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This page describes the current state of the Syntheo Desktop code, for developers and contributors. Syntheo Desktop is a fork of Anarlog (Fastrepl), distributed under the MIT license: the origin of the code is detailed in NOTICE.md.

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Monorepo overview

The repository is a pnpm monorepo (pnpm-workspace.yaml: apps/*, packages/*, plugins/*) paired with a Cargo workspace (Cargo.toml: apps/cli, apps/desktop/src-tauri, crates/*, plugins/*). It contains only two applications: the desktop client and the CLI.

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Main flow

  1. Capture. crates/listener-core captures the microphone and the system audio separately. You choose the output captured as system audio in Settings → Meetings → Audio; with no choice, Syntheo captures the default output (crates/audio-device, crates/audio-actual). One STT connection is opened per channel, which gives a first separation of speakers (you and the other participants). A muted channel sends silence of the same length (crates/listener-core/src/actors/source/pipeline): the STT connection stays open.
  2. Transcription. crates/owhisper-client contains only on-premise adapters: the OpenAI protocol (Realtime and /v1/audio/transcriptions, in adapter/openai and adapter/openai_compatible_batch.rs) and NVIDIA NIM (adapter/nvidia.rs). No URL is provided by default: you enter your server’s. The same client serves dictation (plugins/dictation) and audio file imports: through /v1/audio/transcriptions with the OpenAI protocol, through the /v1/realtime real-time stream with NVIDIA NIM.
  3. Live transcript. Received segments are assembled, then saved in SQLite. If the STT stream drops, the session reconnects without restarting the capture.
  4. Enhance. At the end of the meeting, the interface merges the notes and the transcript (apps/desktop/src/store/zustand/ai-task/). Prompts are rendered on the Rust side by plugins/template from the Jinja templates in crates/template-app/assets (enhance.*, title.*, chat.*…). Summary templates are stored in the database (migration 20260413020000_templates.sql). The LLM call goes through the ai SDK and @ai-sdk/openai-compatible, to the single configured endpoint.
  5. Final note and export. The result is saved in the database, then can be exported: PDF through crates/export-core, and Markdown or JSON from the CLI.

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Local storage

  • SQLite database: app.db file (apps/desktop/src-tauri/src/db.rs), accessed through sqlx (crates/db-core). The schema and its SQL migrations are in crates/db-app/migrations, applied by crates/db-migrate.
  • Full-text search: plugins/tantivy maintains a search_index index in the data folder. SQLite triggers feed a search_index_dirty queue, which the app consumes to reindex modified sessions, documents, and transcripts.
  • Data location: the syntheo folder in the user’s data directory, for example ~/.local/share/syntheo on Linux (crates/storage, application identifier fr.willisback.syntheo).
  • API keys: never in the database or in the binary. plugins/store2 stores them in the system keychain through the keyring crate: Secret Service on Linux, Credential Manager on Windows.

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Architecture guarantees

These guarantees are enforced in the code and protected by tests. The tests in apps/desktop/src/ run with Vitest on every pull request. The network flows unrelated to inference that are still present in the code are listed on the GDPR page.

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Interfaces for agents

  • CLI (apps/cli): the syntheo binary reads the app.db database directly, read-only for browsing and export. Changes go through proposals, which you then review in the app. See the CLI reference.
  • MCP server: syntheo mcp starts an MCP server over stdio (apps/cli/src/mcp/, rmcp library). It exposes the list of meetings, transcripts, export, importing a recording, and edit proposals. On the app side, plugins/local-api carries the related commands; plugins/mcp, inherited from Anarlog, declares no commands.
The overview is in Agents.

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Build, CI, and release

The workflows are in .github/workflows/.
  • Pull request gates: ci-test (Vitest), ci-code-quality (formatting, lint, type checking, consistency of commits and lockfiles; clippy and cargo test on main), ci-security (dependency analysis, secret detection), ci-codeql, and ci-traceability (linked issue, PR type, semver impact).
  • Release (release.yml, on every push to main): the version is computed from Conventional Commits. feat gives a minor version, fix and perf a patch, and a ! a major version. A commit marked [skip release] publishes nothing.
  • Packages: AppImage and .deb for Linux. For Windows, build-windows.yml produces an NSIS installer (.exe) and a .msi, signed through Azure Artifact Signing when the Azure secrets are provided.
  • Integrity: an SPDX SBOM (Syft), SHA256SUMS and SHA256SUMS-windows files, a provenance attestation you can check with gh attestation verify, then a release on GitHub Releases.
No macOS build is published yet.

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Compliance

Stored data, network flows, and your responsibilities as a user are detailed in Syntheo Desktop and the GDPR.