Screenlogger

Screenlogger is a private screen memory for macOS. It captures your screen at a chosen interval, recognizes visible text on device, and lets you return to a moment through Library search or Timeline navigation.

Release builds are universal, Developer ID signed, notarized by Apple, and distributed through a stapled DMG.

Highlights

• Search recognized text, applications, websites, and dates.
• Move between Library results and their surrounding Timeline context.
• Pause capture at any time and exclude applications or websites.
• Keep the Library on this Mac with retention, compaction, backup, and restore.
• Search from Terminal with the screenlog command.
• Hand a reviewed search request to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Grok Build, or OpenClaw.
• Check, install, and relaunch into cryptographically signed updates from the app. Automatic checks remain off until enabled in Settings.

Install

Screenlogger requires macOS 14 or later.

1. Download the DMG from the repository's Releases page.
2. Open the DMG and drag Screenlogger into Applications.
3. Open Screenlogger from Applications.
4. Follow Setup to allow Screen Recording and Accessibility. Both permissions are required for reliable capture and exclusions.
5. Choose Start Capture.

See Installation for detailed first-run and removal instructions.

Privacy

The Library is stored under:

~/Library/Application Support/dev.screenlog/

Screen capture, text recognition, indexing, and search run on this Mac. Optional website-icon fetching is off by default and can be disabled globally with Keep Screenlogger Offline. Only the search words and visible filters are handed off. The selected assistant may send retrieved material to its AI provider.

Read Privacy for permission, storage, exclusion, network, and assistant boundaries.

Command line

Install the Terminal command from Screenlogger Settings, then keep the app open:

screenlog doctor
screenlog search "design review"
screenlog usage top-applications
screenlog --help

The app owns the database. The CLI is a bounded client and never opens the Library database directly. See CLI and Assistant integrations.

Build from source

Full Xcode is required.

export DEVELOPER_DIR=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
Scripts/xcodegen.sh generate
swift test
Scripts/build.sh

The checked-in Xcode project is generated from project.yml. CI verifies that the generated project is current.

Documentation

• Installation
• Privacy
• CLI
• Assistant integrations
• Architecture
• Development
• Performance
• Backup and restore
• Troubleshooting
• Release process
• Interface style

Contributing

Read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a change. Security issues should follow SECURITY.md.

License

Screenlogger is available under the MIT License. See LICENSE and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.