Set up Hearally

How recordings get from your Plaud to Hearally during the public preview, and how to check it is working.

How recordings reach Hearally today

During the preview, a small program called the Hearally collector runs on a computer. It looks in a folder for recordings exported from your Plaud, and sends each new one to Hearally over an encrypted, signed connection. It sends each recording once, however many times it runs.

This is a temporary arrangement. The goal is to connect to your Plaud account directly, so you would sign in once, with no computer and nothing to export. That depends on access Plaud has not yet opened to new services, so until then, the collector is how it works.

What you need

• A Plaud recorder. To hear phone calls, a Plaud Note or Note Pro; see which Plaud is right for you.
• A Windows or Mac computer that is switched on when you want recordings sent. Linux works too.
• Node.js, which the collector runs on. It is free: from nodejs.org, download the version marked LTS and click through the installer. Nothing else needs installing.
• Your collector code. During the preview, codes are issued to each participant individually. It works like a password, so keep it private.

1. Download the collector

It is one small file. Your browser will save it in your Downloads folder.

Download the collector

It is plain, readable text rather than an app, so anyone can check exactly what it does. It is open source, under the MIT licence.

2. Run setup

Open a command window, type one line, and press Enter.

node Downloads\hearally-collector.mjs setup

node Downloads/hearally-collector.mjs setup

Setup asks four things, one at a time:

1. Your collector code. Paste it and press Enter. It is checked with Hearally straight away, before anything is saved.
2. Which Plaud you have, and for a Note or Note Pro, whether you will use it for phone calls, conversations in the room, or both. A NotePin cannot record calls, so that is not asked.
3. Where recordings will go. Press Enter to use the folder it suggests, Hearally recordings, in your home folder. It makes the folder for you.
4. Whether to send new recordings automatically, every 15 minutes while the computer is on. Press Enter for yes.

Setup keeps its own copy of the collector, so there is nothing else to install and nothing to start each day.

More than one Plaud?

Answer yes when setup asks whether you have another. Each Plaud gets its own folder inside Hearally recordings, such as Note Pro and NotePin, because a recording file does not say which device made it. Save each Plaud’s recordings into its own folder.

3. Save recordings into the folder

From the Plaud app, export or download a recording’s audio file, and save it into your Hearally recordings folder. Hearally accepts MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG, Opus and FLAC.

A file changed in the last 30 seconds is left until next time, in case it is still being copied.

4. Check it is working

Type the same line as before, with status instead of setup:

node Downloads/hearally-collector.mjs status

It shows which folders it is watching, whether it is scheduled, and what it has sent recently:

Sending recordings from:
  C:\Users\you\Hearally recordings

Scheduled: yes, every 15 minutes while this computer is on.

Recent activity:
  2026-09-24 10:15  [note-pro] sent 2026-09-24 call.m4a
  2026-09-24 10:15  sent 1, already sent 0, skipped 0, failed 0, recorders unavailable 0

Rather not wait 15 minutes? Type the line with send instead, to send anything new straight away. Run it twice and the second time shows already sent 1: each recording is only ever sent once.

Recordings you send do not appear in your dashboard yet. Linking recorders to your signed-in account is still being built, and the dashboard says so.

If something goes wrong

“node is not recognized” or “command not found: node”

Node.js is not installed yet, or the window was already open when you installed it. Install it, close the window, and open a new one.

“Cannot find module”

The file is not in your Downloads folder, or your browser saved it under a slightly different name, such as hearally-collector (1).mjs. Check the name in your Downloads folder and type it exactly, in quotes.

“Hearally did not accept that collector code”

Part of the code was missed when copying: copy it again, all of it. Or your computer’s clock is wrong: a clock more than five minutes out is refused, to stop old requests being replayed.

failed … HTTP 401

Your collector code is no longer accepted. Run setup again with the code you were given.

failed … HTTP 5xx or 429

A temporary problem on our side. Nothing is lost: the recording is tried again next time.

folder unavailable: ENOENT

A recordings folder was moved or deleted. Put it back, or run setup again. Your other Plauds are still sent.

It stopped sending after you updated Node.js

Run setup again. It replaces the old schedule.

Stopping

To stop sending and remove the collector from your computer:

node Downloads/hearally-collector.mjs uninstall

This removes the schedule, your saved code and the collector’s own copy. Your recordings are left where they are.

Developers can run the collector from source instead; see the collector README.

Before you record

Only record conversations you have the legal right to record. Some places, including several US states, require everyone taking part, on phone calls too, to agree to being recorded first. You are responsible for what you record and send.