Give your demos the spotlight they deserve

Capptivo is your free, open-source alternative to Screen Studio and Cursorful. Create stunning screen recordings in seconds, not hours. Smart follow-cursor zoom, click-based auto zooms, editor presets, and on-device captions, your demos practically make themselves.

Capptivo isn't a clone of Screen Studio, it's a tool I built for myself, with every feature designed around my own needs. Now I'm open-sourcing it under the MIT license so anyone can use, improve, and customize it — freely, in any project.

No more paying $29/month for video editing software. I hope you enjoy it, and contributions are always welcome.

Download · Quick start · Features · Architecture · Development · License

capptivo-demo.mp4

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Download

Installers are published on the GitHub Releases page (latest).

Platform	What to grab
macOS Apple Silicon	aarch64 / aarch64-apple-darwin .dmg or .app.tar.gz
macOS Intel	x64 / x86_64 .dmg or .app.tar.gz
Windows	.msi or *-setup.exe
Linux	.deb / .AppImage / .rpm

macOS builds are currently unsigned. On first launch: right-click → Open, or allow Capptivo under System Settings → Privacy & Security. Grant Screen Recording when prompted, then relaunch.

Captions need a system whisper.cpp whisper-cli binary; the app downloads the model weights on first use.

Maintainers: cutting a release

GitHub Actions builds macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon), Windows, and Linux installers — no local Windows/Linux machines needed.

1. Bump the desktop version in package.json, src-tauri/tauri.conf.json, src-tauri/Cargo.toml, and the desktop package entry in src-tauri/Cargo.lock. Keep all four entries identical.
2. Commit and push the version change to the canonical SECHAK-AG/capptivo default branch. Create and push a matching tag, for example v0.1.0:

git tag v0.1.0
git push origin main
git push origin v0.1.0

3. From the Release workflow, select the canonical default branch and run it manually with that existing tag. The workflow accepts only a vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH tag whose commit is reachable from the canonical default branch and whose four version entries match the tag. It creates or replaces the assets of a draft GitHub Release. Review and publish the draft separately

Release environment and signing: Configure the protected release environment with TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY and TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD. They are required to sign the updater artifacts for every platform. The current macOS bundles are ad hoc signed and not notarized. Windows bundles are not Authenticode-signed. Apple notarization and Windows code-signing credentials are separate future work

Permissions: Keep the repository-default GITHUB_TOKEN permissions read-only. The publish job grants only its own contents: write scope. If policy blocks that scope, review the organization or enterprise Actions policy

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Platforms

Capptivo runs on:

• macOS 13.0+
• Windows 10 version 2004, build 19041 or later, required to keep Capptivo overlays out of recordings
• Linux on modern distros with PipeWire 1.0+ (e.g. Ubuntu 24.04+) — X11 and Wayland

Platform notes:

• macOS captures through native ScreenCaptureKit with VideoToolbox hardware H.264 encoding; system audio comes from a companion SCK stream.
• Windows captures through native Windows.Graphics.Capture. Capptivo's current Windows capture backend requires Direct3D feature level 11_0 or later on the hardware adapter Windows selects by default. Hardware encoding is probed per machine (NVENC / QuickSync / AMF / Media Foundation), with system audio via WASAPI loopback.
• Linux captures through xdg-desktop-portal + PipeWire — the screen/window is picked in the system dialog. System audio comes from the PulseAudio/PipeWire monitor. Cursor replay / follow-zoom use an X11 pointer probe on X11 sessions, and PipeWire cursor Metadata on Wayland when the portal supports it (otherwise the cursor is embedded in the recording and zoom-follow is unavailable). Area selection isn't available yet on Linux — crop in the editor instead.

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Quick start

corepack pnpm install
corepack pnpm tauri dev

Requires Rust 1.98.0, the Node version declared in .node-version, and Corepack. The Rust toolchain file includes rustfmt and Clippy, while Corepack selects the pinned pnpm release from package.json. FFmpeg is fetched automatically as a per-platform sidecar on first dev/build (scripts/fetch-ffmpeg.mjs), installed as capptivo-ffmpeg / capptivo-ffprobe so Linux packages do not collide with the system ffmpeg package. Exact source URLs, archive members, sizes, and SHA-256 digests are committed in scripts/ffmpeg-sidecars.json. The fetcher verifies downloaded, extracted, staged, and cached files before it permits Tauri's chained command to continue; a missing or invalid cache entry is replaced from the pinned source.

On Windows, a portable Rust 1.98.0 toolchain can be placed under .local. Run development commands through the repository launcher so Rust is selected only from that directory:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/with-local-rust.ps1 corepack pnpm tauri dev

The launcher prefers a verified versioned MSVC toolchain, such as .local/rustup/toolchains/1.98.0-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc/bin, and uses a sole matching alias only when that directory is absent. It keeps Cargo state and build output under .local, does not install or download Rust, and does not fall back to a host toolchain. Native Windows builds still require the MSVC C++ Build Tools, including link.exe, on PATH; the portable directory replaces only the Rust installation.

macOS: grant Screen Recording in System Settings on first launch, then relaunch.
Open the recorder with ⌥⇧R (Alt+Shift+R on Windows/Linux), or click the tray icon.

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Features

Recording

• Menubar recorder with global hotkey (⌥⇧R)
• Capture display, window, or custom area (with live frame guide)
• Face-cam overlay while recording
• Microphone capture (device picker)
• System audio capture
• Language switch (English / Français / Español / Italiano / Deutsch / Português / Русский / 日本語 / 한국어 / 中文 / العربية)
• Countdown before start
• Pause / resume
• On-screen annotations while recording
• Native pipeline per OS (ScreenCaptureKit / Windows.Graphics.Capture / PipeWire) → hardware H.264 → crash-safe fragmented MP4
• 60 Hz cursor + click track saved with the project (cursor.json)

Annotations

Draw on top of the screen while recording — floating toolbar, click-through when idle.

• Select tool (pass clicks through to the desktop)
• Pen and highlighter
• Eraser
• Shapes: rectangle, ellipse, line, arrow
• Text
• Color palette + custom picker
• Brush size
• Undo / redo / clear all
• Draggable toolbar; Escape peels panels then closes

Zoom & motion

• Zoom fragments on the timeline (add with Z or Add fragment)
• Auto-suggest zooms from clicks when you open a fresh recording (or Add fragment → Suggest zooms)
• Follow-cursor zoom (pans with the pointer)
• Fixed zoom regions (drag / resize the frame)
• Scope: recording only or full scene (background included)
• Scale, pan smoothness, ease in / ease out
• Shrink background padding during zoom
• Shrink face-cam during zoom (size at peak zoom)
• Automatic motion between fragments

Cursor

• Show / hide composited cursor
• Styles: macOS, Tahoe, Tahoe inverted, Minimal
• Cursor size
• Motion blur
• Click bounce + bounce speed
• Cursor sway

Look & composition

• Backgrounds: image presets, gradients, solid colors, or upload your own
• Custom gradient angle / colors
• Named editor presets — save / apply look, face cam, cursor, captions, and export settings
• Screen content crop (hide chrome / clutter)
• Video padding
• Recording corner radius
• Recording shadow
• Background blur
• Background darkness

Face cam

• Round or rectangular PiP
• Mirror webcam
• Corner position + margin from the frame edge
• Size / width / height
• Roundness (rectangular)
• Shadow intensity
• Crop face cam
• Layout that stays in sync with zoom (optional shrink during zoom)

Captions

• On-device speech-to-text (Whisper via whisper.cpp)
• Downloadable model, no cloud required
• Generate, style, and burn captions into preview + export

Timeline

• Scrub and play the composition
• Zoom fragments (add, suggest from clicks, select, resize, split, delete)
• Trim gaps (add with T)
• Undo / redo
• Timeline zoom (auto / manual)
• Reset fragments

Export

• Formats: MP4, WebM, GIF
• Resolution presets (low → original)
• Encoding quality / GIF color quality
• Frame rate (24 / 30 / 60)
• Optional voice enhancement (podcast)
• Progress UI, save dialog, notification + reveal in Finder / Explorer / file manager

Local-first

• Projects stored in the OS app-data directory (Application Support / AppData / XDG)
• In-app recordings library
• Rename projects
• No account required to record or edit
• UI languages: English, Français, Español, Italiano, Deutsch, Português, Русский, 日本語, 한국어, 中文, العربية

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Architecture

Capture  →  bounded frame channel  →  FFmpeg / VideoToolbox  →  screen.mp4
Cursor   →  cursor.json
UI       →  typed IPC projection of Rust state
Editor   →  media:// (HTTP Range) + canvas compositor → export

Rust owns capture, encoding, and storage. The React shell is presentation only — domain modules never import tauri::*.

src-tauri/src/
├── recorder/     # CaptureBackend → encoder (no Tauri)
├── cursor/       # 60 Hz pointer tracker (CoreGraphics / Win32 / X11)
├── project/      # local store + schema
├── commands/     # thin IPC adapters
└── …             # tray, windows, media protocol

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Development

corepack pnpm tauri dev        # app + Vite
cd src-tauri && cargo test --no-default-features
cargo check --no-default-features

Windows development with portable Rust uses the repository root:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/with-local-rust.ps1 cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml --no-default-features
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/with-local-rust.ps1 cargo check --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml --no-default-features

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Local diagnostics

Capptivo keeps the latest 200 diagnostic codes in diagnostics/diagnostics-v1.log under its application-data directory Each JSON line contains a Unix timestamp and a fixed code identifying a native, recorder, export, or renderer failure category The file contains no error text, file or media names, paths, stack traces, recordings, or device identifiers It is not uploaded automatically Detailed console output during development remains separate from this file

While not recording, right-click the tray icon and choose Open Diagnostics… to locate the file, or Clear Diagnostics to empty it Only the current diagnostic file is cleared Older logs/errors.log and capptivo.* files are neither imported nor deleted The application does not add a warning history to recordings

The file remains local to the current user's application data and is not encrypted Older entries are removed as new ones arrive, with no age-based expiration Clearing and writing are serialized, but a later failure can create a new entry after a clear Writes are best effort, and an interrupted write can lose diagnostic history An unavailable application-data path or failed write does not prevent recording and is not redirected to a temporary directory

License

Copyright (c) 2026 idboussadel

Capptivo Desktop is released under the MIT License (MIT). You are free to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and sell copies of the software, provided the copyright notice and permission notice are included in all copies or substantial portions of it.

The software is provided "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, express or implied. See LICENSE for the full text.

Bundled and downloaded third-party components (notably the FFmpeg sidecars, which are GPL-licensed) have their own licenses and are not covered by Capptivo's MIT license — see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for what that means if you redistribute builds.

By contributing, you agree that your contributions are licensed under the same terms (MIT).