epicenter-so/epicenter

Open-source, local-first apps.

Epicenter

Local-first, open-source apps

Own your data. Use any model you want. Free and open source ❤️

📢 Repository Update: Whispering has become Epicenter! The original repository moved here. Everything else remains the same—same tools, same philosophy, same team.
Full details...

Whispering's evolution beyond transcription required changes to the repository's structure and branding.

Everything else remains the same—same tools, same philosophy, same team.

The original app lives on as Epicenter Whispering, keeping a tight focus on transcription.

This makes room for standalone apps with complementary, but non-transcription-related features (like Epicenter Assistant).

The new root of the Epicenter repository contains common files supporting all the apps in the ecosystem.

Note: the old URL github.com/braden-w/whispering is now just a thin placeholder redirecting to this rebranded repository.

Tools • Vision • Contributing • Discord •

What is Epicenter?

Epicenter is an ecosystem of open-source, local-first apps. Our eventual goal is to store all of your data—notes, transcripts, chat histories—in a single folder of plain text and SQLite. Every tool we build shares this memory. It's open, tweakable, and yours. Grep it, open it in Obsidian, host it wherever you like. The choice is yours.

The Vision (how the ecosystem will work):

Long-time Epicenter Whispering users may have configured numerous LLM API keys, transformations, and even local models.
When the Epicenter Assistant is started for the very first time, all these API keys, transformations and local models seamlessly work.
Epicenter Assistant may even access Whispering transcription history to provide personalized results out of the box.
Of course, this works the other way, too: Whispering can take advantage of your Epicenter Assistant history to optimize transcriptions and transformations!
In a siloed ecosystem, this requires much more effort, or may not even be possible.

Current Tools

🎙️ Epicenter Whispering

Press shortcut → speak → get text. Desktop transcription that cuts out the middleman. Bring your own API key.

→ View source code

🤖 Epicenter Assistant

Currently being rebuilt.

A local-first assistant you can chat with. It lives in your folder, becoming the access point to everything you've ever written, thought, or built.

→ Track rebuild progress on the rebuild-assistant branch

Where We're Headed

Our vision is to build a personal workspace where you own your data, choose your models, and replace siloed apps with open, interoperable alternatives. All while preserving authenticity and being free and open source.

Encryption

Epicenter encrypts data inside the CRDT structure before it ever leaves the application. We use AES-256-GCM via @noble/ciphers to wrap individual values, ensuring that every downstream layer—IndexedDB, sync servers, SQLite databases, and cloud backups—only ever handles ciphertext.

App Code -> [Encrypt] -> Y.Doc -> IndexedDB / Sync Server / Backups (Ciphertext)

The server holds the key. It can decrypt your data. We chose this trade-off because genuine zero-knowledge encryption breaks the features people actually use: server-side search, AI processing, and simple password recovery. PGP has spent decades proving that manual key management is a UX dead end that even technical users avoid.

This is defense in depth. A database dump or a compromised storage bucket yields nothing but noise without the application secret. It reduces the blast radius of a breach while keeping the app fast and functional.

If you don't trust the server, self-host. When you run the server on your own infrastructure, server-managed encryption is zero-knowledge. The key derives from your own environment variables or password, and the server never sends it to us. Same code, same primitives, different trust boundary.

Further reading:

Why E2E Encryption Keeps Failing—PGP, Signal, and the structural problem
Let the Server Handle Encryption—the pragmatic alternative
If You Don't Trust the Server, Become the Server—self-hosting as the clean answer

Quick Start

Install Epicenter Whispering

Our first app in the ecosystem. Choose your installation method:

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install --cask whispering

macOS, Windows, Linux (Direct Download)

Download the installer for your platform from GitHub Releases:

macOS: .dmg (Apple Silicon or Intel)
Windows: .msi or .exe
Linux: .AppImage, .deb, or .rpm

→ Full installation guide and setup instructions

Build from Source

For developers or contributors:

# Prerequisites:
# - Install Bun from https://bun.sh (run bun upgrade if there's issues)
# - Install Rust and Cargo from https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install (brew install rustup)

git clone https://github.com/EpicenterHQ/epicenter.git
cd epicenter
bun install  # Will prompt to upgrade if your Bun version is too old
cd apps/whispering
bun dev

Want to contribute? See CONTRIBUTING.md for fork and PR instructions.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues after switching branches or pulling changes (like "render_fn is not a function" errors), run from the repo root:

bun clean    # Clears caches and node_modules
bun install  # Reinstall dependencies

For a complete reset including Rust build artifacts (~10GB, takes longer to rebuild):

bun nuke     # Clears everything including Rust target
bun install

Note: You rarely need bun nuke since Cargo handles incremental Rust builds well. Use bun clean first; reserve bun nuke for when things are truly broken.