// the find
wulkano/Kap
An open-source screen recorder built with web technology
Kap is a macOS screen recorder built as an Electron app with a Next.js/TypeScript renderer, backed by the team's own native capture library (Aperture) instead of Electron's built-in capture. It's for developers who want a free, open alternative to CleanShot or Loom for quick screen recordings exported as gif/mp4/webm, with a plugin system for where the output goes.
Capture is handled by Aperture, a separate Swift library the same team maintains, which sidesteps the quality and performance limits of Electron's desktopCapturer. The export flow is a real plugin architecture (main/plugins) with a documented API, not a hardcoded save dialog, so copy-to-clipboard, open-with, and save-file are swappable implementations. The codebase is typed throughout, linted with XO, built on CircleCI, and wired to Sentry, so this isn't a weekend hack that stopped being maintained with care.
It's macOS-only and tied to Aperture's native bindings, so despite the 'built with web technology' pitch there's no path to Windows or Linux. Running an Electron shell plus a Next.js renderer for what is conceptually a menu-bar utility means a heavier install and memory footprint than the task needs. Format conversion depends on a bundled ffmpeg, which caps both app size and codec support to whatever that binary supports. Commit activity has slowed noticeably since late 2024, which is worth checking before relying on it for a new macOS release.