Link your calendar so a recording starts on time
The meetings people forget to record are the ones that started while they were still finding the window. Connect your calendar and a countdown appears just before each meeting, so the recording begins on its first word instead of five minutes in.
Where the switch is
Open Settings, choose Calendar, and press Connect my calendar. A short explainer comes first, then the macOS permission prompt - access is never requested at first run, and nothing is read until you say yes.
Everything comes from the accounts already set up in the Calendar app, so iCloud, Google, Outlook and Exchange all work without a second sign-in. Access is read-only: Dictera cannot write an event, and no bot ever joins the call.
What happens before a meeting
Before a meeting starts is set to "Ask, then record". A countdown appears, and if nobody answers it starts recording - a meeting you didn't record is gone, one you didn't want is a click to delete. Two pickers under it change that: If I don't answer can be set to "Do nothing", and Give me chooses 15 seconds, 30 seconds or a minute.
That number is also the lead time. Dictera raises the countdown that far before the meeting's own start, so answering it leaves the recording running from the first word rather than from whenever you got to it.
Which entries count as meetings
Calendars to watch is a list of tick boxes - unticking one is how a personal block stops looking like a meeting. Within the calendars you watch, Dictera ignores all-day entries, cancelled ones, anything you declined, anything shorter than five minutes or longer than four hours, and anything with neither guests nor a call link. Titles are never read for keywords, because that only works in one language.
Skip the same recurring meeting twice and Dictera stops asking about that one. What it has learned is listed under Individual meetings, where you can override any series or clear the lot.
Under Privacy in the same pane, "Send attendee names to remote engines" starts on. Turn it off and names read from your calendar only ever reach models running on this Mac. Email addresses are never stored at all.
Then forget about it
A recording started this way arrives knowing which meeting it belongs to and who was invited, which is what lets the notes name owners on action items. The rest of the setup is on the meeting notes page, and what your calendar contributes to a session is listed on the security page.
