Recordly/README.md

# Recordly

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  <img src="https://i.postimg.cc/tRnL8gHp/Frame-5.png" width="220" alt="Recordly logo">
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  <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/macOS%20%7C%20Windows%20%7C%20Linux-111827?style=for-the-badge" alt="macOS Windows Linux" />
  <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/open%20source-MIT-2563eb?style=for-the-badge" alt="MIT license" />
  <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/version-1.1.3-0f766e?style=for-the-badge" alt="Version 1.1.3" />
</p>

### Create polished, pro-grade screen recordings.
[Recordly](https://www.recordly.dev) is an **open-source screen recorder and editor** for creating **polished walkthroughs, demos, tutorials, and product videos**.


<p align="center">
  <img src="https://image2url.com/r2/default/gifs/1773106582465-3395bda8-8e8f-4735-ab44-9d912136783d.gif" width="750" alt="Recordly demo video">
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> Note on origins: Recordly is a hard fork of the excellent [**OpenScreen**](https://github.com/siddharthvaddem/openscreen) foundation by [Siddharth](https://x.com/sidious_man), which is focused on robustness and a stable feature set. Recordly focuses on a different product direction - i.e. adding cursor animations, Apple-inspired zoom animations, smoother panning - and aims to reach full feature parity with Screen Studio.

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## What is Recordly?

Recordly lets you record your screen and automatically transform it into a polished video. It handles the heavy lifting of zooming into important actions and smoothing out jittery cursor movement so your demos look professional by default.

Recordly runs on:

- **macOS**
- **Windows**
- **Linux**

macOS includes a **native smooth cursor animation pipeline**.  
Windows and Linux currently use Electron's capture path, which means the OS cursor cannot always be hidden during recording.



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# Features

### Recording

- Record an entire screen or a single window
- Jump straight from recording into the editor
- Microphone or system audio recording
- Native **ScreenCaptureKit** capture on macOS

### Smart Motion

- Apple-style zoom animations
- Automatic zoom suggestions based on cursor activity
- Manual zoom regions
- Smooth pan transitions between zoom regions

### Cursor Controls

- Adjustable cursor size
- Cursor smoothing
- Motion blur
- Click bounce animation
- macOS-style cursor assets

### Editing Tools

- Timeline trimming
- Speed-up / slow-down regions
- Annotations
- Zoom spans
- Project save + reopen (`.recordly` files)

### Frame Styling

- Wallpapers
- Gradients
- Solid fills
- Padding
- Rounded corners
- Blur
- Drop shadows

### Export

- MP4 video export
- GIF export
- Aspect ratio controls
- Quality settings

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# Screenshots

<p align="center">
  <img src="https://i.postimg.cc/d0t09ypT/Screenshot-2026-03-09-at-8-10-08-pm.png" width="700" alt="Recordly editor screenshot">
</p>

<p align="center">
  <img src="https://i.postimg.cc/YSgdbvFj/Screenshot-2026-03-09-at-8-49-14-pm.png" width="700" alt="Recordly recording interface screenshot">
</p>

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# Installation

## Download a build

Prebuilt releases are available here:

https://github.com/webadderall/Recordly/releases

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## Build from source

```bash
git clone https://github.com/webadderall/Recordly.git recordly
cd recordly
npm install
npm run dev
```

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## macOS: "App cannot be opened"

Recordly is not signed. macOS may quarantine locally built apps.

Remove the quarantine flag with:

```bash
xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Recordly.app
```

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# Usage

## Record

1. Launch Recordly
2. Select a screen or window
3. Choose audio recording options
4. Start recording
5. Stop recording to open the editor

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## Edit

Inside the editor you can:

- Add zoom regions manually
- Use automatic zoom suggestions
- Adjust cursor behavior
- Trim the video
- Add speed changes
- Add annotations
- Style the frame

Save your work anytime as a `.recordly` project.

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## Export

Export options include:

- **MP4** for full-quality video
- **GIF** for lightweight sharing

Adjust:

- Aspect ratio
- Output resolution
- Quality settings

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# Limitations

### Windows & Linux Cursor Capture

Electron’s desktop capture API does not allow hiding the system cursor during recording.

If you enable the animated cursor layer, recordings may contain **two cursors**.

Improving cross-platform cursor capture is an area where contributions are welcome.

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### System Audio

System audio capture depends on platform support.

**Windows**
- Works out of the box

**Linux**
- Requires PipeWire (Ubuntu 22.04+, Fedora 34+)
- Older PulseAudio setups may not support system audio

**macOS**
- Requires macOS 12.3+
- Uses ScreenCaptureKit helper

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# How It Works

Recordly is a **desktop video editor with a renderer-driven motion pipeline and platform-specific capture layer**.

**Capture**
- Electron orchestrates recording
- macOS uses native helpers for ScreenCaptureKit and cursor telemetry

**Motion**
- Zoom regions
- Cursor tracking
- Speed changes
- Timeline edits

**Rendering**
- Scene composition handled by **PixiJS**

**Export**
- Frames rendered through the same scene pipeline
- Encoded to MP4 or GIF

**Projects**
- `.recordly` files store the source video path and editor state

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# Contributing

Contributions are welcome.

Please:

- Keep pull requests **focused and modular**
- Test playback, editing, and export flows
- Avoid large unrelated refactors

Areas where help is especially valuable:

- Smooth cursor pipeline for **Windows and Linux**
- **Export speed improvements**

See `CONTRIBUTING.md` for guidelines.

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# Community

Bug reports and feature requests:

https://github.com/webadderall/Recordly/issues

Pull requests are welcome.

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# Donations & Sponsors



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# License

Recordly is licensed under the **MIT License**.

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# Credits

Created by  
[@webadderall](https://x.com/webadderall)

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