Local-only mode and privacy controls

Oyma lets you decide where each AI feature runs: on your Mac, in the cloud with your own key, or not at all. Local-only mode goes further and blocks the app’s network access entirely. Every cloud call that does happen is recorded in an egress log you can read.

All of these controls are in Settings › Privacy.

Local-only mode

Turn on Local-only mode under Processing. While it’s on:

• Every feature is forced to run on your Mac, and the preset and per-feature menus are locked.
• Network requests from the app are blocked, both from the window and from the app’s background process. Only connections to your own Mac (localhost / 127.0.0.1) are allowed.
• Cloud AI calls, link previews, update checks and usage statistics stop.
• Speech models don’t download automatically. You can still download one explicitly from Settings › Meetings, which uses the network once with your consent. After that, transcription works offline.

Ollama runs on your Mac, so summaries and Ask keep working in Local-only mode. See Summaries and Ask with Ollama or your own key.

The setting takes effect immediately, with no restart.

Processing presets

Privacy preset sets everything in one step:

Preset	What it does
Maximum privacy	Everything on your Mac, and Local-only mode is switched on
Balanced (recommended)	The default. Transcription, meeting summaries and Ask run on your Mac. Network access stays on for things like link previews and model downloads
Best quality	Transcription and AI in the cloud with your own API keys. Transcription audio goes to OpenAI
Custom (per-feature)	Shown when you change a single feature below

Per-feature routing

Under Per-feature routing, set each feature to On device, Cloud or, where it makes sense, Off. The rows include:

• Transcription: on device is private and works offline. Cloud is faster but sends audio to OpenAI with your key.
• Meeting summary: on device uses Ollama. Cloud uses your AI provider. Off skips summaries.
• Ask Oyma: on device uses Ollama. Cloud uses your AI provider.

Changing any row switches the preset to Custom (per-feature). Cloud options use the provider and key you set in AI settings. Oyma doesn’t have its own cloud AI service.

To see where summaries and Ask run right now, check the Meeting summary & chat row on the AI tab.

The egress log

Egress log, at the bottom of Settings › Privacy, lists every cloud call: when it happened, which feature and provider, and roughly how many bytes were sent. It never stores the content.

• Export CSV… saves the log as a spreadsheet.
• Clear log empties it.

Calls to Ollama on your own Mac aren’t cloud calls, so they don’t appear.

Telemetry

Both options under Telemetry are off by default:

• Share anonymous crash reports: crash details and basic counts, never note content.
• Share anonymous usage statistics: which features you use and how often, never what you write. They’re never sent in Local-only mode, and they appear in the egress log.

The welcome dialog on first launch shows the same two options, unchecked.

Turn AI off for one note

Add ai: false to the frontmatter of any note you want kept away from AI:

---
ai: false
---

For that note, Oyma won’t write a summary, generate a title, answer Ask questions, or send its recording for cloud transcription. Ask, for example, replies “AI is disabled for this note. Your content was not sent.” On-device transcription still works, because that audio stays on your Mac.

So the setting covers cloud transcription, summaries, titles and Ask, and applies only to the note that contains it.

Your files

Notes are plain Markdown files in a folder you choose, and recordings are saved inside that folder. There’s no account and no sign-in. To keep a copy elsewhere, back up the folder the way you back up any other files.

Related

• Transcription models and languages covers downloading a model for offline use.
• Troubleshooting covers what to do when a feature is blocked or shows an error.