Hyprnote Review: The Open-Source AI Notepad for Mac

If you searched for Hyprnote today, you're looking for an app that no longer goes by that name.

Hyprnote is now called Anarlog. It's the same open-source AI notepad for meetings, built by the same team (fastrepl), and it still runs best on a Mac. It records your microphone and your computer's audio, so it hears both sides of a Zoom, Meet or Teams call without sending a bot. The free plan covers unlimited on-device transcription; Pro costs $14 a month. All of that is as of November 2026.

You probably already know the appeal. A meeting tool that keeps your conversations on your own computer is easier to trust than one that uploads everything by default. The open question is whether the app behind the old name still delivers that.

This Hyprnote review answers it. It's built from Anarlog's own website, pricing page, documentation and GitHub repository, read on November 13, 2026, plus public user reports. We didn't test the app hands-on, and every product claim below comes from those pages. You'll get the name history, what the app does, which Mac you need, the pricing, a feature-by-feature privacy table, and how early complaints hold up today.

One disclosure: ParrotNotes publishes this blog, and it's our app. It comes up once, for people whose meetings happen away from the desk. If that's you, you can try ParrotNotes free on your phone and come back for the Hyprnote facts.

Hyprnote is now Anarlog: the name history

The app has changed names twice in a year. Here's the timeline, from the team's GitHub history and blog.

Why two renames? The Anarlog post explains that the meeting notetaker and a new agent-based to-do app were sharing one brand and confusing people. The meeting app got its own name. The same post says the license moved from GPL to MIT.

The GitHub README settles it in one line: "anarlog started as Hyprnote, then briefly used the char name." The old github.com/fastrepl/hyprnote address now redirects to the Anarlog repository.

For the rest of this review, "Hyprnote" and "Anarlog" mean the same app.

What Hyprnote (Anarlog) does on a Mac

The homepage at anarlog.so calls it "The AI notepad for private meetings", and the README calls it "an open-source alternative to Granola". Both lines describe the same three-part design.

Bot-free capture: your microphone plus system audio

Anarlog's meeting docs say it "records your microphone and system audio. It does not join the meeting as a participant." Your voice comes in through the mic, everyone else's through the call audio your Mac plays. Nothing new appears in the participant list.

You start a recording in one of three ways: "Join & record" from a calendar event with a meeting link, "Record" from an event note for an in-person meeting or a call that's already open, or a new note for an unscheduled conversation. If you're new to how this works, our guide to AI meeting notes without a bot explains system audio capture and the macOS permission it needs.

The notepad: your notes plus the transcript

Like Granola, Hyprnote is a notepad, not only a recorder. You type rough notes while you listen. When the meeting ends, the app uses the transcript and your notes to write a summary, which you then edit like a document. Templates and custom instructions shape the summary, and the README says you can "export Markdown whenever it fits your workflow".

Local models, your own keys, or hosted AI

This is where Hyprnote differs most from Granola. The homepage puts it in one line: "Run models on your device, bring your own keys, or use our AI."

Transcription and the summary model are set separately. On a supported Apple Silicon Mac, the models page lists on-device transcription with Parakeet models (25 European languages), Apple Speech (needs macOS 26), or a whisper.cpp model file you pick. For summaries and chat, you can point it at a local server such as Ollama or LM Studio, use your own API key with a hosted provider, or pay for Anarlog's hosted AI.

Which Mac you need (and the other platforms)

Here's what Anarlog's download page listed on November 13, 2026.

One detail matters more than the table suggests. On-device transcription needs a supported Apple Silicon Mac, per the offline docs. An Intel Mac, a Windows PC or a Linux machine can still run the app, but it needs a local transcription server or a hosted provider to turn speech into text.

So "Hyprnote for Mac" really means "Hyprnote for an M-series Mac" if you want the fully local setup.

Hyprnote pricing: Free vs Pro as of November 2026

The pricing page has three plans. Prices are in USD.

Pro has a 30-day free trial.

Two notes under the table are worth reading closely. First: "No app minute cap for local/BYOK; provider charges can apply." If you bring your own API key, the AI company bills you for what you use.

Second: "Local speech recognition does not make summaries local." A transcript made on your Mac still goes out if your summary model is a hosted one.

The free plan is unusually generous for the job it does. The pricing page lists no meeting limit on Free. The trade is setup: you choose and configure the models yourself.

Does your meeting leave your Mac? Feature by feature

Privacy is the reason most people search for Hyprnote, so here's the question that matters, answered from Anarlog's data and privacy page, the offline page and the pricing page as of November 13, 2026.

In short, the docs say: "Data leaves your computer only when you use a connected or hosted feature that needs it." The fully private setup is on-device transcription plus a local summary model, on an Apple Silicon Mac. Every convenience you add sends something out. That's honest, and it's more transparent than most meeting apps.

Picture Lena, an independent consultant with client calls under NDA. She runs Hyprnote on her M2 MacBook Air with on-device transcription and Ollama for summaries. Nothing from those calls leaves her laptop. The day she switches on Google Calendar sync for convenience, event details start flowing, which is fine, but now it's a choice she made, not a default she missed.

Is Hyprnote really open source?

Yes, with one boundary. The GitHub API showed the fastrepl/anarlog repository under the MIT license on November 13, 2026, with about 9,900 stars, 839 forks and a latest desktop release, v1.4.34, from October 29, 2026.

The README draws the line: the "community application" is MIT-licensed, while "source-visible enterprise components are commercially licensed". Those sit in an enterprise/ folder. For one person on a Mac, that changes nothing: the app you download, and could build yourself, is the MIT one.

MIT is a permissive license. You can read the code, fork it, change it and even sell your version, as the README itself says. That's the real meaning of "open source" here: a security team can audit exactly what the app does with audio before anyone installs it.

What users said, and what's changed since

The fullest public user thread is the Launch HN discussion from July 2025, with 180 comments. Here's how its main complaints compare with Anarlog's pages today.

The thread also had happy users. One wrote they had "already used [it] to transcribe two meetings" and planned to keep using it. Fair to say: early adopters liked the idea and pushed on the gaps, and most of those gaps now have an answer on paper. We haven't checked how well those answers work in practice.

Who Hyprnote suits, and who should look elsewhere

Hyprnote (Anarlog) suits you if:

• Your meetings are mostly video calls at a Mac, ideally an Apple Silicon one.
• You want transcription and summaries that never leave your computer, or a code base your IT team can audit.
• You're happy to choose models and settings in exchange for a free plan with no meeting cap.
• You already type notes during calls and want the AI to build on them.

Take Raj, a product manager at a 40-person software company. His week is eight Zoom calls, all at his MacBook Pro. His company's security review rejected two cloud note takers. Hyprnote's MIT code and on-device setup give his IT lead something to inspect, and the free plan means there's no budget request to file.

Look elsewhere if:

• You need it on your phone today. The iPhone and Android apps are still in beta.
• You want zero setup. Granola and similar apps work out of the box; our Granola AI review covers that route.
• You're on an Intel Mac or Windows and want local transcription. On-device transcription needs Apple Silicon. On a Windows PC, Granola for Windows is a full desktop app, though it transcribes in the cloud.
• Most of your conversations happen in person, away from a desk. A laptop app can record a meeting room, but it's awkward on a site visit or in a client's lobby.

That last case is where ParrotNotes fits. Think of Dana, a field sales rep with five client visits a day and a laptop that stays in the car. She opens ParrotNotes on her iPhone at the start of each visit and gets a transcript and summary afterward, plus action items and a draft follow-up email on Pro.

ParrotNotes runs on iPhone, Android and Mac. The free plan gives 100 minutes of recording a month (up to 30 minutes per recording) with an AI summary on every recording. Pro is $19.99 a month, or $14.99 a month billed annually, with 3,000 minutes and recordings up to 3 hours.

To be fair about the trade: ParrotNotes needs an internet connection to transcribe, it isn't open source, and it doesn't hear the far side of a Zoom call the way a desktop system-audio app does. Hyprnote is free and open source. They solve different problems. If yours is the in-person one, download ParrotNotes and try it on your next visit.

Wherever you record, make sure everyone knows. Anarlog's own docs say consent rules "depend on where you and the other participants are located." Our guide to one-party and two-party consent states covers the US rules as general information, not legal advice.

For a wider view of the options, our Granola AI alternatives guide compares Anarlog with the other bot-free and phone-first apps, and ParrotNotes vs Granola goes head to head on in-person meetings.

The short version of this Hyprnote review

• Hyprnote is now Anarlog. It was renamed Char in February 2026 and Anarlog in spring 2026. Same team, same app.
• It's a real open-source Mac app. The community app is MIT-licensed, macOS is the stable platform, and Windows, Linux and the phone apps are in beta.
• The free plan is the main draw. Unlimited on-device transcription and local summaries, no meeting cap, as of November 2026. Pro is $14 a month for cloud AI, sync and sharing.
• Private by setup, not by magic. Local transcription plus a local model keeps meetings on your Mac. Hosted models, sync and web search send data out, and the docs say so.
• Best for desk-bound Mac users with video calls and a reason to keep audio local. Phone-first, in-person work is better served elsewhere.

If Hyprnote's desk-first design doesn't match meetings that happen across a table, try ParrotNotes free on your phone.