Amical

Overview

Amical is an open-source, local-first AI dictation and note-taking app that runs on your machine. It is powered by Whisper for speech-to-text and open-source LLMs for intelligent processing, and it detects the active app to format speech for emails, chats, IDEs, and notes. It supports macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS, with local or cloud model options.

Key Features

• Local and cloud models: choose cloud-based AI models or run everything locally, switching between providers such as Ollama, OpenAI, and OpenRouter.
• Context-aware formatting: detects the active app and adapts tone and format, from professional Gmail emails to casual Instagram posts.
• Custom vocabulary: recognizes industry terminology, jargon, and proper nouns for personalized transcription.
• Multi-language support: transcribe and dictate in 100+ languages, including mixed-language dictation.
• Smart formatting and autocorrect: auto-corrects grammar, fixes pronouns, and adds contextual emojis.
• Privacy-first offline use: works offline with one-click setup of local models in-app.

Use Cases

• Drafting and replying to emails in Gmail with automatically professional formatting.
• Writing messages and posts in Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, or Instagram with appropriate casual tone.
• Writing prompts and code comments in IDEs such as Cursor.
• Taking structured notes and meeting notes in Notion or other note apps.

Getting Started

• Download Amical for macOS or Windows from the releases page, get the Android app on Google Play, or apply for the iOS beta.
• On macOS, install via Homebrew using brew install --cask amical.
• For local development, clone the repository with submodules, enable Corepack, install dependencies with pnpm install --frozen-lockfile, and run the desktop app with pnpm turbo run dev --filter=@amical/desktop.

Deployment & Requirements

• The desktop app currently supports macOS and Windows; Linux is not supported because there is no Linux native helper.
• Local Whisper transcription requires macOS 15 or later.
• Development prerequisites include Node.js 24.x, pnpm 10.15.0, CMake 3.20 or later, and Xcode or Xcode Command Line Tools with Swift 5.9 or later on macOS.
• On Windows, development requires Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools with the Desktop development with C++ workload and the .NET 8 SDK.
• No .env file is required for local transcription; optional cloud, authentication, or telemetry integrations use apps/desktop/.env configured from apps/desktop/.env.example.

Before You Adopt

• License: MIT. Review its terms before using, modifying, or distributing the project.
• The desktop app currently supports only macOS and Windows; Linux is not supported because a Linux native helper is not yet available.
• The iOS mobile app is available as a beta.