Tentacle - Local-First Voice Notes With AI Organization

TL;DR

TL;DR: Tentacle is a local-first voice note app that transcribes, auto-tags, and indexes your notes semantically — no cloud required, with a Rust CLI for AI agent workflows.

Source and Accuracy Notes

• Project page: tentaclenote.app — verified Aug 2026
• Source repository: github.com/polvera-org/tentacle-app — README read in full
• HN launch thread: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47155400

What Is Tentacle?

Tentacle is a native desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux that captures voice notes, transcribes them, and organizes them automatically using AI — all without sending your data to any cloud service.

From the README:

Your notes, captured effortlessly and searchable by meaning — not just keywords.

Key capabilities:

• Voice capture with on-device transcription
• Semantic search — find notes by meaning, not exact keywords
• Auto-tagging — AI categorizes notes on save
• Local vector index — stored on your machine
• Rust CLI — tentacle command-line tool for terminal and AI agent workflows
• Plain markdown storage — no vendor lock-in

Setup Workflow

Install the Desktop App

Download from GitHub releases:

| Platform | Download | Requirements | |---|---|---| | macOS | .dmg | macOS 11 (Big Sur)+ | | Windows | .exe | Windows 10 (1809)+ | | Linux | .AppImage | Ubuntu 20.04 / Fedora 36+ |

Install the CLI

# macOS / Linux
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf \
  https://github.com/polvera/tentacle-app/releases/latest/download/tentacle-installer.sh | sh

# Windows
irm https://github.com/polvera/tentacle-app/releases/latest/download/tentacle-installer.ps1 | iex

# Rust users
cargo install --git https://github.com/polvera/tentacle-app --locked tentacle-cli

Initialize and Use

# Initialize Tentacle in the current directory
tentacle init

# Create a note from stdin
echo "Use JWT with 7-day refresh tokens" | tentacle create --title "Auth decision" --folder projects --json

# Search semantically
tentacle search "auth decision" --json

# Read a note
tentacle read a1b2c3d4 --json

Pricing

| Tier | Price | Features | |---|---|---| | Free | $0 | Local storage, semantic search, BYOK auto-tagging, manual tagging, Obsidian export | | Pro | $10/month | Auto-tagging without API key, RAG chat, cloud sync, mobile app |

Deeper Analysis

Local-First Architecture

Notes are stored as plain .md files in a folder you choose. The semantic index and embeddings live locally on your device. The product description states: “We can’t read your notes even if we wanted to.”

This makes Tentacle particularly interesting for privacy-sensitive users and developers building agent workflows that need programmatic note access without cloud dependency.

CLI Design for AI Agents

The CLI supports --json output on every command, making it scriptable:

# Pipe note content to an LLM for summarization
tentacle read a1b2c3d4 --json | claude "summarize in one sentence"

FAQ

Q: Is my data sent to any server? A: Core features run entirely on-device. Adding an OpenAI API key for auto-tagging sends audio to OpenAI, but local storage and search do not require any network call.

Q: Can I use Tentacle alongside Obsidian? A: Yes. Notes are plain markdown files — Obsidian can read and write the same files Tentacle uses.

Q: What is the Pro tier for? A: Pro adds auto-tagging without requiring an API key, RAG-powered chat with your knowledge base, optional cloud sync across devices, and mobile app access.

Q: Does the CLI work on servers? A: Yes. The CLI binary runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux servers. It is designed for terminal workflows and AI agent integration.

Conclusion

Tentacle fills a specific niche: AI-powered note organization without cloud data exposure. The local-first constraint is not a limitation — it is the core value proposition. The Rust CLI extends this to agent workflows, making it possible to build personal knowledge systems that are programmable and portable.

For users who want semantic search, voice capture, and AI organization with full data ownership, Tentacle is worth a look.