Frequently Asked Questions · Knowledge Base
Clear, direct answers regarding local Markdown vaults, botless macOS call recording, on-device Whisper transcription, and strict data privacy.
Explore 70 comprehensive guides covering privacy invariants, technical audio architecture, local AI inference, and migration workflows.
Essential facts about how Oyma operates, stores your notes, and protects your confidential conversations.
Oyma collects zero telemetry, document analytics, or tracking beacons. All notes, audio recordings, and transcripts remain strictly on your local Mac disk. Oyma never transmits your files, search queries, or meeting contents to remote servers.
Read technical breakdown →Yes. Oyma is fully functional without an active internet connection. You can create notes, search your vault, record meetings, run speech-to-text transcription, and execute local AI summaries entirely offline in airplane mode.
Read technical breakdown →Oyma records meetings by tapping your Mac's internal audio output via Apple's native ScreenCaptureKit framework. Because audio is captured directly from your operating system, zero bots join the video call.
Read technical breakdown →Yes. Oyma treats any standard directory of CommonMark files as a native vault. You can open your existing Obsidian folder directly without converting formats, running migration scripts, or breaking your Obsidian workflow.
Read technical breakdown →Data ownership, zero telemetry, local-only architecture, offline execution, and license terms.
Learn why Oyma collects zero telemetry, runs no analytics beacons, and guarantees complete document privacy on your Mac.
Direct Answer: Oyma collects zero telemetry, document analytics, or tracking beacons. All notes, audio recordings, and transcripts remain strictly on your local Mac disk. Oyma never transmits your files, search queries, or meeting contents to remote servers.
Discover how Oyma operates 100% offline with zero cloud handshakes, allowing you to write notes and transcribe meetings anywhere.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma is fully functional without an active internet connection. You can create notes, search your vault, record meetings, run speech-to-text transcription, and execute local AI summaries entirely offline in airplane mode.
Understand where Oyma saves your Markdown notes, audio attachments, and transcription records on your local macOS filesystem.
Direct Answer: Oyma stores your notes as plain CommonMark (.md) files in a standard directory folder on your Mac that you choose. Meeting audio files and transcripts are saved as standard media attachments directly inside that vault folder.
Learn why Oyma requires no email registration, cloud logins, or passwords to start taking notes and recording meetings.
Direct Answer: No. Oyma requires zero account creation, email registration, or cloud logins. You download the application, launch it on your Mac, select a local folder for your vault, and start writing immediately.
Explore Oyma's transparent pricing: generous core features available with local storage, and optional premium productivity upgrades.
Direct Answer: Oyma offers a robust free tier with full local Markdown editing, wikilinks, visual tables, and basic audio recording. Advanced features—such as extended on-device Whisper transcription and AI templates—are available via transparent one-time purchase or professional license.
Check hardware and software requirements for Oyma, including Apple Silicon M-series support, macOS versions, and memory guidance.
Direct Answer: Oyma requires macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or newer, with macOS 14.2+ (Sonoma) recommended for optimal ScreenCaptureKit audio. While compatible with Intel Macs, Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) is strongly recommended for hardware-accelerated Whisper transcription.
Understand the local-first software paradigm: why storing data on your device provides superior privacy compared to cloud SaaS models.
Direct Answer: Local-first software stores all data on your local device as the primary source of truth. By eliminating central servers, your notes and recordings are immune to remote data breaches, cloud downtime, unauthorized subpoena disclosures, and AI training harvesting.
Learn how macOS App Sandbox and security boundaries restrict Oyma to only the folder you explicitly grant access to.
Direct Answer: No. Oyma operates within macOS security boundaries and only accesses the specific vault directory you explicitly select. It cannot read your personal photos, documents, browsing history, or system files outside that folder.
Understand Oyma's secure update mechanism, Apple Developer ID cryptographic signing, and manual update controls.
Direct Answer: Oyma checks for updates over encrypted HTTPS using cryptographic Apple Developer ID signatures. You maintain full control over whether updates install automatically or require manual review.
Understand licensing rights for Oyma, confirming complete freedom to use the software for both personal and enterprise tasks.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma is fully licensed for both personal journaling and commercial business workflows. You retain 100% intellectual property ownership of all notes, transcripts, audio files, and syntheses you produce.
CommonMark syntax, live-preview editing, wikilinks, backlinks, callouts, and interactive tables.
Explore Oyma's full support for CommonMark, GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM), and Obsidian-compatible syntax extensions.
Direct Answer: Oyma supports the complete CommonMark standard, GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) extensions (tables, task lists, strikethrough), and Obsidian-compatible syntax (wikilinks, callouts, and YAML frontmatter).
Learn how Oyma builds a connected knowledge graph using bidirectional wikilinks, backlink panels, and unlinked mentions.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma natively supports Obsidian-style wikilinks `[[Note Title]]`, automated bidirectional backlink discovery, and unlinked mention suggestions powered by a fast local SQLite graph index.
Discover Oyma's seamless WYSIWYG Live Preview mode: formatted typography while preserving pure Markdown source code.
Direct Answer: Oyma features a seamless Live Preview editor. As you write, Markdown syntax elements render into rich typography (headings, bold, tables, callouts) while keeping the underlying file 100% clean plain text.
Learn how Oyma makes table editing intuitive with visual spreadsheet controls while saving clean pipe syntax to disk.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma includes an interactive visual table editor. You can insert columns, drag-to-resize, reorder rows, and align text visually, while Oyma writes beautifully formatted pipe table syntax to your Markdown file.
Learn how Oyma renders Obsidian-style callout blocks with custom icons, color styling, and collapsible sections.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma natively supports Obsidian-style callout syntax (> [!NOTE], > [!WARNING], > [!TIP], etc.), rendering them into beautiful visual admonition banners with icons, custom accents, and collapsible folding.
Discover how Oyma renders inline and display LaTeX math equations using high-performance KaTeX acceleration.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma includes full LaTeX mathematical typesetting. You can write inline equations ($E=mc^2$) and display block math ($$...$$) powered by high-speed, local KaTeX rendering.
Learn how to embed screenshots, audio clips, video recordings, and multi-page PDFs directly inside Oyma Markdown notes.
Direct Answer: Yes. You can drag and drop or paste images, audio files, videos, and PDFs directly into Oyma. Media files are saved in your local vault assets folder and render natively inside the editor.
Explore Oyma's export capabilities: generate publication-ready PDFs, Word DOCX documents, and clean HTML from Markdown.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma allows you to export notes, transcripts, and meeting summaries to publication-grade styled PDF, Microsoft Word (.docx), and clean HTML with custom headers, footers, and page numbers.
Discover how Oyma delivers sub-10ms full-text search across thousands of notes using an embedded SQLite FTS5 index.
Direct Answer: Oyma powers instant search using an embedded SQLite FTS5 full-text index with BM25 algorithmic relevance ranking. Queries execute in sub-10 milliseconds across vaults containing tens of thousands of notes.
Learn how Oyma organizes knowledge using nested hashtags (#tag/subtag) and structured YAML frontmatter properties.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma supports both inline hashtags (including nested tags like #work/project) and structured YAML frontmatter properties for rich metadata filtering and organization.
Botless call capture, CoreAudio meeting detection, ScreenCaptureKit permissions, and audio devices.
Learn how Oyma captures pristine call audio directly from macOS ScreenCaptureKit without sending awkward virtual recording bots.
Direct Answer: Oyma records meetings by tapping your Mac's internal audio output via Apple's native ScreenCaptureKit framework. Because audio is captured directly from your operating system, zero bots join the video call.
Understand how Oyma utilizes macOS ScreenCaptureKit to stream pristine call audio without third-party virtual audio kernel drivers.
Direct Answer: Oyma uses Apple's native ScreenCaptureKit framework (`SCStream`) to capture internal system audio directly from the macOS compositor. This eliminates the need for buggy kernel extensions, virtual soundcards, or BlackHole drivers.
Learn how Oyma detects active Zoom, Meet, and Teams calls using CoreAudio device state monitoring without calendar permissions.
Direct Answer: Oyma monitors macOS CoreAudio hardware state changes. When a video conferencing app claims the microphone or activates system audio output streams, Oyma detects the call automatically and prompts you to record.
Discover how Oyma records both your voice and other participants in pristine dual-channel audio for flawless transcription.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma records dual-channel audio: Channel A captures your microphone (your voice), and Channel B captures internal macOS system audio (all other participants). Both channels are balanced and synchronized automatically.
Learn how to import and transcribe voice memos, MP3s, podcast interviews, and Zoom recordings directly inside Oyma.
Direct Answer: Yes. You can import any existing audio or video file (MP3, M4A, WAV, AAC, MOV, MP4) into Oyma. On-device Whisper transcribes the file locally and creates a linked Markdown note with timestamps.
Understand headphone guidance for Oyma: why headphones prevent echo and deliver the cleanest transcription quality.
Direct Answer: Headphones are strongly recommended but not strictly mandatory. Wearing headphones prevents audio from your laptop speakers bleeding back into your microphone, eliminating acoustic echo and ensuring pristine Whisper transcription.
Discover how Oyma protects long recordings from memory pressure using disk streaming buffers and crash recovery.
Direct Answer: Oyma streams audio buffers directly to local temporary disk storage in real time. Even if your Mac experiences severe RAM pressure or crashes, recorded audio is never lost and recovers automatically upon restart.
Learn how to pause recording, mute sensitive discussions, or redact private segments during meetings in Oyma.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma includes an instant Pause/Resume button and a global keyboard shortcut (⌘⇧P). While paused, zero audio is captured or written to disk, ensuring confidential discussions are excluded completely.
Discover how Oyma records Slack Huddles, Discord voice channels, WhatsApp calls, and browser meetings with zero setup.
Direct Answer: Yes. Because Oyma operates at the macOS operating system level via ScreenCaptureKit, it records Slack Huddles, Discord channels, browser-based calls, and any other audio application effortlessly.
Learn where Oyma saves meeting audio files on your Mac, their file formats, compression ratios, and retention controls.
Direct Answer: Oyma saves meeting audio directly inside your vault's `recordings/` folder as standard AAC-compressed `.m4a` files. Files are playable in any standard media player and never uploaded to cloud servers.
On-device Whisper transcription, Ollama local LLMs, Bring Your Own Key (BYOK), and meeting summaries.
Discover how Oyma achieves fast, private speech-to-text using OpenAI's Whisper model optimized for Apple Silicon Neural Engine.
Direct Answer: Oyma runs an optimized CoreML implementation of OpenAI's Whisper model directly on your Mac's Apple Silicon Neural Engine. Speech is transcribed locally in real time without sending audio data across the internet.
Explore the 99+ languages supported by Oyma's on-device Whisper engine, including automated language identification and translation.
Direct Answer: Oyma's on-device Whisper engine supports over 99 languages out of the box, including Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, and Arabic, with automated language identification and English translation.
Learn how to connect Oyma to Ollama on your Mac to generate meeting summaries and AI synthesis with 100% offline local LLMs.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma connects natively to Ollama running on your Mac (`http://localhost:11434`). You can use open models like Llama 3, Mistral, and Gemma to summarize meetings and query notes with zero data leaving your machine.
Understand Oyma's BYOK model: connect directly to OpenAI, Anthropic, or OpenRouter with zero markup and zero telemetry.
Direct Answer: Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) allows you to enter your private API keys from Anthropic, OpenAI, or OpenRouter. Oyma makes direct HTTPS calls to those providers from your Mac with zero intermediary servers, zero markups, and zero logging.
Learn why Oyma never uses your notes, voice audio, or meeting transcripts to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models.
Direct Answer: No. Never. Oyma never uses your notes, audio files, or transcripts to train AI models. Local models (Whisper, Ollama) run strictly offline, and commercial BYOK API agreements with OpenAI/Anthropic explicitly prohibit training on API data.
Explore Oyma's library of AI meeting summary templates: executive briefings, action items, engineering RFCs, and 1-on-1 reviews.
Direct Answer: Oyma includes specialized pre-built prompt templates for executive briefings, engineering standups, customer discovery interviews, 1-on-1 feedback sessions, and project retrospectives.
Learn how to ask questions about past meetings, search transcripts with AI, and extract specific decisions across your notes.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma includes an interactive AI Chat panel. You can ask questions about the current meeting transcript or query across your entire vault using local Ollama models or private cloud BYOK keys.
Compare Whisper model tiers: understand the trade-offs between speed, RAM usage, and accuracy for on-device transcription.
Direct Answer: For most Mac users, Whisper Base or Small provides the optimal balance of high speed and strong accuracy. For complex technical jargon or multilingual meetings, Whisper Large-v3 delivers the highest precision on Apple Silicon.
Understand the battery efficiency of running local Whisper and LLMs on Apple Silicon Macs, and tips for optimizing energy use.
Direct Answer: Oyma is optimized for Apple Silicon hardware efficiency. Whisper executes on the dedicated Apple Neural Engine, which consumes under 4–6 watts during transcription—delivering hours of battery life during mobile work.
Learn how to build custom prompt templates in Oyma to generate bespoke meeting minutes, action items, and executive briefs.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma allows you to create an unlimited library of custom prompt templates. You can define exact formatting rules, section headers, and output conventions using standard Markdown prompts.
Obsidian vault compatibility, plain CommonMark files on disk, SQLite FTS5 search, and asset storage.
Learn how Oyma opens standard Obsidian folders directly without re-indexing, format conversions, or proprietary metadata.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma treats any standard directory of CommonMark files as a native vault. You can open your existing Obsidian folder directly without converting formats, running migration scripts, or breaking your Obsidian workflow.
Discover why Oyma stores every document as clean CommonMark text on disk with zero database lock-in or proprietary files.
Direct Answer: No. Oyma never locks your notes into proprietary database containers, binary blobs, or obfuscated formats. Every document is saved as an open, standard CommonMark text file readable by any editor on any operating system.
Learn how to backup your Oyma Markdown vault using Apple Time Machine, local disk snapshots, and external encrypted storage.
Direct Answer: Because your Oyma vault is an ordinary folder on your Mac, backups work automatically with Apple Time Machine. You can also back up your vault by copying the folder to external encrypted drives, local network storage, or cloud archive volumes.
Explore how to track note history, commit revisions, and manage your Oyma CommonMark vault with native Git version control.
Direct Answer: Yes. Git works seamlessly with Oyma. Because all notes are plain text CommonMark files, you can initialize a Git repository in your vault folder, commit revisions, inspect textual diffs, and push your history to private remote repositories.
Learn how Oyma mirrors your native macOS directory structure with nested folders, subfolders, and infinite vault hierarchies.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma provides full support for nested folders and subfolders. The sidebar file tree directly mirrors the real folder structure on your Mac disk, allowing you to organize notes with infinite folder depth.
Discover how Oyma's real-time filesystem watcher instantly updates documents modified by external editors like VS Code or Vim.
Direct Answer: Oyma detects external file modifications in real time using macOS filesystem event notifications. If you edit or save a note in VS Code, Vim, or Sublime Text, Oyma updates the open view instantly without data loss or conflicts.
Learn how to create, isolate, and instantly switch between multiple independent project or personal vaults in Oyma.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma allows you to create and manage multiple independent vaults. You can keep personal journals, confidential client casework, and corporate engineering notes completely isolated in separate folders on disk.
Discover how Oyma automates daily journaling, date-stamped logs, and calendar-linked scratchpads with custom date formatting.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma features built-in daily note automation. Pressing `⌘D` opens or creates today's daily log instantly, organized by year and month according to your custom file naming and template preferences.
Learn how Oyma stores pasted images, PDFs, and media attachments inside your local vault's designated assets directory.
Direct Answer: When you paste or drag images and documents into Oyma, they are saved directly into your vault's local attachments folder. Notes reference them using standard Markdown image links, ensuring complete portability.
Explore how Oyma achieves sub-10ms full-text search across 10,000+ Markdown notes using an embedded SQLite FTS5 index.
Direct Answer: Oyma delivers sub-10 millisecond full-text search across vaults containing over 10,000 notes. By utilizing an embedded SQLite FTS5 search index, queries execute instantaneously as you type without UI stutter or latency.
Confidentiality, two-party consent laws, HIPAA considerations, attorney-client privilege, and network egress monitoring.
Learn how Oyma's local-only architecture keeps patient data on your Mac, and how HIPAA requirements apply to offline software.
Direct Answer: Oyma is offline desktop software that does not transmit, store, or process data on remote servers. While Oyma does not issue Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) or claim third-party compliance certification, its local-only architecture eliminates cloud transmission risks for medical notes.
Understand two-party consent laws, audio recording regulations, and ethical guidelines when capturing call audio with Oyma.
Direct Answer: Recording laws vary by jurisdiction. In two-party (all-party) consent states and countries, you must inform all participants and obtain their explicit consent before recording audio with Oyma. Always announce recordings prior to starting.
Learn how legal practitioners protect privileged client notes and case recordings using Oyma's zero-cloud architecture.
Direct Answer: Yes. Legal practitioners frequently select Oyma specifically because its offline architecture prevents third-party cloud subpoena risks, accidental disclosure, or waiver of attorney-client privilege.
Discover how Oyma's built-in network egress log lets you inspect, audit, and verify every network socket attempt in real time.
Direct Answer: Oyma includes a real-time Network Egress Monitor that intercepts and logs every socket connection, DNS resolution, and HTTP request requested by the application. In local mode, you can watch the log confirm zero outbound network bytes.
Understand why local-first desktop software doesn't hold SOC 2 reports, and how eliminating cloud servers simplifies security audits.
Direct Answer: SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications evaluate organizations that host, process, and manage customer data on remote cloud servers. Because Oyma operates zero cloud infrastructure and never hosts customer data, SOC 2 reports do not apply.
Learn how macOS hardware-level FileVault XTS-AES-128 encryption protects your Oyma vault files against unauthorized physical access.
Direct Answer: Your Oyma notes and audio files are protected at rest by macOS FileVault full-disk encryption. FileVault uses hardware-accelerated XTS-AES-128 encryption tied to the Apple Silicon Secure Enclave to protect your files against physical theft.
Discover how Oyma protects third-party AI keys using macOS Keychain Services, hardware Secure Enclave, and zero plain-text storage.
Direct Answer: Oyma stores your private API keys inside Apple's native macOS Keychain Services. Keys are never saved as plain text in configuration files or uploaded to servers, ensuring hardware-level credential protection.
Learn how enterprise InfoSec teams can verify Oyma using Little Snitch, Wireshark, macOS codesign, and sandboxing inspections.
Direct Answer: Yes. Enterprise InfoSec and compliance teams can audit Oyma using standard network monitoring tools like Wireshark and Little Snitch, inspect binary code signatures with macOS codesign, and verify App Sandbox boundaries.
Explore how Oyma inherently complies with GDPR and CCPA by never processing, transmitting, or storing your personal data on servers.
Direct Answer: Oyma complies with GDPR and CCPA by design. Because Oyma operates zero central servers and collects zero personal data, there are no remote databases to breach, no personal profiles to delete, and zero third-party data transfers.
Learn how to run Oyma in high-security, air-gapped, SCIF, or defense environments with local Whisper and offline Ollama models.
Direct Answer: Yes. Oyma can be deployed in fully air-gapped environments, SCIF facilities, and classified defense networks. All core features—including audio transcription and local AI models—function with zero network connectivity.
Differences from cloud notetakers, migrating from Evernote or Notion, and export fidelity.
Compare Oyma and Granola: understand differences in privacy, local storage, cloud dependencies, and botless audio capture.
Direct Answer: While both apps offer botless macOS recording, Granola uploads meeting audio and notes to cloud servers for processing. Oyma keeps 100% of audio, transcripts, and notes on your local Mac disk, with optional on-device Whisper and local Ollama AI.
Compare Oyma and Obsidian: see how native macOS audio capture, built-in Whisper, and out-of-the-box AI differ from plugin setups.
Direct Answer: Oyma and Obsidian share the same local-first Markdown vault philosophy. However, Oyma includes native macOS ScreenCaptureKit meeting recording, on-device Whisper transcription, and integrated AI synthesis out of the box without fragile plugin stacks.
Understand the core trade-offs between Oyma's fast, offline Markdown vaults and Notion's proprietary cloud database workspaces.
Direct Answer: Notion is a cloud-hosted workspace that stores documents in proprietary online databases. Oyma is a local-first Mac application that stores standard CommonMark text on your drive, delivering instant search, complete offline access, and absolute privacy.
Compare Oyma with Otter.ai: discover the advantages of botless ScreenCaptureKit audio and zero-cloud local transcript processing.
Direct Answer: Otter.ai dispatches intrusive recording bots into video meetings and uploads audio to third-party cloud servers. Oyma records meetings directly from macOS without any bot joining, processing transcripts entirely on your local Mac disk.
Evaluate Oyma versus Fireflies.ai: privacy-first on-device transcription versus cloud-hosted bots with server-side AI storage.
Direct Answer: Oyma records audio directly from macOS without dispatching bots and transcribes speech locally using Apple Silicon. Fireflies.ai requires automated calendar bots, cloud storage, and recurring SaaS subscriptions.
Learn why knowledge workers transition from Apple Notes' proprietary SQLite store to Oyma's portable CommonMark files.
Direct Answer: Apple Notes locks documents into a closed, proprietary database with limited Markdown support and no audio meeting transcription. Oyma provides open CommonMark text on disk, bidirectional wikilinks, and native meeting intelligence.
Step-by-step guide to exporting your Notion workspace as Markdown and HTML, organizing folders, and opening your vault in Oyma.
Direct Answer: Export your Notion workspace by selecting Settings & Members > Export > Export all workspace content as Markdown & CSV. Unzip the downloaded archive and open that folder directly in Oyma as your new vault.
Learn how to convert legacy Evernote ENEX archives into standards-compliant CommonMark files and open them instantly in Oyma.
Direct Answer: Export your Evernote notebooks as `.enex` files, then convert them into clean CommonMark files using open-source tools like Yarle. Once converted, open the output folder directly in Oyma.
Follow this step-by-step walkthrough to export your notes from Bear App as Markdown with attachments directly into Oyma.
Direct Answer: In Bear, select File > Export Notes... and choose 'Markdown' with 'Export attachments' enabled. Choose your destination folder, then open that folder directly in Oyma as your vault.
Discover why Oyma imposes zero lock-in: your notes are standard CommonMark files that open instantly in any editor anytime.
Direct Answer: Yes. Because Oyma stores all notes as standard CommonMark files and audio recordings in standard media formats, you can stop using Oyma at any time without exporting, converting, or migrating your data.
Every question in this catalog is backed by real computer architecture. Oyma never hides behind vague cloud privacy policies. All documents are standard UTF-8 CommonMark text files on your disk, audio processing executes on Apple Silicon, and zero network telemetry is ever transmitted.
Get started with Oyma for macOS. Take notes in fast CommonMark, capture meetings without bots, and keep 100% custody of your thoughts.
