transcriptor/README.md

transcriptor

Native macOS app for fully local, no-cloud meeting transcription. Download, unzip, run — the only runtime download is the ASR model itself (see CLAUDE.md for how the app is built).

Installing from a downloaded release

Grab transcriptor-vX.Y.Z.app.zip from the releases page, unzip it, and drag transcriptor.app to /Applications.

The app is signed with a self-signed identity (sttlab-apps), not an Apple Developer ID — there's no paid Apple account behind this project. macOS's Gatekeeper doesn't trust that signature by default, so on first launch of a version downloaded from a browser (which macOS marks with a quarantine flag) you'll likely see it refuse to open, or ask to move it to the bin. Pick one of the two options below to get past that — you don't need both.

Option 1 — Trust the sttlab-apps certificate

This tells your Mac to trust anything signed by this specific certificate going forward, so you won't need to repeat this for future versions of the app (as long as it keeps being signed with the same identity).

1. Get the certificate: sttlab-apps.cer (ask for it, or export it yourself if you have access to the machine it was created on: `security find-certificate -c "sttlab-apps" -p

   sttlab-apps.cer`).

2. Import it into your login keychain:

   security import sttlab-apps.cer -k ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db
   

3. Trust it, but only for code signing (not as a general root CA):

   security add-trusted-cert -r trustRoot -p codeSign \
     -k ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db sttlab-apps.cer
   

   macOS will prompt for your login password — that's it asking permission to change keychain trust settings, not this command asking for a password directly.
4. Open transcriptor.app normally (double-click, or open /Applications/transcriptor.app).

Option 2 — Bypass Gatekeeper for this app only

No trust changes, no certificate needed — just tells macOS to stop flagging this specific app. You'll need to repeat this for each new version you download (the quarantine flag is set per downloaded file).

Either:

• Right-click transcriptor.app in Finder → Open → Open again in the confirmation dialog. (Regular double-click won't offer this the first time; right-click → Open does.)

Or, from a terminal:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/transcriptor.app

(-r because it's a bundle — the quarantine flag can be set on files inside it too, not just the top-level .app.)

Both achieve the same result: the app opens. Option 1 is the better choice if you expect to download future versions and don't want to repeat the bypass each time; Option 2 is faster for a one-off.