Recordly
Create polished, pro-grade screen recordings.
Recordly is an open-source screen recorder and editor for creating polished walkthroughs, demos, tutorials, and product videos. Contribution encouraged. Donate
FAQ: What are the changes between this and Openscreen? A: Recordly adds a full cursor animation/rendering pipeline, native macOS screen capture, zoom animations faithful to Screen Studio, smoother panning behaviour, and more tweaks.
This fork exists because the original maintainer does not wish implementing the architectural changes that make some of these features possible i.e. different recording pipeline.
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.
Features
Recording
- Record an entire screen or a single window
- Jump straight from recording into the editor
- Microphone or system audio recording
- Chromium capture APIs on Windows/Linux
- 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 (
.recordlyfiles)
Frame Styling
- Wallpapers
- Gradients
- Solid fills
- Padding
- Rounded corners
- Blur
- Drop shadows
Export
- MP4 video export
- GIF export
- Aspect ratio controls
- Quality settings
Screenshots
Installation
Download a build
Prebuilt releases are available here:
https://github.com/webadderall/Recordly/releases
Build from source
git clone https://github.com/webadderall/Recordly.git recordly
cd recordly
npm install
npm run dev
macOS: "App cannot be opened"
Recordly is not signed. macOS may quarantine locally built apps.
Remove the quarantine flag with:
xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Recordly.app
Usage
Record
- Launch Recordly
- Select a screen or window
- Choose audio recording options
- Start recording
- Stop recording to open the editor
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.
Export
Export options include:
- MP4 for full-quality video
- GIF for lightweight sharing
Adjust:
- Aspect ratio
- Output resolution
- Quality settings
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.
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
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
.recordlyfiles store the source video path and editor state
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.
Community
Bug reports and feature requests:
https://github.com/webadderall/Recordly/issues
Pull requests are welcome.
Donations & Sponsors
Donate to help cover notarisation costs
Email youngchen3442@gmail.com for other inquiries or DM me via @webadderall
License
Recordly is licensed under the MIT License.
Credits
Created by
@webadderall
Built on top of OpenScreen