> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.chief.bot/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What are Live Sessions?

> A Live Session is Chief listening to a meeting in real time.

## Live Sessions turn meetings into work that's already done

A **Live Session** is Chief listening to a meeting in real time. While you talk, Chief captures the conversation, writes a transcript, and pulls out the **Summary**, **Decisions**, and **Action items** automatically — so when the call ends, there's nothing left to write up.

Each Live Session lives alongside your [**Projects**](/help/projects-sharing-teams/what-is-a-project), [**Library**](/help/your-knowledge-library/what-is-the-library), and [**Concepts**](/help/concepts/what-are-concepts), so the meeting becomes part of the same knowledge Chief already reasons over.

## One concrete example

You join a 30-minute planning call. You start a Live Session at the beginning. Chief listens, labels each speaker, and follows the conversation. By the time the call ends, the Live Session page already shows:

* A short **Summary** of what the meeting covered.
* A list of **Decisions** the group reached.
* A list of **Action items**, each tied to whoever committed to it.
* A full **Transcript** you can scroll, with [timecodes and speaker labels](/help/meetings-live-sessions/how-transcription-works-speaker-attribution).
* A few **Chat suggestions** — follow-ups you can hand straight to Chief to research or draft.

You [click **Start chat**](/help/meetings-live-sessions/starting-a-chat-from-a-meeting) on one of the action items, and Chief opens a chat already grounded in that meeting to help you make progress on it.

## How it works

Capture happens through the [**Chief desktop app on your Mac**](/help/meetings-live-sessions/installing-the-chief-desktop-app-mac-required-for-capture), which listens to your microphone and your computer's audio. The transcript and everything Chief extracts from it then appear in your Chief web account under **Live Sessions**.

<Warning>
  ⚠️ **Important:** Live Sessions are captured by the Chief desktop app on macOS. You can't start capturing a meeting from the web app alone — install and [pair the Mac app](/help/meetings-live-sessions/pairing-managing-devices-updating-the-app) first.
</Warning>

## What you can do with a Live Session

* **Read the transcript** with speaker labels (**You** and **Speaker 1**, **Speaker 2**, …) and timecodes.
* **[Review the auto-generated](/help/meetings-live-sessions/auto-generated-summaries-decisions-action-items-chat-suggestions)** Summary, Decisions, and Action items.
* **Start a chat** from any suggested action to develop it further.
* **Rename** the session, or **Delete** it once it has finished recording.

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Do I need the desktop app to use Live Sessions?">
    Yes. Capture runs through the Chief desktop app on macOS. The web app is where you read and work with the results, but the meeting audio is captured by the Mac app.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A meeting I recorded shows no transcript — what happened?">
    If a Live Session shows "No transcript yet," Chief may not have captured any audio — usually because the Mac app didn't have microphone or system-audio access, or the call ended before audio reached Chief. Check the app's audio permissions and try a new session.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Where do Live Sessions appear?">
    Open **Live Sessions** from the left navigation. Each session opens to its transcript, summary, decisions, action items, and chat suggestions.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>