Whispering → Epicenter: Renaming the Repo (Whispering lives in apps/whispering)

[braden-w]

Hey everyone! Wanted to share an important update on the project and community.

TL;DR: Just to be clear, the plan is still very much to maintain Whispering—I use it multiple hours a day. I am growing the scope of the project. I'm expanding the scope from Whispering to Epicenter: an ecosystem of privacy-focused tools built on a shared database of plain text. Whispering remains the primary app, now joined by epicenter.sh. Everything else will remain the same.

What's Changing:
The repo's name is now "Epicenter." Whispering remains the primary app in our current family of tools, now joined by epicenter.sh (a local-first AI assistant that allows you to chat with a folder). You can see Whispering here.

What's Not Changing:
Whispering continues exactly as it is. All your settings, recordings, and workflows remain intact. This is the same community with the same people and the same commitment to privacy, open source, and fair pricing. You don't need to change anything about how you use Whispering.

Why This Change?
I've wanted to build this out since university, when I was experimenting with PKM (having all your tools to share a plain-text database on your machine). While I was working on Whispering, I realized that the two projects would work better if combined. It is incredibly difficult decision especially since we have an existing community here, but I decided it would be the best course of action long-term, especially because the two's missions are mostly aligned.

What to Expect:
The project name will change to "Epicenter" for a few weeks to help everyone adjust. I'm launching on YC, and will start a search for maintainers to help me properly maintain this project. After the launch, I'm going to be doing some crucial maintenance on the repository.

A Note on Maintenance:
I want to be transparent: I've been constantly in a time crunch, and I recognize I have limitations with what I'm trying to build while also maintaining what we already have. To solve this, I'll actively searching for more maintainers to join the project. My plan is to do a crucial round of maintenance regarding recording after the YC launch, then work together with new maintainers to ensure Whispering continues to thrive while we expand the ecosystem. I'm time-strapped but deeply committed to both maintaining what we've built and pushing toward this bigger vision.

Questions?
Drop them below. I'm here to help with the transition! Join our Discord for real-time discussion.

[mawnir]

Wrong move.. but good luck!

[mawnir]

I think right now, the most urgent thing that you should do is not block the progress you've already made all these months. When Google introduced AI in Search, they didn't forward you to another page — they slowly inserted the AI part at the top or in the middle.
The README file should now only say that the repo was renamed, and below that, what's next or the roadmap.

That’s it. Don’t overcomplicate it or make users guess. After that, just add one thing (at a time) that makes sense to the user.

[mawnir]

I just checked the README file and it’s much better. Just one thing(at the top): mention that Whispering is now becoming Epicenter, and that it’s part of a bigger project called Epicenter.

[braden-w]

Awesome, thank you @mawnir ! I spent some time soul-searching, and hopefully the README is in a much better state. Idk why I was using so much jargon. I'll put a big banner at the top explaining how Whispering has been renamed to Epicenter.

[braden-w]

Done! Now, onto building 🔨

[mawnir]

Great good luck!

[MaxITService]

The description is confusing and my job title is ITC-Expert. Ordinary users will have their brains fried.
#an ecosystem
Wdym? A program? An executable? A collection of executables that I call separately or together from one entry point? Individual programs stay individual? Do you mean that they will ship as one package with a single installer, or will they differentiate? All tauri based? Collection of basically agentic tools that can access text files on local machine? Shipped as one desktop version or as separate versions one for being a web server and other as desktop executable?

[braden-w]

Are you referring to the description in this post, the README, or the GitHub repo?

The goal right now is a collection of open-source, local-first apps. They're all Tauri based. They have some integrations with each other (for example, Whispering's transcription is used in each). But each app is also a standalone experience.

GitHub right now is meant to target a very specific demographic—local-first, open-source devs.

[MaxITService]

Are you referring to the description in this post, the README, or the GitHub repo?

For example, I’d like to make it easy for my friend—who knows nothing about computers—to use text-to-speech. Is there any non confusing page for such person, that explains how to implement such wish?

[braden-w]

Ahh gotcha. I'll add an issue to add a dedicated page for Whispering/see source code on our website:

https://epicenter.so/

[Leftium]

I’d like to make it easy for my friend—who knows nothing about computers—to use text-to-speech. Is there any non confusing page for such person, that explains how to implement such wish?

I was trying to figure this out for my 84-year old mother. I think the online version is the best answer: https://whispering.epicenter.so

• The only major obstacle is setting up the API key (I did this for her.)
• Perhaps the UI could be improved to make it easier, too.

In the future, the browser extension may be simple to install/use, too.

[ss1v]

You have my full support! Keep moving forward and don't look back.

[braden-w]

Thank you, @ss1v ! 🙏