active note and an optional linked transcript. Claude Code may also search other notes in your vault when you choose that backend.
• The selected AI backend receives the current note and transcript. Claude, Codex, Cursor, OpenAI, Anthropic, and compatible providers use the account or endpoint you configure; Ollama and other local endpoints can keep that traffic on your machine.
• The plugin launches the local Shorthand and selected AI executables. Provider keys are stored by the Shorthand app in your operating system's credential store; the plugin never writes them to disk.

Learn more

• Advanced usage: commands, AI backends, and settings
• Contributing and building from source
• Architecture
• Support Shorthand on Stripe or GitHub Sponsors

Third-party code

The plugin's source is MIT-licensed. Its compiled main.js also bundles third-party libraries, including the non-open-source Anthropic Claude Agent SDK, copyright Anthropic PBC, used subject to Anthropic's legal agreements. The build appends an inventory and the applicable license text for every bundled dependency to main.js.

The plugin runs on desktop only. It does not include Shorthand, an AI model, or a cloud service.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.