Voice

Minutes Openclaw

Name: Minutes Openclaw
Rating: 3.5 (1 reviews)
Author: maosuarez

By maosuarez 👁 8 views ▲ 0 votes

minutes-openclaw — OpenClaw plugin that registers the Minutes CLI as a local MediaUnderstandingProvider, delivering offline whisper.cpp audio transcription to any OpenClaw channel without cloud API calls.

GitHub

Install

npm install
npm

README

# minutes-openclaw

Local whisper.cpp audio transcription for OpenClaw, powered by the [Minutes](https://github.com/silverstein/minutes) CLI.

Registers Minutes as a `MediaUnderstandingProvider` so **any OpenClaw channel** (WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.) gets private offline transcription without sending audio to a cloud API.

## Requirements

- **`minutes` binary in PATH** (or set `MINUTES_BIN=/path/to/minutes`)
  - Install: `cargo install minutes-cli` or download from [github.com/silverstein/minutes/releases](https://github.com/silverstein/minutes/releases)
- **Whisper model downloaded**: `minutes setup --model small`
- **ffmpeg** (recommended for ogg/opus/webm from WhatsApp/Telegram):
  - macOS: `brew install ffmpeg`
  - Linux: `apt install ffmpeg`
  - Without ffmpeg, WAV and MP3 are still supported natively

## Installation

**One-liner** — installs and builds directly from GitHub, then configures OpenClaw:

```bash
openclaw plugins install github:maosuarez/minutes-openclaw
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/maosuarez/minutes-openclaw/master/install.sh | bash
```

**Custom binary or language:**

```bash
MINUTES_BIN=/usr/local/bin/minutes MINUTES_LANGUAGE=es \
  curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/maosuarez/minutes-openclaw/master/install.sh | bash
```

**From a local clone** (for development or offline):

```bash
git clone https://github.com/maosuarez/minutes-openclaw
cd minutes-openclaw
openclaw plugins install .   # prepare script builds automatically
./install.sh
```

`install.sh` env vars:

| Var | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `MINUTES_BIN` | `minutes` | Path to the `minutes` binary |
| `MINUTES_LANGUAGE` | _(auto)_ | Default language code (`en`, `es`, `fr`, …) |
| `MINUTES_PERSIST_MEMO` | `true` | Set `false` to skip saving `.md` memos |

## Enable for audio understanding

Installing the plugin registers the provider, but OpenClaw only uses it once you
wire it into `tools.media.audio.models` (same as any other audio provider —
installation alone is not enough). One validated write:

```bash
openclaw config patch --stdin <<'EOF'
{ tools: { media: { audio: { enabled: true, models: [ { type: "provider", provider: "minutes", model: "whisper.cpp" } ] } } } }
EOF
openclaw plugins doctor          # should report "No plugin issues detected"
# restart the gateway so the change applies (e.g. systemctl --user restart openclaw-gateway)
```

Verify end-to-end without sending a real voice note:

```bash
openclaw infer audio transcribe --file /path/to/audio.wav --json
# routes through the minutes provider and prints the transcript
```

## How it works

When OpenClaw receives a voice note attachment:

1. The audio buffer is written to a temp file.
2. `minutes process <temp> -t memo` is called locally — whisper.cpp transcribes it.
3. The resulting `.md` file in `~/meetings/memos/` is read; the `## Transcript` section is extracted.
4. The text is returned to OpenClaw for delivery.
5. The temp audio file is always deleted. The memo `.md` is kept by default (`persistMemo: true`).

## Priority

`autoPriority: { audio: 10 }` — lower than all bundled cloud providers (openai=20, xai=25, …), so Minutes is tried **first** when installed.

## Configuration

| Key | Type | Default | Description |
|-----|------|---------|-------------|
| `persistMemo` | boolean | `true` | Save transcription as a memo in `~/meetings/memos/` |
| `minutesBin` | string | `"minutes"` | Path to the `minutes` binary (or set `MINUTES_BIN` env var) |
| `language` | string | _(auto)_ | Default language code (`"en"`, `"es"`, `"fr"`, …) |
| `contentType` | string | `"memo"` | Always `"memo"` for voice notes |

## Development

```bash
npm install
npm run build   # tsc
npm test        # vitest unit tests (no disk/network)

# Live test (requires minutes binary + whisper model):
MINUTES_OPENCLAW_LIVE=1 npm test   # transcribes test/fixtures/demo.wav
```

## Design: self-contained community plugin

This is a community-owned package, independent of the Minutes core release train
(per the maintainer's guidance on coupling — OpenClaw ships ~monthly with an
evolving `pluginApi`, so the plugin tracks OpenClaw on its own cadence):
- Version `0.1.0`, independent of the Minutes workspace version.
- No source imports from Minutes crates — the sole runtime dependency is the
  `minutes` binary, invoked via subprocess.
- Pinned to OpenClaw's `pluginApi` / `pluginSdkVersion` in `package.json`.
- Today it shells out to `minutes process` and extracts the `## Transcript`
  section. It will migrate to the stable `minutes transcribe --json` contract
  (upstream issue #376) once that command lands.

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