LymeScribe Server guide
LymeScribe Server is an always-on transcription server for a whole office, running on a machine you own. This guide covers what it is, what it needs, and how to install, configure, and run it day to day.
Last updated 2026-08-31What LymeScribe Server is
It's a small .NET server you install on one machine in your building. It wraps WhisperX — the speech model that does the actual transcription — behind a network service, and every LymeScribe desktop app on the network sends its audio there instead of transcribing locally. The audio never leaves your network.
Around that core it provides a job queue, a browser admin dashboard on the same port, server-side history with retention rules, and per-device API keys you can issue and revoke individually.
Who it's for — and when you don't need it
There are two ways to host transcription with LymeScribe, and most people should start with the cheaper one.
Pro self-hosting (in the desktop app)
- A paid unlock inside the free Mac, Windows, or Linux app
- Your own computer does the transcribing
- Roughly three attached peers — a connection cap, not a speed one
- No separate install, no ML environment to set up
Right for one person, or a couple of people sharing one good machine.
LymeScribe Server (this guide)
- A separate product, installed on a dedicated always-on machine
- No peer cap — the whole office connects
- GPU-accelerated on Windows with an NVIDIA card
- Admin dashboard, API keys, server-side history and retention
Right for an office where several people transcribe through the day and nobody's laptop should be the bottleneck.
Requirements at a glance
| What | Details |
|---|---|
| A machine to dedicate | A Windows PC with an NVIDIA GPU (the real-time option), or an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later, 16 GB+ RAM). Windows without a GPU works too, just slower. |
| ML tooling underneath | WSL2 + CUDA/cuDNN + a WhisperX Python environment on Windows; Homebrew + a WhisperX Python venv on Mac. This is the part that takes real time — budget 30–60 minutes the first time. |
| A HuggingFace account | Free, but required: the speaker-label models are gated and need a one-time license acceptance plus an access token. |
| Network | One TCP port on your LAN — 58994 by default. Clients connect by the server's LAN address. |
| Trial | 14 days free, no credit card. The clock starts on your first transcription, not at install, so setup time doesn't burn it. |
Hardware sizing is driven almost entirely by the GPU: the transcription model needs roughly 3 GB of VRAM, and speaker labeling adds another 1–2 GB on top, so a card with 6 GB minimum and 8–12 GB recommended is the practical floor. 16 GB of system RAM and an SSD round it out.
The guide
- 1. Installation The Windows MSI path and the Apple Silicon pkg path, what each one installs, and the prerequisites to have in place first.
-
2. Configuration
appsettings.json— API key authentication, the HuggingFace token, model and device selection, storage, history and retention, TLS, and where secrets belong. - 3. Administration Day-to-day running: connecting clients, how the queue behaves, why the first job after idle is slow, updating the server, logs and troubleshooting.
Also worth reading
- Server setup walkthrough — the detailed, step-by-step install: purchase, prerequisites, install, license activation, first client. Start there when you're actually sitting down to install; this guide is the reference around it.
- Windows + WSL + NVIDIA setup — getting CUDA and WhisperX working under WSL2.
- macOS (Apple Silicon) setup — Homebrew and the WhisperX venv.
- HuggingFace account & token — required on both platforms, for speaker labels.
- Desktop app guide — the client side, including getting started.
- FAQ and Support.