Record

Record is a local-first screen and audio recorder for macOS. It keeps Quill's small menu-bar workflow, adds useful NewKap-inspired controls, and uses native Swift instead of Electron.

Record 1.0 captures the main display, microphone, and system audio; keeps the two audio sources as separate files; and can transcribe them locally. Finished sessions are exported to a user-approved folder, with Desktop as the default.

Requirements

• macOS 15 or newer
• Apple Silicon
• Screen & System Audio Recording and/or System Audio Recording Only access
• Microphone access when recording the microphone

Install

Download Record.dmg from the latest GitHub release, open it, and copy Record to Applications. Releases are Developer ID signed, notarized, and accompanied by SHA-256 checksums and build provenance.

Record has no Dock icon. Open it from the ring in the menu bar.

To uninstall, turn off Open at Login, quit Record, and move Record.app to the Trash. Remove Record's container only if you also want to delete its preferences, temporary recovery sessions, and installed transcription model.

Use

• Start screen recording records the main display to a video-only recording.mov and writes mic.caf and system.caf independently.
• Start audio-only recording writes the same two independent audio tracks without capturing the display.
• Select export folder… changes the approved destination. Desktop is suggested on first use, and the sandbox grant persists across launches.
• Open temp session opens private recovery storage for sessions that have not been exported.
• Open last recording reveals the newest finished session from private or approved export storage. Record derives this from session.json and keeps no separate activity database.
• Check for Updates… checks the signed GitHub release feed only when selected and can install a newer notarized build.
• Open at Login uses the macOS Login Items service and is off by default.

Each exported session contains an atomic session.json manifest. Screen sessions also contain recording.mov; both recording modes retain mic.caf and system.caf. Record validates the exported copy before deleting its private finalized working directory. A failed export leaves the private copy recoverable.

Local transcription

Parakeet v3 is the default transcription engine. Record never downloads a model itself. If the verified model is missing, Record offers a setup prompt and Transcript model → Set Up Parakeet Model…. Download the pinned model from FluidInference, then let Record verify every file and atomically import it into local storage. See the Parakeet setup guide.

Development checkouts can install the same pinned model directly with:

./scripts/setup/install-parakeet-model.sh

If MacWhisper and its bundled mw CLI are installed, Record provisions its own bundled, content-checked user-script bridge. Development checkouts can install the same bridge explicitly with:

./scripts/setup/install-macwhisper-cli.sh

Choose Transcript model → MacWhisper (Small). This option is absent unless MacWhisper, its bundled mw, and Record's sandbox helper are all available. Record validates the MacWhisper application signature before each invocation and never falls back silently from one engine to another.

If a local transcription fails, Transcript model → Retry Failed Transcription appears until the job is retried. Record keeps both source audio files unchanged. Voice processing reduces speaker-to-microphone echo by default; when aligned cross-track speech still duplicates, Record conservatively removes only high-confidence mic copies from the readable transcript and keeps the unsuppressed result in transcript.raw.json. A startup recovery scan validates interrupted media, restores playable partials, quarantines invalid partials without deleting them, and opens only Record's temporary recovery folder from the notification.

Built-in plugins

The Plugins menu contains small, capability-specific features rather than an in-process arbitrary-code plugin API:

• hide notifications, the menu bar, or Desktop items from screen capture;
• rename completed sessions using sanitized templates;
• open the last completed video in an already-installed Gifski app.

These settings do not modify global macOS display preferences, download helpers, or grant plugins network access.

Privacy and security

Record does not upload recordings, transcripts, clipboard-derived names, diagnostics, or identifiers. It has no accounts, analytics, cloud transcription, or recording network client. The sandboxed main app has no incoming or outgoing network entitlement.

The explicit update command is the narrow exception: Sparkle's sandboxed downloader service contacts the public GitHub release feed and accepts only an Ed25519-signed update archive. Enabling MacWhisper extends the local trust boundary to the separately installed MacWhisper app.

See Security and the local-only boundary for the enforceable invariants and limitations.

See the plain-language Privacy Policy for data handling.

Development

swift build
swift test
./scripts/ci/validate.sh
./script/build_and_run.sh --verify

./scripts/ci/local-gate.sh is the complete pre-release gate. It uses rootless Podman for pinned workflow and shell linting, runs the test and sanitizer suites, assembles the arm64 app, audits its entitlements, and verifies the ZIP and DMG structures.

The project uses Swift 6, AppKit, ScreenCaptureKit, AVFoundation, VideoToolbox/AVAssetWriter, ServiceManagement, and Sparkle 2. See Contributing before changing dependencies or privacy boundaries.

Documentation

• Architecture
• Testing
• Roadmap
• Changelog
• Advanced configuration
• Parakeet model setup
• Release runbook
• Quill migration record
• Current GitHub issue triage
• Support

Provenance and license

Record is a standalone project based on the MIT-licensed history of digimata/quill. Selected NewKap behaviors were reimplemented natively. See third-party notices for code and artwork attribution.

Record is available under the MIT License.