FAQ
Price, platforms, language, accounts and the questions people ask first.
What does it cost?
Free. No subscription.
Do I need an account or a licence key?
No. There is no account, no licence key and no activation server.
Is it finished?
PrivateGoat is a public beta. Updates arrive inside the app; see Updates.
Which platforms does it run on?
PrivateGoat is a native Mac app. This documentation describes that app.
What language is the interface in?
The interface is in English.
What language does it transcribe?
The transcript detects the language automatically, including a change mid-meeting, and can add a translation line, in the language you choose, at the two highest capture levels. See Transcripts.
Can it show subtitles for a video or a call?
Yes. Live Subtitles… in the menu-bar menu shows a floating bar with the words of what your Mac plays or hears, translated on the Mac if you want. Nothing is recorded. See Live Subtitles.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no PrivateGoat account, no PrivateGoat server and no cloud database. The only sign-in is Atlassian, and only if you connect Jira — see Connect Jira.
Do I need Jira?
No. Without Jira, PrivateGoat is a meeting recorder and nothing Jira-shaped appears: no Jira place, no Send to Jira, no Jira lookup. Connect it any time in Settings → Jira, or on its own step of the welcome tour. See Connect Jira.
Does it read my Claude Code or Codex chats?
On the Mac, and nothing is uploaded. Chats, the Timeline and dictation's learned words read them only once you allow it; then Chats lists every conversation on this Mac. Quick Find's search over Claude Code conversations is older than that switch and indexes them without it. Without chat files on the Mac, the Chats place does not appear.
Does a bot join my calls?
No. PrivateGoat records the microphone and what the Mac plays. Nothing joins the call as a participant, and there is no virtual audio driver to install. See Recording.
Does my audio go anywhere?
No. Meeting audio is never uploaded by any code path. Recordings, transcripts and summaries are files on your Mac; What stays on your Mac lists every one.
Can summaries run on another computer or a cloud service?
Yes, if you choose. By default they run on this Mac with Ollama. In Settings → AI → Change… you can pick Ollama on another computer, an OpenAI-compatible server such as LM Studio, or a cloud service. A server off this Mac asks for a confirmation first, and meetings in the vault stay on this Mac unless you allow them. See Summary servers.
Does it work offline?
The local parts do: recording, transcription, summaries on a local model, the Jira copy you already have, to-dos, search and the MCP server. Network access is needed only for the requests listed on What leaves your Mac.
Where are my keys kept?
The Atlassian sign-in lives in the macOS Keychain — with Touch ID where the build can use it — like a password manager. See Keys and sign-ins.
Can my coding agent read my meetings?
Yes, locally: a built-in MCP server gives it the meeting archive, to-dos, notes, sessions and, if you connected Jira, the Jira copy, over stdio with nothing leaving the Mac, and without a window of its own. See The local MCP server.
What happens to a meeting I delete?
It moves to the Trash as a whole folder, and can be recovered from there. There is no retention timer or schedule. See Meeting history.
Related
- Install PrivateGoat — the download and the Homebrew command.
- What leaves your Mac — the complete network list.
- Local models — how summaries stay on the Mac.