journal-clip

A small, standalone Sesephus capture tool. It records a take, transcribes it locally, writes the result to the selected journal folder, and removes the temporary WAV. It is not the host, Circadia, or the dashboard.

Quick start

Requirements: Windows, Zig 0.16, Python, and the dependencies installed by the parent Sesephus setup.

Clip.bat status
Clip.bat change-dir C:\path\to\journal
Clip-ui.bat

The streamlined workflow is launched by Clip-ui.bat. Clip-edit.bat opens the text-only editor. Clip.bat builds the Zig helper before running it; controls can run without Zig, but recording requires a successful build. Takes are stored as takes.jsonl in the selected folder.

Whisper and optional Ollama services are local-only. No paid API or remote upload is used.

Included files

The streamlined delivery contains only launchers, build/runtime source, and this guide. Tests and repository-level documentation remain outside this surface.

You speak. It keeps text. It destroys the wav.

Zig 0.16 only. Clip.bat always runs zig build first.

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UI (launcher over Clip.bat)

Double-click Clip-ui.bat. Same folder as Clip.bat.

1. Startup reloads the last folder (%USERPROFILE%\.sesefus\clip-ui.json). Missing folder → dialog. change picks another. Not written into clip-config.json.
2. Dropdown is WinMM capture devices. Default pick is the Maono USB mic if it is present.
3. Record clicks: 1=30s, 2=60s, 3=90s, 4=120s. Wait a beat after the last click, then it starts. Stop / send ends early.
4. Waveform is a bipolar envelope (DC bias stripped so gain is true amplitude). Whole-second timer sits top-right of that widget. Look is house negentropic-blue.
5. Tape is on the right: entry count, scroll, collapsible groups. Slim profiles .d day · .i interval · .n domain · .g intent · .m magnitude. Boundaries are probed from this folder’s takes. Click a profile to preview the same tape under different category rules.
6. Whisper runs inside this window. Transcript lands on the plate. No cmd popup. No warning dialog. Silence warns on the amber line.
7. Temp wav is shredded after the take.

No dashboard. No extra server. Close the window to end the session.

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Transcription editor (separate goal)

Double-click Clip-edit.bat. Not Record. No mic. No Whisper.

1. Folder dialog — pick the journal folder (takes.jsonl; old CSVs are imported, not deleted).
2. Click a take. Fix the text. Save text.
3. Kind is left alone. This does not re-transcribe.

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What you have

Two layers:

1. Zig (journal-clip.exe) — record mic, start Python, shred the wav.
2. Python — Whisper, optional Ollama, append two CSVs on the output folder surface.

Settings persist in %USERPROFILE%\.sesefus\clip-config.json. That file is not inside the journal folder, so changing the output dir cannot lose it.

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Do this, in order

Or skip the UI and drive it from a terminal.

Open PowerShell or cmd. One folder:

cd C:\dev\sesefus\apps\journal-clip

1. Prove it compiles

zig build
Clip.bat status

You want: [clip] journal-clip ok and a dump of current settings. No recording.

If zig build errors, the binary is not updated. Stay in this folder. Zig must be 0.16 (zig version).

2. Aim the output

Clip.bat change-dir C:\Users\bardw\test-write

Surface of that folder: takes.jsonl (one utterance per line). Old transcriptions.csv / ledger.csv are imported once if the tape is missing. Not nested stamp dirs.

Omit the path to print the current dir.

3. Pick the mic

Clip.bat change-input

Lists devices with indexes. Then:

Clip.bat change-input 0

Use the number next to the mic you want.

4. (Optional) Change how the 7B writes

Clip.bat change-prompt C:\path\to\structure.md
Clip.bat change-prompt --kind daily C:\path\to\daily.md
Clip.bat change-prompt --clear

A prompt file is just markdown/text: the system instructions for the local 7B (headings, tone). Cosine still picks the folder name (daily / dump / …). --clear goes back to the built-in 8 prompts.

5. Record (later — needs Ollama)

Do not do this until status works and Ollama is serving nomic-embed-text plus qwen2.5:7b-instruct.

Clip.bat

Speak ~10 seconds. Then look under the dir from step 2.

Safe dry path (no mic, no 7B):

Clip.bat --say "this is a test dump" --no-llm

That still writes a markdown file. It does not need Whisper.

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What you are not doing

• Not starting sesefus.exe --role host.
• Not opening the React dashboard.
• Not Circadia.
• Not a paid API. Local Whisper + local Ollama only.

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If it fails

• zig build red — Zig is not 0.16, or PATH is wrong. zig version should print 0.16.x.
• clip_config.py not found — you ran the exe from another folder without Clip.bat. Use Clip.bat.
• zig not on PATH — Clip.bat still runs controls through Python only. Record needs the exe.
• Ollama down — controls still work. Full Clip.bat record will fail at embed/7B. That is the next sitting, not this compile sitting.