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Default to capturing mic + all system audio. #39

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12 changes: 6 additions & 6 deletions README.md
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -135,23 +135,23 @@ then call `ownscribe` directly. The examples in [Usage](#usage) use the bare
### Record, transcribe, and summarize a meeting

```bash
ownscribe # records system audio, Ctrl+C to stop
ownscribe # records system audio + mic, Ctrl+C to stop
```

This will:
1. Capture system audio until you press Ctrl+C (or auto-stop after 5 minutes of silence)
1. Capture system audio and your microphone until you press Ctrl+C (or auto-stop after 5 minutes of silence)
2. Transcribe with WhisperX
3. Summarize with your local LLM
4. Save everything to `~/ownscribe/YYYY-MM-DD_HHMMSS/`

> **Note:** By default, macOS shows a source picker on each launch so you can choose what to capture. To skip it and always record all system audio, set `capture_mode = "all"` in the `[audio]` config section.
> **Note:** By default, ownscribe records all system audio directly with no prompt. To show a macOS source picker on each launch instead, set `capture_mode = "picker"` in the `[audio]` config section.

On first run, WhisperX / pyannote and the summarization model may download model files. ownscribe shows a `Preparing models` step and best-effort download progress in the TUI while this happens. Use `ownscribe warmup` to pre-download all models.

### Options

```bash
ownscribe --mic # capture system audio + default mic (press 'm' to mute/unmute)
ownscribe --no-mic # capture system audio only (mic is on by default; press 'm' to mute/unmute)
ownscribe --mic-device "MacBook Pro Microphone" # capture system audio + specific mic
ownscribe --device "MacBook Pro Microphone" # use mic instead of system audio
ownscribe --no-summarize # skip LLM summarization
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -213,9 +213,9 @@ Config is stored at `~/.config/ownscribe/config.toml`. Run `ownscribe config` to
[audio]
backend = "coreaudio" # "coreaudio" or "sounddevice"
device = "" # empty = system audio
mic = false # also capture microphone input
mic = true # also capture microphone input
mic_device = "" # specific mic device name (empty = default)
capture_mode = "picker" # "picker" = show source picker; "all" = capture all system audio directly
capture_mode = "all" # "all" = capture all system audio directly; "picker" = show source picker
silence_timeout = 300 # seconds of silence before auto-stop; 0 = disabled

[transcription]
Expand Down
15 changes: 11 additions & 4 deletions src/ownscribe/cli.py
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Expand Up @@ -39,7 +39,11 @@ def _dir_size(path: str) -> str:
@click.option("--language", default=None, help="Language code for transcription (e.g. en, de, fr).")
@click.option("--initial-prompt", default=None, help="Context text to prime Whisper (vocab, speaker names, etc.)")
@click.option("--hotwords", default=None, help="Comma-separated words to boost Whisper recognition.")
@click.option("--mic", is_flag=True, help="Also capture microphone input (mixed with system audio).")
@click.option(
"--mic/--no-mic",
default=None,
help="Also capture microphone input (mixed with system audio); on by default.",
)
@click.option("--mic-device", default=None, help="Specific mic device name (implies --mic).")
@click.option(
"--keep-recording/--no-keep-recording",
Expand All @@ -62,7 +66,7 @@ def cli(
language: str | None,
initial_prompt: str | None,
hotwords: str | None,
mic: bool,
mic: bool | None,
mic_device: str | None,
keep_recording: bool | None,
template: str | None,
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -94,9 +98,12 @@ def cli(
config.transcription.initial_prompt = initial_prompt
if hotwords:
config.transcription.hotwords = hotwords
if mic or mic_device:
config.audio.mic = True
if mic is False and mic_device:
raise click.UsageError("--no-mic and --mic-device cannot be used together.")
if mic is not None:
config.audio.mic = mic
Comment on lines +101 to +104

@paberr paberr Jul 21, 2026

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Blocking: I think --no-mic doesn't actually disable the mic when mic_device is set in config.toml:

  1. --no-mic sets config.audio.mic = False, but config.audio.mic_device keeps its value from the config file.
  2. CoreAudioRecorder.start() re-enables the mic from the device name alone (if self._mic or self._mic_device: cmd.append("--mic")).
  3. So the helper is still launched with --mic --mic-device "USB Mic" and we record the mic anyway.

Possible fix: clear config.audio.mic_device when --no-mic is given, e.g.

if mic is not None:
    config.audio.mic = mic
    if mic is False:
        config.audio.mic_device = ""

(same as CoPilot's comment below I just noticed)

if mic_device:
config.audio.mic = True
config.audio.mic_device = mic_device
Comment on lines +101 to 107
if keep_recording is not None:
config.output.keep_recording = keep_recording
Expand Down
8 changes: 4 additions & 4 deletions src/ownscribe/config.py
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Expand Up @@ -14,9 +14,9 @@
[audio]
backend = "coreaudio" # "coreaudio" (default) or "sounddevice"
device = "" # empty = system audio; or device name/index for sounddevice
mic = false # also capture microphone input
mic = true # also capture microphone input
mic_device = "" # specific mic device name (empty = default)
capture_mode = "picker" # "picker" = show source picker; "all" = capture all system audio directly
capture_mode = "all" # "all" = capture all system audio directly; "picker" = show source picker
silence_timeout = 300 # seconds of silence before auto-stop; 0 = disabled

[transcription]
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -58,9 +58,9 @@
class AudioConfig:
backend: str = "coreaudio"
device: str = ""
mic: bool = False
mic: bool = True
mic_device: str = ""
capture_mode: str = "picker" # "picker" = show source picker; "all" = all system audio
capture_mode: str = "all" # "all" = all system audio; "picker" = show source picker
silence_timeout: int = 300 # seconds of silence before auto-stop; 0 = disabled


Expand Down
13 changes: 10 additions & 3 deletions tests/test_cli.py
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Expand Up @@ -30,13 +30,20 @@ def test_no_summarize_flag(self):
config = mock_run.call_args[0][0]
assert config.summarization.enabled is False

def test_mic_flag(self):
def test_no_mic_flag(self):
runner = CliRunner()
with _mock_config(), mock.patch("ownscribe.pipeline.run_pipeline") as mock_run:
result = runner.invoke(cli, ["--mic"])
result = runner.invoke(cli, ["--no-mic"])
assert result.exit_code == 0
config = mock_run.call_args[0][0]
assert config.audio.mic is True
assert config.audio.mic is False
Comment on lines +33 to +39
Comment on lines +33 to +39

@paberr paberr Jul 21, 2026

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Two small things on the tests here, non-blocking:

  1. With test_mic_flag renamed, we no longer test that an explicit --mic overrides mic = false from the config file. Maybe keep a --mic test next to the --no-mic one?
  2. There's also no test that --mic-device alone implies mic = True — that implication now sits on its own line in cli.py and could regress silently.

Once the mic_device interaction above is fixed, a test for config-set mic_device + --no-mic would be a nice-to-have too.


def test_no_mic_with_mic_device_errors(self):
runner = CliRunner()
with _mock_config():
result = runner.invoke(cli, ["--no-mic", "--mic-device", "USB Mic"])
assert result.exit_code != 0
assert "--no-mic and --mic-device cannot be used together" in result.output

def test_device_flag(self):
runner = CliRunner()
Expand Down
6 changes: 5 additions & 1 deletion tests/test_config.py
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Expand Up @@ -29,9 +29,13 @@ def test_default_output_format(self):

def test_default_mic_settings(self):
cfg = Config()
assert cfg.audio.mic is False
assert cfg.audio.mic is True
assert cfg.audio.mic_device == ""

def test_default_capture_mode(self):
cfg = Config()
assert cfg.audio.capture_mode == "all"


def test_default_diarization_telemetry_off(self):
cfg = Config()
Expand Down
6 changes: 3 additions & 3 deletions tests/test_pipeline.py
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Expand Up @@ -60,20 +60,20 @@ def test_silence_timeout_passed_to_coreaudio(self):
with mock.patch("ownscribe.audio.coreaudio.CoreAudioRecorder") as mock_cls:
mock_cls.return_value.is_available.return_value = True
_create_recorder(config)
mock_cls.assert_called_once_with(mic=False, mic_device="", capture_mode="picker", silence_timeout=120)
mock_cls.assert_called_once_with(mic=True, mic_device="", capture_mode="all", silence_timeout=120)

def test_capture_mode_passed_to_coreaudio(self):
from ownscribe.pipeline import _create_recorder

config = Config()
config.audio.backend = "coreaudio"
config.audio.device = ""
config.audio.capture_mode = "all"
config.audio.capture_mode = "picker"

with mock.patch("ownscribe.audio.coreaudio.CoreAudioRecorder") as mock_cls:
mock_cls.return_value.is_available.return_value = True
_create_recorder(config)
mock_cls.assert_called_once_with(mic=False, mic_device="", capture_mode="all", silence_timeout=300)
mock_cls.assert_called_once_with(mic=True, mic_device="", capture_mode="picker", silence_timeout=300)

def test_silence_timeout_passed_to_sounddevice(self):
from ownscribe.pipeline import _create_recorder
Expand Down
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