Your first recording

When you open Perchnote for the first time, the setup guide runs through a short flow:

1. Privacy. A plain explanation of where your data lives (on your Mac) and how secrets like API keys are stored (in the macOS Keychain).
2. Audio. Grant microphone access. You can skip this and Perchnote will ask the first time you actually record.
3. AI. Pick an AI provider, or skip and decide later. You can record and transcribe without any AI provider at all.
4. Calendar. Optionally connect Google, Microsoft, or an ICS feed so Perchnote can see your meetings. Optional.
5. Test. Record about five seconds of your own voice so you can watch the transcription pipeline work end to end.
6. Start. You are ready.

To record your first real meeting:

1. Press Cmd+N, or click New Meeting. This creates a meeting and starts recording right away.
2. Talk, or join your call. Live transcript appears as you go.
3. Take notes in the editor while you record. Press Cmd+D to drop a timestamped marker on an important moment, or Cmd+Shift+D to quote the last thing that was said straight into your notes.
4. When you are done, stop the recording. If auto-enhance is on, Perchnote generates a recap automatically. Otherwise press Cmd+E to enhance the notes whenever you want.

You can reopen the setup guide any time from Settings, under Setup Guide.