Use your Vocatim recordings in AI apps on your Mac

First, in Vocatim

On your Mac, open Settings → Data & devices → AI apps on this Mac and turn it on. Read the screen that explains what the AI app can see, then click Turn on. Then follow the steps for your AI app.

Claude Desktop

1. Click Install in Claude Desktop and save Vocatim.mcpb anywhere you like, for example in Downloads. Once the file is saved, Vocatim copies the Vocatim key.
2. Open Vocatim.mcpb. Claude Desktop shows the Vocatim extension and asks whether to install it.
3. When Claude Desktop asks for the Vocatim key, paste it. Leave vocatim-mcp program as it is.
4. In a new chat, ask for example “What did we decide in my last recording in Vocatim?”. Claude may ask you to allow the Vocatim tool.

Prefer to edit the configuration yourself? Click Copy setup for Claude Desktop. In Claude Desktop, open the Claude menu in the macOS menu bar (not the settings inside the Claude window) and choose Settings… → Developer → Edit Config. If the file has no "mcpServers" yet, replace its content with the full example below. If it already lists servers, paste only the "vocatim" entry inside "mcpServers", with a comma between it and the entry before it. Save the file, quit Claude Desktop completely and open it again.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vocatim": { … paste from Vocatim … }
  }
}

ChatGPT and Codex

1. Click Copy setup for ChatGPT and Codex.
2. Open the file ~/.codex/config.toml in a text editor, or create it if it isn’t there yet. ~/.codex is a hidden folder in your home folder: in the Finder, choose Go → Go to Folder… and type ~/.codex.
3. If the file has no [mcp_servers.vocatim] section, paste the setup on a new line at the end. If it already has one, from an earlier setup, replace that whole section with the new one. The file must not contain the section twice.
4. Save the file and restart ChatGPT or Codex.
5. In a new chat, ask for example “What did we decide in my last recording in Vocatim?”. In ChatGPT, use Vocatim in a Codex conversation, not in a regular chat.

[mcp_servers.vocatim]
command = "/Applications/Vocatim.app/Contents/MacOS/vocatim-mcp"
args = ["--port", "…", "--token", "…"]

codex mcp list shows the Vocatim key in its Args column. The key only lets apps on this Mac read Vocatim, and only while Vocatim is open. Don’t share that output; if you did, use Reset key in Vocatim.

VS Code, Cursor and LM Studio

1. Click Install in VS Code, Add to Cursor or Add to LM Studio. Vocatim opens that app with the Vocatim setup.
2. In the app, confirm that you want to add Vocatim.
3. In VS Code, Vocatim copies the Vocatim key: when VS Code asks for the Vocatim key, paste it. Cursor and LM Studio get the key with the setup and save it in their own settings.
4. In the app’s AI chat, ask for example “What did we decide in my last recording in Vocatim?”.

Other apps: Cursor, LM Studio, JetBrains AI Assistant and Junie

1. Click Copy setup for other apps.
2. Open the app’s MCP settings: in Cursor the file ~/.cursor/mcp.json, in LM Studio its mcp.json, in JetBrains AI Assistant Settings → Tools → AI Assistant → MCP and Add, in Junie the file ~/.junie/mcp/mcp.json.
3. If there is no "mcpServers" there yet, paste the whole setup. If servers are already listed, add only the "vocatim" entry inside "mcpServers", or replace the old "vocatim" entry with it. The entry must not be there twice.
4. Save, then restart the app.

Zed

1. Click Copy setup for Zed.
2. In Zed, run zed: open settings file.
3. Put the "context_servers" part inside the outer braces of that file. If "context_servers" is already there, add only the "vocatim" entry inside it, or replace the old "vocatim" entry with it. The entry must not be there twice.
4. Save the file, then restart Zed.

Vocatim in Terminal (command line)

You can also read your recordings in Terminal on this Mac, with the same four read-only tools that AI apps get: list, search, transcript and summary. The command line uses the same switch and the same Vocatim key as your AI apps, and it works only while Vocatim is open with the switch on.

1. Copy this command, then paste it into a Terminal window, but don’t press Return yet:

   printf '\n%s\n' "$(pbpaste | grep -m 1 '^alias vocatim=')" >> ~/.zshrc

2. In Vocatim, click Copy CLI command. Vocatim copies one line: an alias named vocatim for zsh, the default shell on macOS.
3. Go back to Terminal and press Return. The command adds the copied line to the end of ~/.zshrc, the file zsh reads each time you open a Terminal window. It adds only a line that starts with alias vocatim=, so nothing else from the clipboard gets into the file.
4. Open a new Terminal window and type vocatim list. The alias works in the windows you open after step 3.

The four commands:

• vocatim list shows your 20 newest recordings, one per line: id, date and time, length and title. vocatim list --limit 50 shows up to 50.
• vocatim search budget finds recordings whose title, transcript, summary, notes or a translation contain “budget”. Put a query with spaces in quotes: vocatim search "weekly review". It shows up to 10 results, or up to 20 with --limit 20.
• vocatim transcript <id> prints the whole transcript of one recording. The id is in the first column of vocatim list and vocatim search.
• vocatim summary <id> prints its summary.

Add --json to any command to get JSON for your own scripts. vocatim help lists the commands.

Your key. The vocatim line in ~/.zshrc holds your Vocatim key. If you paste that line into Terminal itself, the key also stays in Terminal’s history. The key only lets apps on this Mac read Vocatim, and only while Vocatim is open. Don’t share the line or the file; if you did, use Reset key in Vocatim.

After Reset key, or when Vocatim says “Setup changed: set up your AI apps again.”, the old line stops working. Repeat steps 1 to 4. The newest vocatim line in ~/.zshrc is the one that counts; you can delete the older ones.

After a command, AI apps on this Mac in Vocatim’s Settings shows vocatim-cli, as it shows the name of an AI app.

The command line talks only to Vocatim on this Mac and prints in your Terminal window. If you pass its output on, for example to an online AI service, it goes there.

To remove it, delete every vocatim line from ~/.zshrc; after you repeat steps 1 to 4 there can be more than one. Turning the switch off in Vocatim, or Reset key, stops it too.

If it doesn’t work: messages from Vocatim’s command line start with vocatim-mcp:.

• vocatim-mcp: Vocatim is not open on this Mac, or AI app access is turned off in Vocatim Settings.: open Vocatim and check the switch. After Reset key or “Setup changed”, repeat steps 1 to 4. The line above it, if there is one, gives the technical reason, for example vocatim-mcp: connect: Connection refused.
• zsh: command not found: vocatim: open a new Terminal window. If it still says that, check that ~/.zshrc has a line that starts with alias vocatim=; if it doesn’t, repeat steps 1 to 4. Also check that echo $SHELL shows /bin/zsh.
• zsh: no such file or directory with a path to vocatim-mcp: the line points to a place where Vocatim no longer is, for example after you moved the app. Repeat steps 1 to 4.
• vocatim-mcp: Too many requests, try again in a moment.: wait a moment and run the command again.
• vocatim with no command, for example vocatim or vocatim --json, waits and shows nothing: press Control-C, then type a command such as vocatim list.

For scripts: the data goes to standard output, all of it and only when the command succeeds; messages go to standard error. With --json, every answer from Vocatim is one line of JSON, so transcript prints one line for each page of a long transcript: read the output line by line, not as one JSON document. Exit codes: 0 done, 1 another error, 2 wrong command or option, 3 Vocatim is not open or access is off, 4 too many requests.

What leaves your Mac

AI app access to your recordings is off by default. You turn it on yourself in Vocatim Settings, only if you decide to share your transcripts with AI apps on this Mac.

Vocatim sends nothing itself. If the AI app uses an online model, as Claude Desktop, ChatGPT and Codex normally do, what it reads from Vocatim is sent to that company (Anthropic or OpenAI) under your account with them, as if you had pasted it into the chat.

To stop

Turn the switch off in Vocatim. Reset key makes every key you copied and every setup you pasted useless. To reconnect, set the AI app up again. For the Claude Desktop extension, click Install in Claude Desktop in Vocatim again, save the file and open it: Vocatim copies the new key once the file is saved. Paste it when Claude Desktop asks for it, or into the Vocatim key field of the Vocatim extension in Claude Desktop. For Cursor and LM Studio, click Add to Cursor or Add to LM Studio again. For a setup you pasted, copy the setup again and paste it over the old entry or section. Then quit the AI app completely (closing its window is not enough) and open it again: until then it keeps using the old key. You can also remove Vocatim from the AI app: the Vocatim extension in Claude Desktop, the "vocatim" entry in its configuration, in the MCP settings of another app or in Zed’s settings file, or the [mcp_servers.vocatim] section in ~/.codex/config.toml.

If it doesn’t work

• “Vocatim is not open on this Mac, or AI app access is turned off in Vocatim Settings.”: open Vocatim and check the switch. After Reset key, set the AI app up again, then quit it completely (closing its window is not enough) and open it again.
• Vocatim says “Setup changed: set up your AI apps again.”: set each AI app up again as above, over the old entry or section, and restart it.
• Vocatim says “The app did not open. Is it installed on this Mac?”: install that app on this Mac. For Cursor and LM Studio you can also use Copy setup for other apps.
• ChatGPT or Codex stops working, or reports an error in config.toml, after you pasted the setup a second time: the file has two [mcp_servers.vocatim] sections. Keep only the newest one.
• Codex says there is no Vocatim tool: start a new conversation in a project whose folder is on this Mac (a project synced from another computer may have no folder here).
• You opened the AI app before Vocatim: restart the AI app with Vocatim open.
• A recording is missing: recordings in the trash and demo recordings are not shown, and a new recording appears only once its transcription finishes or is stopped. A recording that is not fully transcribed is listed, but its transcript and summary are not available until it is.