tl;dv

AI meeting recorder with transcripts, summaries, clips, and CRM sync

KINDA · partial replacement
price $18/mo per seatsubscription / year $216estimated build time multi-dayreplaced by 0 people

A DIY app can record, transcribe, summarize, and generate clips, but tl;dv's team library, CRM integrations, and meeting-bot reliability are real work.

Build verification: not recorded. How we judge buildability

What you give up

  • meeting bot upkeep
  • team/shared library
  • CRM integrations
  • admin controls
  • polished clip sharing

Why people still pay

They pay for repeatable team-wide capture and distribution, not because summaries are hard.

Your build guide

The stack, security requirements, and agent rules for a focused replacement.

Before you start

  • Runtime and tools: Node, Express, SQLite FTS5, FFmpeg and a pinned whisper.cpp worker around imported or explicitly supported captured audio.
  • Before starting: Consented audio, a local speech model, FFmpeg and a documented OS-specific capture route before enabling live recording.
01
Node, Express, SQLite FTS5, FFmpeg and a pinned whisper.cpp worker around imported or explicitly supported captured audio
02
Data design: Store Meeting, AudioSource, Marker, Segment, ClipRange and NotesRevision; markers map to the original recording clock and trims retain that mapping.
03
Setup: Consented audio, a local speech model, FFmpeg and a documented OS-specific capture route before enabling live recording
engineering roadmap

Implementation plan

1

Phase 1

Pin the working slice and create its example input: Import or explicitly record a meeting, drop highlight markers, transcribe locally and review summary notes plus timestamped clips. Confirm setup: Consented audio, a local speech model, FFmpeg and a documented OS-specific capture route before enabling live recording.

2

Phase 2

Implement persistence and write-time invariants before decorating the UI: Store Meeting, AudioSource, Marker, Segment, ClipRange and NotesRevision; markers map to the original recording clock and trims retain that mapping.

3

Phase 3

Connect the working view to real saved state. Keep original timing alongside corrected text. Speech recognition does not itself establish speaker identity; permit manual speaker labels. Show undecodable audio and uncertain passages without inventing words.

4

Phase 4

Expose the app-specific limits and recovery path in context: No meeting bot is required. Live system-audio capture needs a documented OS route; distinguish local whisper.cpp transcription from optional external summary/API processing.

5

Phase 5

Walk through this concrete acceptance case and preserve its exported evidence: Add a marker near the recording start, stop early and generate its clip; clamp the range to actual media bounds and preserve the original timestamp in notes. Finish the README and backup/restore instructions; report unfinished capabilities explicitly.

the pro prompt
download AGENTS.md
Build the following focused alternative to tl;dv. This is a deliberately limited personal or small-team substitute, not parity with the paid service.

WORKING SLICE
Import or explicitly record a meeting, drop highlight markers, transcribe locally and review summary notes plus timestamped clips.

SETUP AND ARCHITECTURE
Use Node, Express, SQLite FTS5, FFmpeg and a pinned whisper.cpp worker around imported or explicitly supported captured audio. Prerequisites: Consented audio, a local speech model, FFmpeg and a documented OS-specific capture route before enabling live recording. Before integrating anything, record actual versions and permissions, plus model files or provider limits only where used, in the README; make unavailable dependencies visible rather than simulating success.

DOMAIN MODEL AND INVARIANTS
Store Meeting, AudioSource, Marker, Segment, ClipRange and NotesRevision; markers map to the original recording clock and trims retain that mapping.

IMPLEMENTATION CONTRACT
Keep original timing alongside corrected text. Speech recognition does not itself establish speaker identity; permit manual speaker labels. Show undecodable audio and uncertain passages without inventing words. Provide an input/setup view, the main work view, and a review/export view appropriate to this workflow. Preserve the last saved state if a job or save fails. Include empty, loading, permission-denied, partial and retryable-error states. Log identifiers and error categories without secret values or unnecessary private content.

APP-SPECIFIC BOUNDARY AND RECOVERY
No meeting bot is required. Live system-audio capture needs a documented OS route; distinguish local whisper.cpp transcription from optional external summary/API processing.

ACCEPTANCE SCENARIO
Add a marker near the recording start, stop early and generate its clip; clamp the range to actual media bounds and preserve the original timestamp in notes. Also reopen the app after an interrupted operation, confirm the saved record/export remains inspectable, and document the recovery action. These are implementation acceptance requirements, not a claim that this guide has been tested.

DELIVERY
Deliver a runnable repository with migrations or project-format versioning, a non-sensitive example, environment/permission setup, the exact manual acceptance steps, and a backup/export-and-restore walkthrough. Implement the working slice before optional integrations; list any deferred paid-product capabilities honestly. Do not add capabilities outside the working slice just to resemble the original product.

PROJECT RULES FOR AGENTS.md
Keep the domain invariants above executable at the write boundary. Propose scope changes before adding providers or permissions. Never fabricate source evidence, publish results, identity matches or successful delivery. Preserve user originals and require an explicit confirmation for destructive changes or external publication.

$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter), copy the prompt or copy or download AGENTS.md · generated from this app's build plan

prior art · use these instead of building, if you'd ratherwhisper.cppCan power the transcription layer for a simpler local clone.↗
share on X ↗

tl;dv pricing

planmonthlyannual (per mo)what you get
free$0/user$0/userUnlimited meeting recordings, transcripts, and storage; no retention clock.The live pricing application did not expose all AI-feature caps in crawlable public text.
pro—$18/userPaid AI and workflow features above Free; exact current numeric feature caps were not exposed in crawlable public pricing text.Annual equivalent was verified on tl;dv's official 2026 pricing material; current monthly numeric price was not reliably exposed.
business——Conversation intelligence, coaching, and revenue workflows; exact current numeric limits and public price were not reliably exposed.Two official 2026 tl;dv pages gave conflicting annual examples ($29 and $35 per seat/month), so the price is left null.
enterprise——Custom security, administration, and support; no public numeric price.Contact sales.

free tierUnlimited recordings, transcripts, and storage; numeric caps for advanced AI features were not exposed in the crawlable live pricing application.

billingmonthly + annual; current monthly prices and Business annual price were not reliably exposed

hidden costsThe live pricing application is dynamic, and separate official 2026 tl;dv pages conflict on the Business annual figure; that field is intentionally null rather than choosing one.

pricing sources checked 2026-08-14 · pricing source ↗

Questions about tl;dv

Can you build your own tl;dv with AI?

Partly. A DIY app can record, transcribe, summarize, and generate clips, but tl;dv's team library, CRM integrations, and meeting-bot reliability are real work.

What does the tl;dv build prompt cover?

The prompt starts with this scope: Import or explicitly record a meeting, drop highlight markers, transcribe locally and review summary notes plus timestamped clips. Full-product capabilities excluded from the comparison include: meeting bot upkeep; team/shared library; CRM integrations. Follow the implementation plan and its prerequisites before expanding the build.

How do I use the prompt, AGENTS.md and agent skills?

Start with the tl;dv prerequisites and stack, then copy the prompt into your coding agent. Save the project rules as AGENTS.md in the project root. Linked skills are optional packages or source instructions for specific tasks; review their current contents and install only those matching the chosen stack. A skill does not supply API credentials or verify the finished app.

How long will this tl;dv project take?

The catalogue estimate is multi-day for the limited scope. Setup, integration approvals, debugging, deployment and ongoing maintenance can add time. This is an estimate, not a delivery guarantee.

What would I give up by replacing tl;dv?

meeting bot upkeep; team/shared library; CRM integrations; admin controls; polished clip sharing. They pay for repeatable team-wide capture and distribution, not because summaries are hard.

What price is this guide comparing against?

The recorded Pro plan is $18/mo per seat (annual billing, per user per month), checked 2026-08-14. Check the linked pricing source before buying. Building your own also has hosting, API and maintenance costs; the recorded amount is not a guaranteed saving.

What can I use instead of building tl;dv?

The prior-art section lists whisper.cpp as starting points. Review their current scope, license and maintenance before adopting one.

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