*Even in airplane mode
A notepad that listens *
Record meetings on your Mac. Nothing leaves your Mac. As many as you want, as long as you want , for one flat price.
How it works
Two things it does. Simply.
Stage 1
The Notepad.
Open Thunder Kitty. Start a note. Type. Think. Make a list. Everything you write is a plain markdown file in a folder on your Mac.
Therapy session
Things to follow up on this week:
- — The pattern Dr. K mentioned about Sunday afternoons
- — Try the breathing exercise before the next board call
- — Reach out to M. about the article he sent
- — Re-read the chapter on attention residue
Stage 2
The Transcript.
Thunder Kitty captures both sides of the call as separate audio streams, transcribes everything on your Mac, and always knows which voice is yours.
Coffee w/ Maya
Thanks for making the time. I wanted to talk through the consulting thing before I commit either way.
Of course. What's pulling you toward it, and what's pulling you away?
The work itself is great. The flexibility is great. But the contract is structured in a way that makes me nervous.
Tell me about the structure. Specifically what worries you?
Why it actually works
The good stuff, up close.
Record everything.
No meeting cap. No minute meter. No "you've used 80% of your plan" emails. Record all day, every day. The cost to us is zero, so the cost to you is zero.
All on your Mac.
Apple's built-in SpeechAnalyzer runs natively. Fast, accurate, and your audio doesn't go anywhere it shouldn't.
Knows who's talking.
Thunder Kitty always captures your mic and system audio as two separate streams — so it always knows which voice is yours and which is everyone else's. No enrollment, no configuration. It just knows.
Choose your brain.
On-device summaries via Apple Intelligence or cutting-edge open-source models. Bring your own Claude, OpenAI, or Gemini key. Or connect Claude Desktop as a local MCP server and ask questions across your entire meeting history — no copy-pasting required.
Works across your Macs.
Your notes are real files on disk. Point Thunder Kitty at a Dropbox, iCloud, or Google Drive folder and it syncs automatically. No account, no login, no upcharge.
Works anywhere.
Zoom, Meet, Teams, Discord, FaceTime, phone calls — or no video app at all. Talk to yourself if you want. Thunder Kitty is invisible: no bots, no plugins, no calendar invites. Already have a recording? Import audio files or existing transcripts and they land in a note just like a live recording.
Is Thunder Kitty for you?
Probably yes, if…
- You run meetings with clients, patients, or sources whose trust you can't afford to break.
- You already live in plain text. Obsidian, iA Writer, Bear, the terminal.
- You've started counting how many of your conversations are sitting on someone else's server.
- You like software that has a point of view.
Probably no, if…
- You need shareable summaries distributed to your team's Slack.
- You need to invite a bot to your Zoom calls.
- You want integrations with Notion, Asana, Monday, and Zapier.
- You prefer your software to be serious.
If you get it, you get it. If you don't, Granola is great. We promise.
Privacy, for real
No bots. No bosses. No clouds.
Most "privacy-first" apps want you to trust them. We'd rather show you.
Your notes live here:
~/Documents/Thunder Kitty Notes/
Plain
.md
files in a folder you control. Open them with any editor. Back them up
to anywhere. Delete them. Move them. They're files.
The only times Thunder Kitty talks to the internet:
- Checking for app updates (once a day, no data attached)
- Validating your license (your key, nothing else)
- Calls to your own API key — only if you turn that on
That's the whole list. Your audio never touches the network. Your transcripts never touch the network. Your notes never touch the network.
Don't believe us.
Turn on Airplane mode. Record a meeting. Read the transcript. The app works. That's the proof.
Pricing
One price. No tiers.
- Unlimited meeting recordings — no caps, ever
- On-device transcription with speaker labels
- On-device summaries (or bring your own API key)
- All your notes as portable markdown files
- Cancel whenever. Your notes and transcripts stay yours.
No credit card. No account. Just a download.
macOS 26 Tahoe or later. Apple Silicon.
Questions you probably have
The skeptic's FAQ.
Does my audio really never leave my Mac?
Really. Transcription runs on-device via Apple's built-in speech recognition. Summaries run on-device too, unless you explicitly turn on a cloud model and provide your own API key. Airplane mode is the proof — the core app works with the internet off.
Why subscription instead of one-time?
Because Thunder Kitty is maintained by one person and I'd like to keep the lights on while I keep making it better. $10/mo is roughly one coffee, and it pays for the macOS versions I have to rebuild every year, the Apple developer fee, and the time to answer your support emails personally.
What happens if I record a 6-hour meeting?
It records a 6-hour meeting. There's no time limit, no meeting cap, no "you've used 80% of your plan" warning. Because everything runs on your Mac, the cost to us of you transcribing more is zero, so we don't charge you for it. Record a 12-hour conference. Record every meeting in your day. Record yourself talking to your dog. We don't care.
Do I need to invite a bot to my Zoom calls?
No. Thunder Kitty listens to your mic and your system audio, the same way QuickTime does. No bot. No meeting link. No one on the other side gets a "Thunder Kitty has joined" notification.
Can I use this for therapy sessions / client intakes / journalism?
That's the point. Because nothing leaves your Mac, Thunder Kitty works in contexts where sending audio to a third-party cloud service would be inappropriate or prohibited. We don't make HIPAA claims because HIPAA compliance is about your workflow, not our app — but the data-handling model is designed for exactly these use cases.
What about summaries? Don't those need the cloud?
They don't. Thunder Kitty ships with on-device summary options using Apple Intelligence or the latest open-source models, downloaded and run entirely on your Mac. We regularly evaluate new model releases to make sure you're always getting the best summarization quality for the size — no cloud required. If you want even more powerful summaries, you can plug in your own Claude, OpenAI, or Gemini API key — but that's your choice and your bill, not ours.
Can I use my Thunder Kitty notes with Claude or other AI tools?
Yes — and this is the point of the files-first design. Your notes are plain markdown files that any tool can read. For Claude specifically, Thunder Kitty now runs as a local MCP server: Claude Desktop connects directly to your notes folder on your Mac, with no data leaving your device on Thunder Kitty's end. Ask Claude about your meetings, search across months of transcripts, track unresolved agenda items — all from Claude's interface, all from files that never left your Mac.
Can I export my notes?
Your notes and transcripts are already exported. They're sitting in
~/Documents/Thunder Kitty Notes/
as markdown files, right now. There is nothing to export because there
is nothing locked in.
What if Thunder Kitty goes away?
Your notes and transcripts are still markdown files on your disk. Open them in Obsidian, iA Writer, a text editor, Notion, or VS Code. You lose the recording and transcription functionality. You don't lose your writing or transcripts. That's the whole design.
What macOS version do I need?
Thunder Kitty requires macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later, on Apple Silicon. We built on Apple's newest SpeechAnalyzer API — the same one used by Apple Intelligence — because it delivers the best on-device transcription available.
Can I use Thunder Kitty on more than one Mac?
Yes, on as many Macs as you personally use. Your subscription covers your devices, not a seat count. Sync across machines is built in — not because we built a sync service, but because your notes are just Markdown files in a folder you choose. Point Thunder Kitty at a Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, or OneDrive folder, and every Mac you sign into will see the same notes. No account, no login, no extra cost. AI model downloads and app settings stay on each device — those are device-specific. Everything else syncs.
Is Thunder Kitty GDPR compliant?
Because Thunder Kitty processes everything on your Mac, there's no personal data transfer to us — which is the cleanest path to GDPR compliance. We're not a data processor for your recordings; you are. Your audio and transcripts stay on your device, under your control. If you're using Thunder Kitty at work, the usual rules still apply — you're responsible for informing meeting participants and getting consent where required. But because no audio or transcript is ever sent to a cloud service, your compliance surface is materially smaller than with tools like Otter, Fireflies, or Granola.
How does Thunder Kitty compare to Granola, Otter, or Fireflies?
We've written honest, side-by-side comparisons for each — what they do better, what we do better, and who each tool is actually for. See the comparison pages →
Why macOS only?
Because I'm one person and macOS is where I can do the best version of this. Apple Silicon's on-device speech recognition and local model support are what make the all-local promise possible. A Windows or Linux version isn't ruled out forever — it's just not now.
Who made this?
Thunder Kitty is made by one person at Big Truck Labs. No VC, no team, no roadmap committee. If something's broken, you're emailing me directly. If something's great, same.