The folder is the database
Every recording is a plain folder on your own disk. No proprietary library, no hidden container, no export step. Grep it, sync it, back it up, feed it to your own tools.
What one meeting looks like
~/Documents/Tape/2026-07-30-12-00-product-sync/ ├── mic.caf · your voice, clean ├── system.caf · everyone else ├── mixed.m4a · both, merged for playback ├── meta.json · times, duration, track offsets ├── transcript.json · structured, timestamped ├── transcript.md · human-readable, plus your notes ├── summary.md · the AI summary └── comments.json · your anchored comments
The folder name carries the date, the time and the title, so the library sorts itself chronologically in Finder exactly as it does in the app.
Where it lives
By default, ~/Documents/Tape/. You can point that anywhere in Settings, including a synced folder if you want your meetings on more than one Mac. The status menu has an Open Recordings Folder item that takes you straight there.
The files, one by one
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
mic.caf | Your microphone, recorded on its own so your voice stays clean and separable. |
system.caf | Everything the Mac played during the call: the other participants, shared videos, anything with sound. |
mixed.m4a | Both tracks merged, written for playback and for sharing. This is what the export button hands you. |
meta.json | Start time, duration, which files belong to which track, and the millisecond offset between them. |
transcript.json | The canonical transcript: engine, model, detected language, and one entry per segment with speaker, start, end and text. |
transcript.md | The readable version, with YAML frontmatter, a Context section you can write in, and the transcript body. |
summary.md | The summary the local model wrote. Plain Markdown, editable. |
comments.json | Your comments, each pinned to an exact moment in the audio. |
A recording that failed to transcribe also carries a transcribe.log explaining what went wrong. Nothing is deleted behind your back.
Readable by anything
The transcript Markdown starts with frontmatter, so Obsidian, Bear, static site generators and your own scripts can all read it without special handling:
--- title: Product sync date: 2026-07-30 time: 12:00 duration: 47min speakers: - Daniel - Others partial: false --- ## Context ## Transcript **[0:04] Daniel:** Let's start with the roadmap. **[0:11] Others:** Sure, I pulled the numbers this morning.
Timestamps are in the body, speakers are named, and the whole thing is just text. Search it with Spotlight or grep, pipe it into an agent, or paste it wherever you keep meeting notes.
Rename wherever you like
Renaming a meeting in the app renames the folder. Renaming the folder in Finder renames the meeting. Tape watches the recordings directory and keeps up either way, so there is no state to get out of sync.
Deleting works the same: drag a folder to the Trash and the meeting is gone from the library. Nothing is cached anywhere else.
Because the folder is the whole truth, backups are trivial: any tool that copies a directory has copied your meetings, transcripts, summaries and comments in full.
Your meetings, in files you own
No export required, no lock-in possible.
macOS 15+ · Apple Silicon