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features

Elwina Vardal edited this page Aug 19, 2026 · 1 revision

Features

Active contributors: elwina

Purpose

These pages describe the user- and agent-visible capabilities of Capto: what each feature does, how it works, and where to change it. They sit one level above the crate and app pages, which cover the internals. All features are local by design; nothing uploads or shares remotely.

Feature What it is Page
Recording Start, pause, resume, and stop screen recordings as MP4, GIF, or audio-only files from the UI, tray, hotkeys, or CLI Recording
Overlays On-screen feedback during a recording: mouse-click highlights, keystrokes, and the recording frame Overlays
Audio capture Microphone and system-sound (loopback) capture with per-source volume, mixed into the recording Audio capture
Webcam PiP Picture-in-picture webcam overlay composited into the frame before encoding Webcam PiP
Hotkeys Global shortcuts, default Alt+F5 through Alt+F8, that start, pause, stop, and screenshot Hotkeys
Updates In-app updates served from the worker mirror with a signed latest.json, keeping the installed app current Updates

Where the pieces live

  • CLI provides the agent-facing control surface (capto record start / status / record stop / outputs).
  • Desktop app owns the single RecordingSession and exposes the UI commands, tray, hotkeys, and previews.
  • Control-plane API documents the /v1/record/* endpoints behind the CLI.
  • capto-core holds session orchestration, settings, and FFmpeg argv building.
  • capto-capture provides the DXGI record pump and webcam capture used by recording and preview.
  • capto-encode wraps the bundled FFmpeg sidecar: discovery, encoder probe, and remux.
  • capto-audio captures WASAPI microphone and loopback inputs as PCM streams.

Feature pages vs crate pages

Feature pages describe behavior from the user's point of view and point at the specific files to touch. Crate pages describe the same machinery from the code's point of view. When both exist, read the feature page first, then follow the links into the crate pages for the details.

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