Kooha

Elegantly record your screen

🚀 Nightly Install

Run the following command to install the latest development build:

curl -L https://nightly.link/hanthor/Kooha/workflows/ci.yml/main/kooha.zip -o kooha.zip && unzip -o kooha.zip && flatpak install --user -y kooha.flatpak && rm kooha.zip kooha.flatpak

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Capture your screen in an intuitive and straightforward way without distractions.

Kooha is a simple screen recorder with a minimal interface. You can simply click the record button without having to configure a bunch of settings.

The main features of Kooha include the following:

• 🎙️ Record microphone, desktop audio, or both at the same time
• 📼 Support for WebM, MP4, GIF, and Matroska formats
• 🖥️ Select a monitor or a portion of the screen to record
• 🛠️ Configurable saving location, pointer visibility, frame rate, and delay
• 🚀 Experimental hardware-accelerated encoding
• 📹 Floating webcam overlay with circle and rounded-rectangle shapes, zoom, and mirror

📹 Webcam Overlay

Enable the webcam toggle in the main window to show a floating, borderless overlay of your camera feed alongside your recording. The overlay is captured naturally as part of your screen — no compositing required.

Features (right-click the overlay for the menu):

Feature	Details
Shape	Circle or Rounded Rectangle
Zoom	1×, 1.5×, or 2× (crops the camera source)
Mirror	Horizontal flip toggle
Drag	Left-click and drag to reposition anywhere on screen
Resize	Super+right-click → Resize (GNOME window manager)
Always on top	Super+right-click → Always on Top (GNOME window manager)

Keyboard shortcuts:

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+R	Start / stop recording
Super+Shift+R	Start / stop recording

You can also register a global shortcut (works even when Kooha is not focused) in GNOME Settings → Keyboard → Custom Shortcuts by pointing a shortcut at:

flatpak run io.github.seadve.Kooha.Devel

or using the D-Bus command:

gdbus call --session --dest=io.github.seadve.Kooha \
  --object-path /io/github/seadve/Kooha \
  --method org.gtk.Actions.Activate toggle-record '[]' '{}'

😕 It Doesn't Work

There are many possibilities on why it may not be working. You may not have the runtime requirements mentioned below installed, or your distro doesn't support it. For troubleshooting purposes, the screencast compatibility page of xdg-desktop-portal-wlr wiki may help determine if your distro has support for it out of the box. If it does, but it still doesn't work, you can also check for the troubleshooting checklist.

⚙️ Experimental Features

These features are disabled by default due to stability issues and possible performance degradation. However, they can be enabled manually by running Kooha with KOOHA_EXPERIMENTAL env var set to all (e.g., KOOHA_EXPERIMENTAL=all flatpak run io.github.seadve.Kooha), or individually, by setting KOOHA_EXPERIMENTAL to the following keys (e.g., KOOHA_EXPERIMENTAL=experimental-formats,window-recording):

Feature	Description	Issues
all	Enables all experimental features	-
experimental-formats	Enables other codecs (e.g., hardware-accelerate encoders, VP9, and AV1)	Stability
multiple-video-sources	Enables recording multiple monitor or windows	Stability and performance
window-recording	Enables recording a specific window	Flickering

📋 Runtime Requirements

• pipewire
• gstreamer-plugin-pipewire
• xdg-desktop-portal
• xdg-desktop-portal-(e.g., gtk, kde, wlr)

🏗️ Building from source

GNOME Builder

GNOME Builder is the environment used for developing this application. It can use Flatpak manifests to create a consistent building and running environment cross-distro. Thus, it is highly recommended you use it.

1. Download GNOME Builder.
2. In Builder, click the "Clone Repository" button at the bottom, using https://github.com/SeaDve/Kooha.git as the URL.
3. Click the build button at the top once the project is loaded.

Meson

Prerequisites

The following packages are required to build Kooha:

• meson
• ninja
• appstreamcli (for checks)
• cargo
• x264 (for MP4)
• gstreamer
• gstreamer-plugins-base
• gstreamer-plugins-ugly (for MP4)
• gstreamer-plugins-bad (for VA encoders)
• glib2
• gtk4
• libadwaita

Build Instruction

git clone https://github.com/SeaDve/Kooha.git
cd Kooha
meson _build --prefix=/usr/local
ninja -C _build install

📦 Third-Party Packages

Unlike Flatpak, take note that these packages are not officially supported by the developer.

Repology

You can also check out other third-party packages on Repology.

🙌 Help translate Kooha

You can help Kooha translate into your native language. If you find any typos or think you can improve a translation, you can use the Weblate platform.

☕ Support me and the project

Kooha is free and will always be for everyone to use. If you like the project and would like to support it, you may donate here.

💝 Acknowledgment

I would like to express my gratitude to the contributors and translators of the project.

I would also like to thank the open-source software projects, libraries, and APIs that were used in developing this app, such as GStreamer, GTK, LibAdwaita, and many others, for making Kooha possible.

I would also like to acknowledge RecApp, which greatly inspired the creation of Kooha, as well as GNOME Screenshot, which served as a reference for Kooha's icon design.