Oats - Free open-source and on device meeting notetaker
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Oats is an AI meeting note-taking tool that is completely open, local, and free. Designed to not get in the way of your meetings, no bots, no subscription needed when running locally with on-device LLM. Available on both macOS and Windows.
Enhanced transcription, multi-language support, speaker recognition, assessment, coaching, auto-tracking follow ups and more features via ariso.ai cloud backend.
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Ariso
Hey Product Hunt! 👋
We think AI meeting notes have become useful enough to be a basic utility. And basic utilities should be free, open source, and private by default.
That’s why we built Oats 🥣 -- a free, open-source AI meeting note taker for Mac & Windows.
Why Oats?
Most AI meeting tools require a bot to join your calls, send your conversations to the cloud, lock useful features behind a subscription, or use your data in ways that aren’t always obvious.
We wanted a different option.
Oats runs locally on your computer. It can record your meetings without a bot joining the call, then transcribe and summarize the conversation on-device, using local AI models.
Your recordings stay local. And because Oats is open source, you can use it, audit it, modify it, or build on top of it.
No meeting bot. No model training on your data. No data lock-in.
What you can do with Oats:
Record meetings without inviting a bot
Transcribe and summarize locally
Keep recordings on your own computer
Run with on-device LLMs
Inspect and modify the source code
Use it completely free
For those who want more, Oats can also connect to the Ariso cloud backend for enhanced transcription, multi-language support, speaker recognition, assessments, coaching, automatic follow-up tracking, and more.
Even when you use our cloud features, we will never use your meeting data to train our models, including on the free plan.
Oats is also our first step toward open-sourcing more of what we build at Ariso.
So we’d love the Product Hunt community to put it through its paces. Tell us what’s missing. Break something. Open an issue. Build something weird on top of it. Or contribute directly. 🥣
We’ll be here all day answering questions.
— The Ariso Team
congrats on the launch, its a great product.
quick question what is the most unique feature of Oats which make it different from other products
Ariso
@jacob_hernandez4
1. Totally free, open source, runs on your device, so there's no need to have any privacy concerns for companies training your data.
Additionally, when you choose to use our cloud backend, you get a ton of other features on the Ariso platform (launch coming soon!). It lets you auto track follow ups from meetings, it auto checks for completion, and lets you build agents, automations and dashboards around all your work.
Ariso
Do we really need another AI meeting notetaker? 😅
I honestly thought the answer was no.
Then I found out that a tool I had been using for months was using my data to train its models. That left a pretty bad taste in my mouth, especially because it wasn’t something I realized when I started using it.
At first, I went looking for alternatives. I tried a bunch of the "free" ones that weren’t really free. And I couldn't find a great option that runs as a locally contained app without having to sign up to anything AND didn't require a bot joining every meeting.
So… here we are... with Oats!
I've now been using it for pretty much every meeting I have. Turns out I did need another notetaker, just not another one built the same way.
Can i edit the generated notes after a meeting? would be handy for cleaning things up before sharing.
Ariso
@fletcher_oliver We can add support for that!
Ariso
@fletcher_oliver We can get that added! We have a fairly sophisticated pipeline using github issues, so if you think of anything else feel free to add it as an issue on the github repo!
P.S. you also have a separate spot to take your own notes for a meeting, if that would suffice! It's in the app already today.
Can Oats pick up audio from headphones as well as the laptop speakers? that’s always a tricky part with meeting apps.
Is there a way to export the notes or transcript? would be nice to move them into Notion or another workspace.
Ariso
@gaius_loxley Yes, they are stored locally in an Obsidian file as markdown so they are already 'exported', you can easily move them to Notion or import somewhere else
Ariso
We built Oats because we believe people should have more control over their data. Privacy shouldn’t be something you trade away for convenience, and useful software shouldn’t require trusting a black box.
Oats is open source because we value FOSS: people should be able to inspect it, improve it, run it themselves, and keep ownership of their work. If you care about private, transparent tools, we’d love for you to check it out.
welldone Oats team, i am impressed by your product, my qustion is does it record all the screen of just the notes?
Ariso
@elias_leo1 Right now it's only taking meeting notes. We'll add the ability to do screen recording to our backlog!
If you have any other feedback, feel free to drop an issue on the github repo as well.
okay, i really like this idea. not having a bot pop into every meeting is already a big win for me 😄
Ariso
@emily_carter18 Thanks! We realize it's sometimes tough and inconsistent for bots to join every call, hence why we built this!
Ariso
@emily_carter18 definitely!
Congrats on launch!! 👍
was looking for a local notetaker to actually use, so good timing! on-device + no bot is the right call. Any plans for mobile though? a fair few of my meetings happen away from the laptop, and an on-device phone version is the thing i'd actually use daily.
anyway, thanks for making this. i really needed it 😃
@seenew glad to hear your feedback! we still think about the mobile version, it would be great if you could file an issue in the github repo for it!