> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.stenoai.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Steno documentation

> Steno records, transcribes, and summarizes your meetings entirely on-device. Your audio never leaves your Mac.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Quick start" icon="bolt" href="/getting-started/what-is-steno">
    Install Steno and make your first recording in five minutes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Privacy" icon="shield" href="/privacy/how-on-device-works">
    How on-device processing works and what never leaves your Mac.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Models" icon="microchip" href="/models/transcription-models">
    Choose the right Whisper and Ollama models for your hardware.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Compare" icon="scale-balanced" href="/compare/local-vs-cloud">
    Local vs cloud meeting AI -- trade-offs and when to use each.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Changelog" icon="clock-rotate-left" href="/changelog">
    See what's new in the latest Steno releases.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## What is Steno?

Steno is a macOS app that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings using AI models that run entirely on your device. There are no cloud uploads and no accounts required -- your recordings, transcripts, and summaries are never sent anywhere by default. Steno checks for updates periodically and sends anonymous usage analytics (no meeting content, can be turned off in Settings); all recording, transcription, and summarization stays on your device by default.

Your audio, transcripts, and summaries are stored locally in `~/Library/Application Support/stenoai/`.

## How it works

<Steps>
  <Step title="Record">
    Capture microphone audio, system audio (both sides of a call), or both.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Transcribe">
    Whisper runs locally to produce a verbatim transcript with speaker labels.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Summarize">
    A local language model generates structured notes: summary, topics, action items.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Query">
    Ask questions about any saved note from the inline ask bar.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Trusted by users at AWS, Deliveroo, Tesco, HashiCorp, Rutgers, and the European Union.

Open source under the MIT license -- [github.com/ruzin/stenoai](https://github.com/ruzin/stenoai).