[opensourcedex]

screenpipe is a free, open source ai interaction & interfaces project written in TypeScript and released under a custom open-source licence. It has 21,609 GitHub stars, 2,203 forks and 36 open issues, and was last pushed 3 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #29 of 76 tracked projects in AI Interaction & Interfaces, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 63 stars over the last 6 tracked days.

screenpipe — 24/7 screen and audio recorder with AI memory search

What is screenpipe ?

What it is

Screenpipe is a source-available Rust application that continuously records a computer's screen and audio, then turns that local history into searchable context for AI agents. It lives in the AI and machine-learning ecosystem, covering local-first memory, computer vision, audio recording, and agent interfaces.

The problem it solves is the loss of useful context during ordinary computer work. Users need to recall what they saw, heard, typed, or did earlier, but screenshots, transcripts, notes, and chat history are scattered across applications. Screenpipe stores that activity locally and exposes it to agents such as Claude, Codex, Openclaw, Hermes, and Runner, so agents can answer questions about past work or generate automations from observed behavior.

Key capabilities

  • It records screen and audio continuously and stores the data locally on the user's machine.
  • It captures the full accessibility tree, uses OCR as a fallback, transcribes audio, identifies speakers, records keyboard inputs, and notes app switches.
  • It provides AI-powered natural-language search over the recorded history, so users can ask for summaries or retrieve specific moments.
  • It connects to agents through a CLI and MCP setup, allowing agents to query recent screen content, summarize conversations, or create pipes and automations.
  • It includes filters for windows, applications, Chrome extensions, passwords, and a proprietary AI PII model to reduce unwanted capture.
  • It supports optional encryption at rest and works offline.

Who uses it and how

  • Knowledge workers use it as a private memory layer for daily computer work, recalling documents, meetings, messages, and code without manually searching screenshots or transcripts.
  • Developers and agent users install the CLI or desktop app, then connect Claude, Codex, or another coding agent to query recent screen activity or build automations from observed workflows.
  • Teams that want a shared company brain can use the local recorder as context for agents, while the README states that data lives on the user's machine.
  • Users replacing Rewind.ai, Microsoft Recall, Granola, or Otter.ai can use it for local screen and audio capture with AI search and agent integration.

Getting started

The README lists a desktop app download with auto-updates and a CLI path using npx screenpipe record, followed by npx screenpipe setup or claude mcp add screenpipe -- npx -y screenpipe-mcp@latest.

When to use it — and when not to

Screenpipe is useful when local capture, AI search, and agent context matter more than a hosted product, and when users can accept continuous recording and storage growth of about 20 GB per month. It replaces paid or proprietary tools such as Rewind.ai, Microsoft Recall, Granola, and Otter.ai with a source-available local alternative, but commercial use requires a license. A self-hoster or advanced user must operate the recorder, storage, filters, encryption choices, and agent connections, and the README shows no hosted option.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

DOWNLOAD SCREENPIPE

image

logo

[ screenpipe | YC S26 ]

Screenpipe remembers how you actually work

Record your screen continuously locally and provide context to your agents (Claude, Codex, Openclaw, Hermes, Runner...)

screenpipe%2Fscreenpipe | Trendshift

discord twitter youtube

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/70fe94eb-6d2a-47ca-b7c3-c8ead13a5b7f

Screenshot 2026-07-16 at 1 57 50 PMScreenshot 2026-07-16 at 1 58 37 PM

what is this?

screenpipe capture all your computer work locally and power your agents

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  screen + audio → local storage → ai   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
  • remember everything - never forget what you saw, heard, or did
  • run agents that work based on what you do generate agents, skills, and automations based on what you do
image
  • search with ai - find anything using natural language
  • 100% local - your data lives on your machine only
  • source-available - inspect, modify, audit (LICENSE.md) company brain - share knowledge with your team without turning it into surveillance

install

download the desktop app — all features, auto-updates

or run the CLI:

npx screenpipe record

then 

npx screenpipe setup
# or
claude mcp add screenpipe -- npx -y screenpipe-mcp@latest

then ask claude what did i see in the last 5 mins? or summarize today conversations or create a pipe that updates linear every time i work on task X

🤖 CLI-only setup for coding agents

If Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, or another coding agent is working from this repository, give it this instruction:

Read the screenpipe CLI skill before operating screenpipe. Set up always-on local capture, verify capture freshness and storage, then query my history without relying on the desktop app.

To install the screenpipe skills and MCP configuration into every supported agent detected on your computer, run:

npx screenpipe setup

The skill covers the recorder-first service default, explicit API-only server mode, human and JSON status, local search, safe read-only SQLite access, pipes, and connections.

specs

  • captures full accessibility tree, OCR as fallback, transcription, speakers, keyboard inputs, app switches
  • 5-10% cpu usage
  • 0.5-3gb ram
  • ~20gb storage/month
  • filters (window, app, chrome extensions, passwords, proprietary AI PII model)
  • optional encryption at rest
  • works offline

docs · enterprise · discord · x · youtube · reddit

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines, maintainers, and how to submit PRs.

Thanks to all contributors:

Translations

Want to translate screenpipe into another language? See docs/translations/.

📖 LLM reference

About screenpipe

screenpipe is a source-available application that continuously captures your screen and audio, creating a searchable, AI-powered memory of everything you do on your computer. All data is stored locally on your device. It is the leading source-available alternative to Rewind.ai (now Limitless), Microsoft Recall, Granola, and Otter.ai. If you're looking for a rewind alternative, recall alternative, or a private local screen recorder with AI, screenpipe is the most popular option you can fully audit.

Who screenpipe is for

  • Knowledge workers who want to recall anything they've seen or heard on their computer
  • Developers who want to give AI coding assistants (Cursor, Claude Code, Cline, Continue) context about what they're working on
  • Researchers who need to search through large volumes of screen-based information
  • People with ADHD who frequently lose track of tabs, documents, and conversations
  • Remote workers who want automatic meeting transcription and notes
  • Teams & enterprises who want to deploy AI across their organization with deterministic data permissions and central config management (screenpi.pe/team)
  • Anyone who wants a private, local-first alternative to cloud-based AI memory tools

Platform support

Platform Support Installation
macOS (Apple Silicon) ✅ Full support Native .dmg installer
macOS (Intel) ✅ Full support Native .dmg installer
Windows 10/11 ✅ Full support Native .exe installer
Linux ✅ Supported Build from source

Minimum requirements: 8 GB RAM recommended. ~5–10 GB disk space per month. CPU usage typically 5–10% on modern hardware thanks to event-driven capture.

Core features

Event-driven screen capture

Instead of recording every second, screenpipe listens for meaningful events — app switches, clicks, typing pauses, scrolling — and captures a screenshot only when something actually changes. Each capture pairs a screenshot with the accessibility tree (the structured text the OS already knows about: buttons, labels, text fields). If accessibility data isn't available (e.g. remote desktops, games), it falls back to OCR. This gives you maximum data quality with minimal CPU and storage — no more processing thousands of identical frames.

Audio transcription

Captures system audio (what you hear) and microphone input (what you say). Real-time speech-to-text using Whisper (Large-V3-Turbo) running locally on your device, or Deepgram for cloud transcription. Speaker identification and diarization. Works with any audio source — Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, or any other application.

On macOS 14.4+, you can exclude specific apps from system-audio capture by listing their bundle IDs in `~/.scree

readme truncated — read the full docs on github

Frequently asked questions

Is screenpipe free to use?

screenpipe is open source. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does screenpipe do?

24/7 screen and audio recorder with AI memory search

What is screenpipe written in?

screenpipe is primarily written in TypeScript. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/screenpipe/screenpipe, and it has 21,609 GitHub stars.