Fireflies.ai

Fireflies.ai is a cloud service that transcribes audio and writes meeting notes. MacParsley can use it in three ways, and you choose each separately:

• as the transcription engine (Fireflies makes the transcript),
• as the summarization model (Fireflies writes the summary),
• as a source you import from (meetings already in your Fireflies account).

Unlike the models on your Mac, Fireflies works from the audio, so using it means your recordings leave your Mac. MacParsley asks you once before it first does that, and says so wherever Fireflies is a choice.

What you need

Set it up

1. Open Settings → Summaries and click Configure Engines…. (The same form is under Configure Additional Models in the Summarization Model menu.)
2. In the Fireflies.ai section paste your key and click Save. It shows Connected as your name with a green check, then This plan can upload audio (it asks Fireflies to fetch a non-audio address, which a free plan refuses at once; if you see a warning, the plan can't be used for uploads).
3. Choose the Cloud storage to use, or Set Up Storage… if there is none.

Once the key is saved, Fireflies.ai appears in the Default Transcription Engine and Summarization Model menus. Those menus list only what's set up, and the form also appears under Summarization Model when you choose Fireflies.ai there.

Use it as the transcription engine or the summarizer

Settings → Summaries has both choices:

• Default Transcription Engine → Fireflies.ai. New audio is transcribed by Fireflies. Speaker matching, titles and mind maps then run as usual on its transcript.
• Summarization Model → Fireflies.ai. New meetings get Fireflies' summary, kept as a version labelled Fireflies Summary.

Either one sends the audio. What you can mix:

If Fireflies can't take a recording (no storage, a free plan, no connection), that meeting is processed on your Mac instead, and a message says why. Plaud and Pocket recordings keep their own transcripts and summaries.

You can also choose Fireflies for one meeting: in the Import window's Summarization row choose Custom → Fireflies.ai, or use Resummarize and pick Fireflies.ai in the Model menu. The audio goes up, MacParsley waits for the result, adds Fireflies' summary as a new version and ignores its transcript, so the meeting's own transcript stays as it is.

A meeting that Fireflies has already processed isn't uploaded again: MacParsley reads the transcript Fireflies already has. This saves minutes on your Fireflies plan.

What comes back

If Fireflies makes the transcript, its words are kept, and your Mac works out which speaker said each line so it can recognize people by voice; it doesn't transcribe the meeting again. See Transcripts from Plaud, Pocket or Fireflies.

Fireflies' summary is arranged like MacParsley's own:

• Overview, then the notes in the length and template you chose in Fireflies (Customize Notes on its website, which applies to the whole account),
• any sections you switched on there,
• the extra sections you ask for in MacParsley (below),
• Action items written as checkboxes with the owner, and Keywords.

Extra sections

Fireflies' website offers sections such as Meeting Outline, Blockers, Topics, Decisions, Ideas, Key Takeaways, Questions, Customer Needs, Competitor Mentions, Meeting Outcome, Feedback and Candidate Experience. They can only be switched on for your whole account there. MacParsley instead asks Fireflies' AI (its AskFred feature) for the ones you choose, meeting by meeting:

• In the Fireflies form, tick the sections to add to every summary.
• In Resummarize with Fireflies chosen, tick the sections for that meeting.

A section the meeting has nothing for is left out. Asking uses Fireflies AI credits. If the request fails the summary still arrives without them, with a message. MacParsley can't change the ticks on Fireflies' own website.

Import meetings from Fireflies

Meetings already in your Fireflies account (recorded by its bot, uploaded there, or sent by MacParsley) can be imported like Plaud and Pocket recordings.

1. In Settings → Recording → Third Party Integrations switch Fireflies on and click Configure… to choose what comes over (audio always; transcript and summary optional).
2. In the Import window choose Fireflies as the source. Search by title, choose a date range, tick meetings, and import.

It has the same helpers as Plaud and Pocket: Hide already imported, Show ignored and Ignore, ⌘ ⌥ ⇧ selecting, one meeting at a time with Stop Import, a wait for meetings that are still processing, and a pause when Fireflies limits requests. You can also paste a Fireflies link (app.fireflies.ai/view/…) into Web Link. Audio comes with a Pro plan or higher; without it a meeting can't be imported.

What stays in Fireflies

MacParsley never deletes anything in your Fireflies account. Each meeting you process stays there, so you can still play with it on Fireflies' website. The only change is that the short tag MacParsley adds to the title while it waits for the result is removed afterwards. Delete a meeting in Fireflies yourself if you don't want it kept there.

Limits

• Audio files up to 200 MB, in mp3, m4a, wav, ogg or mp4.
• Fireflies limits how many requests an account can make per minute and per day. MacParsley pauses when told to.
• Processing takes a few minutes after the upload. The Activity list shows what MacParsley is waiting for.

If something goes wrong, see Troubleshooting.

← Plaud and Pocketnote1.ai →