Your first conversation.
Your first useful note.

1. Open Shravana and follow the setup guide. Choose where to keep your recordings and notes. This folder is your workspace; it does not need to be an Obsidian folder.
2. Allow microphone access. This records your voice. For online meetings, computer audio captures the other people. Permission alone does not start a recording. If access stays blocked, check your system’s privacy settings and return to Shravana.
3. Let everyone know, then press Record. Try saying: “We agreed to hold the reading group on Thursday. Sam will ask about hosting.” You can pause and resume.
4. Press Stop, then open Library. Open the saved recording, play it, give it a useful title, and add a note. Your first test is complete.

A calendar connection is optional. You can start a recording yourself without connecting Google or Outlook.

1. Open Settings → Transcription. Choose a compatible local model and download it. A model is an AI file trained for a task; this one recognizes speech.
2. Wait for the download to finish, then select the model. You need internet for the download, but the local model processes the audio on your computer.
3. Open your recording, choose Transcript, then Generate transcript. Review the text, especially names, numbers, and dates.

In this beta, local summaries need Ollama or LM Studio. These are separate apps that run a text model on your computer. Shravana sends the transcript to that local model and brings the result back into your note.

1. Create or open a vault in Obsidian first. Remember which folder it uses.
2. In Shravana, open a saved note and choose Export from its menu.
3. Select what to include: your memo, transcript, summary, or a combination. There must be some text to export.
4. Choose Choose vault & save to Obsidian, then select the vault’s folder.
5. Open Obsidian. The exported note appears there as a Markdown file, a text file that supports headings and lists.

This saves a new copy. It does not keep later edits synchronized between the apps. No MCP connection is needed. If you use Obsidian Sync or another folder-sync service, that service controls where your exported copy goes.

The connection uses MCP, short for Model Context Protocol. It is a standard way for an AI app to request information from another app. You can skip this whole section and still record, summarize, and export.

1. Open Settings → AI connections in Shravana.
2. Choose a supported app, such as Claude Desktop, and choose the kinds of text it may read: notes, transcripts, or action items. Basic meeting information is included. These permissions cover categories of content, not individually selected notes.
3. Click Create connection. Follow the setup instructions Shravana shows for your chosen app. Keep its private access key to yourself.
4. In that AI app, ask a question about your saved notes. It can retrieve only the content its connection allows. Check the answer against your original note.
5. Return to AI connections to revoke access when you no longer want that app connected.

Shravana’s connection is read-only and does not provide recording audio or calendar passwords. A connected AI app may still send permitted text to its own cloud provider. “Local connection” does not automatically mean “local AI.”