Meridian

What is Meridian?

Meridian is an open-source, local-first work journal for developers and knowledge workers. It runs quietly on your Mac or Windows PC, rebuilds your day from screen activity, and writes a daily summary and standup note. It also drafts worklog updates for Jira and GitHub, posting them only after you approve.

Top Features:

• Day reconstruction: scrub back through your workday like a recording, not from memory.
• Daily summaries: see what you finished, what derailed you, and where time went.
• Worklog drafts: updates match the right ticket and post to Jira after approval.

Use Cases:

• Standup prep: get yesterday's progress written overnight, ready to paste into standup.
• Estimate reviews: see why two-day tasks took five days from logged activity.
• Performance reviews: pull up months of finished work as proof for promotion talks.

Who Can Use Meridian?

• Developers: skip manual ticket updates and keep a private daily work record.
• Engineering leaders: track project health, delivery risks, and pending decisions across teams.
• Knowledge workers: log where hours go in a searchable journal without PM tools.

Pricing

• Desktop app (free): an MIT-licensed download for macOS and Windows with no card required.
• Source build (free): clone the GitHub repository and build the app yourself with Rust.
• Team workspace (contact sales): engineering delivery views for leaders, available after booking a demo.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Privacy: capture and analysis stay on your device in an encrypted database.
• Open source: every line is public, so security teams can audit the code.
• Approval first: nothing posts to your project board until you click approve.

Cons:

• Platform limits: the Mac app needs Apple Silicon, so Intel Macs are unsupported.
• Storage use: screen capture uses about 20 GB monthly before automatic pruning.
• AI provider needed: analysis relies on a connected AI service like Claude or Groq.

FAQs:

1) Does my data leave my device?

No, everything runs on-device, and only approved worklogs reach your PM tool.

2) Is it really free?

Yes, the desktop app is MIT-licensed with no tiers, trial, or card.

3) Which PM tools does it support?

Jira, Linear, GitHub Projects, Azure DevOps, and Trello, with read-only access until approval.

4) Can I exclude certain apps?

Yes, you can exclude apps, pause capture, or delete any entry.

5) Is it useful without PM tools?

Yes, it remains a private, searchable record of your time and decisions.