Folio
Getting started

Install Folio

Folio is a menu-bar app for macOS. With Homebrew you can be ready in about a minute.

Requirements#

Folio runs on macOS 13+. Apple Silicon is the performance target, and Intel Macs are supported by building from source. Local transcription is Metal-accelerated on Apple Silicon.

  • macOS 13 Ventura or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel.
  • A one-time model-weights download on first use. The first local transcription or diarization fetches a few hundred megabytes of weights, then Folio works offline.

Homebrew#

Homebrew is the recommended way to install Folio. Tap the cask, then install it. The two commands below run in order.

Recommended
brew tap woosal1337/folio https://github.com/woosal1337/folio
brew install --cask folio

Once installed, brew upgrade --cask folio tracks new releases and keeps your copy current.

Direct download#

If you prefer a direct download, grab the latest Apple Silicon .dmg from the Releases page. The file is named Folio_<version>_aarch64.dmg. Open it and drag Folio to your Applications folder.

Releases are code-signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so they open without a Gatekeeper prompt. Intel builds are not published yet. On Intel, build from source.

Build from source#

  1. 1

    Install the prerequisites

    You need three toolchains in place before building.

    • Rust 1.88 via rustup, pinned in rust-toolchain.toml.
    • Bun 1.3+, the only JavaScript package manager and runtime this repository uses.
    • Xcode command-line tools, installed with xcode-select --install.
  2. 2

    Clone and set up the repository

    Clone the repo, install dependencies with Bun, and register the pre-commit hooks.

    Setup
    git clone https://github.com/woosal1337/folio
cd folio
bun install
pre-commit install
pre-commit install --hook-type commit-msg
pre-commit install --hook-type pre-push
  3. 3

    Run the desktop app

    Start the app in development. The first launch compiles the Rust workspace in about 30 seconds on a warm cache.

    bun tauri dev

Grant permissions#

On first run, macOS prompts for the permissions Folio needs to capture a meeting. Folio watches your calendar and audio devices through EventKit. No bot joins the call.

  1. 1

    Allow microphone access

    macOS asks for microphone permission so Folio can record your voice. Your microphone track is always labelled You.

  2. 2

    Allow screen recording

    macOS asks for screen recording permission. Folio uses it to capture system audio, the other side of the conversation, as a separate stream from your microphone.

Screen recording is required

System audio capture on macOS goes through ScreenCaptureKit, which is gated behind the screen recording permission. Without it, Folio can record your microphone but not the other participants. Grant screen recording so both streams are captured.

Update and uninstall#

To update Folio to the latest release, run the upgrade command.

brew upgrade --cask folio

To remove the app, run brew uninstall --cask folio. Uninstalling removes the application only. Your markdown vault is left untouched, since notes are plain files on disk that you own. You can read, search, or back them up with any tool, with or without Folio installed.

For the full source and signed releases, see the how to use guide, or the project on GitHub.