Everything you need to get the most out of ShadowEars.
Record and transcribe your meetings, keep them organized, and give your AI assistant total recall of every call. Can’t find something? Email contact@shadowears.com.
Getting started
1. Create your account. Sign up with your name, email, and a password — no card required. You start on the Free plan with 500 transcription minutes a month, and we set up your first workspace automatically.
2. Record your first meeting. From your dashboard, hit Record to capture in the browser, or install the desktop app for full-call capture. See Recording meetings below.
3. Review it. When processing finishes, open the meeting to read its summary, action items, and searchable transcript — with the audio synced to the text.
4. (Optional) Connect your AI. Let Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT search and recall your meetings over MCP — see Connect your AI assistant.
Recording meetings
ShadowEars records locally — it never joins your call as a bot. There are two ways to record.
Desktop app best
Captures the whole call’s audio directly from your computer — everyone is recorded and transcribed, even when you’re on AirPods, across Zoom, Meet, Teams, or anything with sound. Windows 10/11 is available today on the Download page. The macOS app is coming soon.
In your browser
No install needed. Your mic is always recorded. To capture what other participants say, pick This Tab in the browser’s share dialog and turn on “Also share tab audio.”Sharing a whole screen or window won’t include audio, and browsers can’t capture system audio on macOS — use the desktop app for that.
Transcripts & summaries
After a recording uploads, ShadowEars transcribes it automatically, detects the language, and labels who spoke — splitting the transcript into Speaker 1, Speaker 2, … so you can follow the conversation. Each meeting also gets a concise summary and a list of action items with assignees, generated by an AI model.
Open a meeting to read the summary, tick off action items, and browse the full transcript — click any line to jump the audio player to that moment.
Shape the summary. Workspace settings let you choose how summaries are written — short, detailed, or bullet points — and which language they come back in. Handy if you meet in one language but work in another: record in Arabic, read the summary in English. The transcript itself is always kept word-for-word in the language you spoke. Both settings apply to the whole workspace, and you can change them from the web app or the mobile app.
Name your speakers. In the transcript’s Speakers section you can put a real name to a “Speaker 1” — and optionally remember that voice (with the person’s consent) so ShadowEars recognizes them and fills in their name automatically on future meetings. Manage or delete remembered voices anytime from Known voices. Voiceprints are biometric data — see Privacy & security.
Bring your own provider (Pro & Business). A workspace can point at its own transcription engine instead of the built-in one. Email contact@shadowears.com to configure it for your workspace.
Your meeting library
Search everything. The Meetings page searches across titles and full transcripts, so you can find a decision by what was said, not just the title.
Track status. Filter by All, Ready, Processing, or Failed. A meeting moves through uploading → queued → transcribing → ready.
Action items & follow-ups. Every meeting surfaces its action items; your dashboard rolls up open follow-ups across all meetings.
Tagging, moving meetings between projects, and editing summaries are available through your AI assistant over MCP — see below.
Projects
Projects keep meetings organized and control who can see them. Create a project with a name and color, then assign meetings to it when you record.
Visibility. A private project is visible only to its members (and workspace admins); a public project is visible to any workspace member.
Members. Add teammates from your workspace to a project and remove them anytime. Projects with access control are available on Pro and Business.
Deleting. A project can only be deleted once it's empty. If it still holds recordings — including any sitting in Removed — move them to another project first; the delete prompt offers a Move all recordings to… control that does it in one step. Deleting a project never deletes recordings.
Connect your AI assistant
ShadowEars speaks the Model Context Protocol (MCP), so assistants like Claude, Cursor, and ChatGPT can search your meetings, read transcripts, and pull action items on your behalf — with your permission. MCP access is included on Pro and Business.
Connect Claude — no token needed
Recommended- In Claude, open Settings → Connectors and click Add custom connector.
- Paste your ShadowEars MCP URL (below) as the connector URL.
- Click Connect and sign in — you’ll approve access on a ShadowEars consent screen. Done, no token to copy.
https://api.shadowears.com/mcpWorks in Claude.ai and Claude Desktop. In Claude Code, run claude mcp add --transport http shadowears https://api.shadowears.com/mcp and follow the sign-in prompt.
Seeing meeting photos & screenshots
Meetings can include timestamped photos and video keyframes. To let Claude display them, allow ShadowEars to fetch images from its API host — add api.shadowears.com to the allowed image domains in your Claude connector settings. Text (transcripts, summaries, action items) works without this; it only affects images.
Or connect with an access token
For clients that connect with a config file (Cursor, VS Code), or if you prefer a token:
1. Generate a token. In the app, open Connect AI and generate a token. It’s shown once — copy it straight into your client. Tokens are scoped to MCP only and can be revoked anytime.
2. Point your client at the MCP endpoint:
https://api.shadowears.com/mcp3. Add the config for your client
Replace YOUR_TOKEN with the token you generated.
Cursor
Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json in a project.
{
"mcpServers": {
"shadowears": {
"url": "https://api.shadowears.com/mcp",
"headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" }
}
}
}VS Code
Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace.
{
"servers": {
"shadowears": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://api.shadowears.com/mcp",
"headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" }
}
}
}Claude Code
Run this in your terminal.
claude mcp add --transport http shadowears https://api.shadowears.com/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"Claude Desktop
Needs the mcp-remote bridge (Node/npx). Add to claude_desktop_config.json.
{
"mcpServers": {
"shadowears": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y", "mcp-remote", "https://api.shadowears.com/mcp",
"--header", "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"
]
}
}
}What your assistant can do
Once connected, try asking: “What were my action items from last week’s meetings?” These are the tools it has access to:
| list-workspaces | List the workspaces you belong to. |
| list-meetings | List meetings in a workspace, optionally filtered by project or status. |
| search-meetings | Full-text search meetings by title, transcript, or summary. |
| search | Search across every workspace you belong to. Used by ChatGPT connectors, which expect this name. |
| fetch | Get one meeting by the id `search` returned. Used by ChatGPT connectors. |
| get-meeting | Get a meeting with its summary and transcript metadata. |
| get-transcript | Get the full diarized transcript (text + timed segments) for a meeting. |
| get-action-items | List action items from a meeting, project, or whole workspace. |
| create-followup | Create a follow-up action item on a meeting. |
| update-summary | Replace a meeting transcript's summary. |
| tag-meeting | Add or remove a tag on a meeting. |
| move-to-project | Move a meeting to another project in the same workspace. |
| reprocess-meeting | Re-run transcription for a meeting. |
Billing & plans
You’re billed for the transcription minutes you use. Start free, upgrade when you need more, cancel anytime. All prices in USD.
| Plan | Price | Included | Overage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 500 min / month | Pauses at the limit |
| Pro | $12 / mo | 2,000 min / month | 2¢ / min |
| Business | $39 / mo | 6,000 min / month | 2¢ / min |
Overage is charged automatically to your card on your next invoice. Manage everything from Billing in the app — “Manage subscription” opens the Stripe portal to upgrade, downgrade, update your card, or cancel. Payments are processed by Stripe. See the full pricing page and our refund policy.
Workspaces & account
Your meetings, projects, and members live inside a workspace. We create one for you when you sign up. When you belong to more than one, a switcher appears in the dashboard header.
Multiple workspaces are available on the Business plan. Need another workspace or want to invite teammates? Email contact@shadowears.com and we’ll help you get set up.
Sign out anytime from the dashboard header.
Privacy & security
Local capture, no bots. Recording happens on your own machine — ShadowEars never joins your meeting, so nothing appears in the participant list. Audio only leaves your device when you upload it for transcription.
Scoped AI tokens. Tokens you create for AI assistants can only reach the MCP endpoint — never your account settings or billing — and you can revoke any token instantly from the Connect AI page.
Voiceprints are opt-in. ShadowEars only remembers a person’s voice if you explicitly name a speaker and confirm you have their consent — voiceprints are biometric data, stored encrypted per workspace, used only to label speakers in your own transcripts, and deletable anytime from Known voices. Details in the Privacy Policy.
Your data. Recordings and transcripts are stored securely and are visible only to you and the workspace/project members you choose. See our Privacy Policy for details, or reach us at contact@shadowears.com.
Troubleshooting & FAQ
Do I need to install anything? +
No. You can record straight from your browser. For the best experience on desktop — capturing everyone on the call even when you wear AirPods — install the desktop app. Windows is available today; the macOS app is coming soon.
Does it work on a Mac? +
Yes — record from your browser today (your mic plus shared tab audio). The native macOS app, which captures the whole call’s system audio via ScreenCaptureKit, is in the works pending Apple notarization.
Do you put a bot in my meeting? +
No. ShadowEars never joins your call. Recording happens locally — the desktop app captures your computer’s audio, or your browser captures a shared tab. Nothing appears in the participant list.
Only my microphone was recorded — where’s everyone else? +
In the browser you must share audio: in the share dialog pick “This Tab” and turn on “Also share tab audio”. Sharing a whole screen or window won’t include audio, and browsers can’t capture system audio on macOS — use the desktop app for that.
What happens when I hit my monthly minutes? +
On Free, transcription pauses until the next month. On Pro and Business, extra minutes keep transcribing and are billed as overage on your next invoice (2¢/min).
Can I use my own transcription provider? +
Yes, on Pro and Business — point a workspace at your own transcription endpoint. Contact support@shadowears.com to set it up for your workspace.
An upload failed — what do I do? +
Uploads are resumable. Check your connection and try again from the meeting; the desktop app retries automatically. If it keeps failing, email contact@shadowears.com.
How do I cancel or change my plan? +
Open Billing in the app and choose “Manage subscription” to reach the Stripe portal, where you can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel anytime. Access continues to the end of the paid period.