Getting started

Install

Grab the latest DMG from the releases page, open it, and drag Parrot into Applications. That's it. If you'd rather build from source, clone the repo and run make run.

The two permissions

On first launch Parrot walks you through two macOS permissions. Click each dark button, answer the system dialog, and the row flips to a green check on its own. Both are needed to record a call properly:

Screen Recording. This one surprises people, so here's the honest explanation: it is simply how macOS exposes system audio. Parrot uses it to hear the other side of your call. It never captures your screen content, only sound.
Microphone. Your side of the call.

Heads up: Screen Recording only takes effect after the app restarts. If the row hasn't flipped to a green check after you granted it, quit Parrot and open it again. macOS is just like that.

Pick a model

Transcription happens on your Mac with Whisper, so you pick which model to use during onboarding. Base is a good start: small, quick, decent accuracy. If your Mac has Apple Silicon and some room to spare, Large V3 Turbo Compressed is the sweet spot: nearly the accuracy of the big one at a third of the download and memory. Large V3 Turbo is the most accurate of the lot if you have the RAM to spare. The model downloads once on first use, with a progress bar so you can see it happening, and lives on your disk after that, so transcription works offline.

You can switch models any time in Settings → Transcription.

That's all

Missed something, or quit halfway through the setup? Parrot brings the tour back on its own until you finish it, and you can replay it any time from Help → Show Welcome Tour.

Hit the big record button and talk. The transcript shows up as you speak. When you're curious about the AI side of Parrot, read Setting up the Copilot. It's optional and off by default.