WhispAssist (WA)

A privacy-first, Windows-native meeting assistant that runs entirely on-device.

WhispAssist captures system audio, transcribes it locally with Whisper-class models using on-device acceleration (NPU → GPU → CPU), labels speakers, structures the result into Markdown notes, and optionally augments them with a locally hosted LLM (Ollama). Audio and transcripts never leave the machine unless you explicitly configure a destination.

Status: working application (v0.1.5). Capture, transcription (CPU / Intel NPU / Vulkan GPU), speaker diarization, storage + crash recovery, local-LLM summaries, opt-in recording, at-rest encryption, and self-hosted sync are implemented and ship as signed MSI + NSIS installers. Outlook .pst/calendar context and the coding-agent (MCP) handoff are in progress. Build order and remaining tasks are in docs/05-roadmap.md.

Why WhispAssist — Granola vs Meetily vs WhispAssist

	Granola	Meetily	WhispAssist
Positioning	Cloud AI notepad	Open-source self-hosted assistant	Local, Windows-native assistant
Platform	macOS, Windows	macOS, Windows, Linux	Windows 10/11
Bot-free system-audio capture	✅	✅	✅ WASAPI loopback
Transcription	☁️ cloud	✅ local (Whisper)	✅ local (whisper.cpp)
NPU / GPU auto-acceleration	n/a (cloud)	⚠️ CPU/GPU, manual	✅ NPU→NVIDIA→AMD→Intel→CPU ladder, one binary
Speaker diarization	✅ cloud	⚠️ limited	✅ offline (sherpa-onnx)
Summaries / notes AI	☁️ cloud LLM	✅ local (Ollama) / BYO	✅ local (Ollama, localhost or LAN) + optional hosted
Default data egress	☁️ audio + notes to cloud	🔒 local (cloud optional)	🔒 none — everything off by default, allowlist-enforced
Calendar / Outlook `.pst` context	✅ cloud calendar	❌	⚙️ local `.pst` — in progress
Opt-in recording + consent notice	⚠️ partial	❌	✅ off by default, one-time consent
At-rest encryption	☁️ server-side	❌	✅ vault: Argon2id + XChaCha20-Poly1305
Self-hosted sync w/ client-side encryption	❌	⚠️	✅ WebDAV + OAuth, encrypt-before-upload
Coding-agent (MCP) handoff	❌	❌	⚙️ local MCP server — in progress
License	Proprietary	Open source (MIT)	Open source (MIT / Apache-2.0)
Cost	Subscription	Free	Free

_{Comparison reflects each project's public positioning as of mid-2026. Granola and Meetily
are independent products and their capabilities evolve — verify current details before relying
on any row.}

The short version: Granola is the polished cloud option (your audio and notes are processed on their servers). Meetily is the closest peer — open-source and self-hosted — but is cross-platform-generic and leans on manual setup. WhispAssist is the Windows-native, hardware- accelerated, zero-egress-by-default option: it exploits the NPU/GPU in modern laptops, keeps everything on the device unless you opt in, and adds Windows-specific context (Outlook) and a coding-agent handoff.

What's built (v0.1.5)

Bot-free capture — WASAPI loopback records the system mix (all participants) with no meeting bot and no per-app plumbing.
Local transcription with a hardware ladder — whisper.cpp via whisper-rs on CPU; the Intel NPU via ONNX Runtime + OpenVINO; GPU via Vulkan (a single binary that runs on NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel). WA detects the hardware, picks the best backend (NPU → NVIDIA → AMD → Intel → CPU), streams partial transcripts live, and shows the active backend in the UI.
Speaker diarization — sherpa-onnx (pyannote segmentation + speaker-embedding clustering), fully offline.
Notes & summaries — Markdown notes; local-LLM summaries via Ollama on localhost or a private LAN endpoint (RFC-1918), with a full advanced-parameter panel (system prompt, think, keep_alive, num_ctx, sampling/repetition/mirostat, etc.).
Storage & crash recovery — SQLite + on-disk audio/transcripts under %LOCALAPPDATA%\WhispAssist. Audio is the source of truth; notes and transcripts regenerate after a crash.
Opt-in recording — off by default; .wav retained only when you turn it on, after a one-time consent notice.
At-rest encryption vault — Argon2id key derivation + XChaCha20-Poly1305; transcripts, notes, summaries, and recordings sealed on disk; startup unlock gate; keys zeroized on lock.
Self-hosted sync (optional, off by default) — WebDAV (Nextcloud, ownCloud, Cloudreve, Seafile, Synology) plus OneDrive/Dropbox/Box (OAuth 2.0 PKCE); durable retry queue with backoff; client-side encryption before upload so the destination holds only ciphertext. Credentials live only in the OS credential store.
Optional hosted AI — Anthropic and OpenAI-compatible providers behind the same LlmProvider interface, off by default (third-party egress, keys in the OS credential store).
Installers — signed MSI and NSIS -setup.exe.

In progress: Outlook .pst + calendar context, the local MCP server that hands meeting context to your coding agents (Claude, Codex, Copilot, OpenCode), and MS Graph calendar.

Quick start (install)

Requirements: Windows 10 or 11 (x64). WhispAssist needs the WebView2 runtime — preinstalled on Windows 11; on Windows 10 the installer fetches it automatically (so keep an internet connection during setup).

Download the latest WhispAssist_<version>_x64_en-US.msi from the releases page.
Double-click the .msi and follow the prompts, accepting the UAC prompt to install. The installer is signed; if Windows SmartScreen appears, choose More info → Run anyway.
Launch WhispAssist from the Start menu.

On first run WA detects your hardware and picks the best transcription backend (NPU → NVIDIA → AMD → Intel → CPU). It works on your CPU or GPU (GPU via Vulkan) out of the box; to use an Intel NPU, open Settings ▸ Hardware and download the one-time NPU acceleration package. The app runs without admin rights, never adds itself to startup, and keeps all data under %LOCALAPPDATA%\WhispAssist.

Prefer the NSIS installer? Grab WhispAssist_<version>_x64-setup.exe from the same page.

Technology

WhispAssist is a Tauri 2 application: a small Rust core with a compiled Svelte + TypeScript frontend rendered through the OS WebView2 (no bundled browser → low idle memory). Every decision and its alternatives are recorded in docs/adr/ (ADR-0001–0011).

Shell / IPC: Tauri 2 (Rust ⇄ WebView2)
Audio capture: WASAPI loopback
Transcription: whisper-rs (whisper.cpp: CPU / Vulkan / CUDA) + ONNX Runtime (ort) with the OpenVINO execution provider for the Intel NPU path
Diarization: sherpa-onnx, fully offline
Storage: SQLite + on-disk audio/transcript files
Local LLM: Ollama HTTP API (localhost or a private LAN endpoint)
Encryption: Argon2id + XChaCha20-Poly1305 envelope vault; secrets in the OS credential store
Calendar / Outlook: outlook-pst for .pst, OS notifications for reminders (in progress)
Sync: WebDAV primary set + OneDrive/Dropbox/Box via OAuth — off by default (ADR-0010)
External AI / agents: hosted providers behind LlmProvider; a loopback-only MCP server for coding-agent handoff — off by default (ADR-0011)

Repository layout

WhispAssist/
├── docs/                 # The engineering plan (read this first)
│   ├── 00-overview.md … 07-research-findings.md
│   └── adr/                  Architecture Decision Records (0001–0011)
├── src-tauri/            # Rust core — implemented service modules:
│   └── src/{audio,transcription,diarization,storage,llm,calendar,
│            hardware,notes,sync,mcp,vault}
├── src/                  # Svelte + TypeScript frontend (views, stores, API bindings)
├── packaging/            # NPU/OpenVINO runtime bundle + release assets
├── scripts/              # Dev / model-download helpers
└── tests/                # Fixtures + cross-service integration tests

Getting started (for builders)

Prerequisites: Rust (stable), Node.js 20+, the Tauri CLI, and the WebView2 runtime (preinstalled on Windows 11). Native builds also need the VS 2022 Build Tools (load vcvars64.bat first).

npm install
npm run tauri dev      # CPU/NPU build

GPU (Vulkan) build. whisper.cpp's GPU backends are compiled in (not downloaded at runtime), so a GPU build needs a one-time toolchain setup — the Vulkan SDK, a Ninja generator, and a short target dir (to dodge Windows' 260-char path limit in the shader build):

# after: Vulkan SDK installed, ninja.exe on PATH, vcvars64 loaded
set VULKAN_SDK=C:\VulkanSDK\1.4.350.0
set CMAKE_GENERATOR=Ninja
set CARGO_TARGET_DIR=C:\wt
npm run tauri build -- --features vulkan

CUDA (NVIDIA-only, faster) is planned as an optional variant. The full, gotcha-annotated build recipe lives in the project notes.

Privacy guarantee

WhispAssist originates no outbound connection for audio or transcript content except to destinations you explicitly configure — an LLM endpoint (local Ollama by default, or a hosted AI provider if you choose one) and any sync targets you enable — plus explicit model downloads. Everything optional is off by default; with nothing configured, WA makes no content egress at all. The local MCP server (for handing meetings to your coding agents) is inbound on loopback and adds no egress — data only leaves via the agent's own provider, which WA discloses. The set of reachable hosts is an allowlist derived from your settings and enforced in the core (and verified by a CI network test). Recording is opt-in; sync/AI credentials live in the OS credential store, never in config files. See the privacy requirements (FR-SEC-*, NFR-SEC-*, FR-SYNC-*, FR-MCP-*) in docs/01-requirements.md and ADRs 0009–0011.

License

Dual-licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0, at your option. See LICENSE.

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