Cap: The Open-Source Screen Recorder

Cap is a robust, open-source alternative to proprietary screen recording tools like Loom. It provides a lightweight, seamless experience for capturing your screen, camera, and microphone, while empowering you with full ownership of your recordings. Whether you are recording a quick asynchronous update or producing a polished tutorial, Cap offers a variety of modes to fit your workflow. You can easily share links with anyone, completely eliminating upload wait times and file size limits. 1

Recording Modes Tailored to Your Needs

Cap streamlines the recording process with dedicated modes designed for specific use cases. For rapid communication, Instant Mode allows users to capture their screen and immediately receive a shareable link when they stop recording. 2 This eliminates wait times for uploads, making it ideal for bug reports, quick product demonstrations, or sharing quick thoughts with your team.

When a recording requires more polish, Cap provides a built-in professional editing suite. Studio Mode includes built-in editing features such as trimming, zoom effects, and background customization. 3 This mode processes video locally, allowing you to refine your content before exporting or uploading it to the cloud. Furthermore, Cap can automatically generate accurate AI-powered captions for all recordings, ensuring your content is accessible and easily searchable. 4

Cross-Platform and Agent-Friendly Integration

To ensure a consistent experience across different hardware, Cap provides a native desktop application that supports both macOS and Windows operating systems. 5 Beyond traditional user interfaces, Cap is built with modern automation in mind. AI agents like Codex, Claude Code, or Cursor can interact with Cap to record screens, read transcripts, generate AI summaries, and organize libraries directly through the command-line interface. This agent-friendly approach makes Cap an excellent fit for developer workflows and advanced integrations.

Self-Hosting and Complete Data Ownership

One of Cap's most significant advantages is its commitment to privacy and data control. While a managed cloud service is available, Cap provides a full self-hosting option using Docker Compose for infrastructure ownership. 6 This allows organizations to deploy the entire Cap stack—including the web application, media server, MySQL database, and S3-compatible MinIO storage—on their own servers.

For developers looking to get started quickly, the recommended deployment method provides a straightforward path. To deploy Cap locally using Docker Compose, you can use the following official commands:

By self-hosting, you maintain absolute control over your recordings, user accounts, and storage environments. Your sensitive company data never has to leave your infrastructure, offering peace of mind for privacy-conscious teams and enterprises. 7