# Capptivo — full context

> Free, open-source, local-first desktop screen recorder and editor. Alternative to Screen Studio and Cursorful. MIT licensed. macOS · Windows · Linux.

## Positioning

Capptivo is not a browser extension and not a cloud editor. It is a native desktop application built for polished product demos, async updates, and training clips. Smart follow-cursor zoom, click-based auto zooms, named editor presets, and on-device Whisper captions are first-class features. The product was built for the author’s own workflow and open-sourced under the MIT License so others can freely use, improve, and build on it.

Primary site: https://capptivo.com/  
Source: https://github.com/SECHAK-AG/capptivo  
Installers: https://github.com/SECHAK-AG/capptivo/releases/latest

## Platforms

- macOS 13.0+ (Apple Silicon and Intel). Builds may be unsigned; first launch may require right-click → Open and Screen Recording permission.
- Windows 10 build 1903+ (May 2019 Update).
- Linux on modern distros (X11 and Wayland).

Capture notes:

- macOS: ScreenCaptureKit + VideoToolbox H.264; system audio via companion SCK stream.
- Windows: Windows.Graphics.Capture; hardware encode probed (NVENC / QuickSync / AMF / Media Foundation); WASAPI loopback for system audio.
- Linux: xdg-desktop-portal + PipeWire; system audio via PulseAudio/PipeWire monitor. Cursor replay/zoom-follow on X11; on Wayland the cursor is embedded in the recording; area selection is not available yet.

Stack: Tauri, Rust, React. Version badge at time of writing: 0.1.0.

## Recording

- Menubar recorder with global hotkey ⌥⇧R (Alt+Shift+R on Windows/Linux), or tray icon.
- Capture display, window, or custom area (live frame guide).
- Face-cam overlay while recording.
- Microphone (device picker) and system audio.
- English / Français UI.
- Countdown, pause / resume.
- On-screen annotations while recording (floating toolbar).
- Native per-OS pipeline → hardware H.264 → crash-safe fragmented MP4.
- 60 Hz cursor + click track stored with the project (`cursor.json`).

## Annotations

Select (click-through), pen, highlighter, eraser, rectangle, ellipse, line, arrow, text, colors, brush size, undo/redo/clear, draggable toolbar.

## Zoom & motion

- Zoom fragments on the timeline (Z or Add fragment).
- Auto-suggest zooms from clicks on a fresh recording.
- Follow-cursor zoom and fixed zoom regions.
- Scope: recording only or full scene.
- Scale, pan smoothness, ease in / out.
- Shrink background padding and optional face-cam shrink during zoom.
- Automatic motion between fragments.

## Cursor

Show/hide composited cursor; styles (macOS, Tahoe, Tahoe inverted, Minimal); size; motion blur; click bounce; sway.

## Look & composition

Backgrounds (image presets, gradients, solids, upload), named editor presets, screen content crop, padding, corner radius, shadow, background blur and darkness.

## Face cam

Round or rectangular PiP, mirror, corner position, size, roundness, shadow, crop, optional shrink during zoom.

## Captions

On-device speech-to-text via whisper.cpp (`whisper-cli`). Model weights download on first use. No cloud required for caption generation. Style and burn into preview/export.

## Timeline & export

Scrub/play, zoom fragments (add, suggest, select, resize, split, delete), trim gaps (T), undo/redo, timeline zoom.

Export: MP4, WebM, GIF; resolution presets; quality; 24/30/60 fps; optional voice enhancement; progress UI and reveal in Finder/Explorer/file manager.

## Local-first & privacy

Projects live in the OS app-data directory. In-app recordings library. Rename projects. No account required to record or edit. Video is not uploaded to Capptivo for cloud processing. See https://capptivo.com/privacy/

## Architecture (high level)

Capture → bounded frame channel → FFmpeg / VideoToolbox → screen.mp4. Cursor → cursor.json. UI → typed IPC of Rust state. Editor → media:// (HTTP Range) + canvas compositor → export. Rust owns capture, encoding, and storage; the React shell is presentation.

## License

Copyright (c) 2026 idboussadel. Capptivo Desktop is free software under the MIT License: you may use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and sell copies, provided the copyright notice and permission notice ship with any substantial portion of the software. Third-party components (e.g. FFmpeg sidecars) have their own licenses. Contributions are accepted under the same terms.

## Canonical pages

- https://capptivo.com/
- https://capptivo.com/install/
- https://capptivo.com/sponsors/
- https://capptivo.com/privacy/
- https://capptivo.com/terms/
- https://capptivo.com/fr/
- https://github.com/SECHAK-AG/capptivo
- https://github.com/SECHAK-AG/capptivo/releases/latest
- https://capptivo.com/llms.txt
- https://capptivo.com/sitemap.xml