Cap

Cap Desktop 0.6.1 makes the native app the only Cap, rebuilt for speed, battery life and reliable recordings.

Features

• Native Cap for everyone - The fast native app replaces the previous desktop app; your recordings, settings and shortcuts carry over automatically.
• Native signed updates - Updates download in the background and are verified before install; prompts never interrupt a recording or export.
• New welcome and permissions flow - A redesigned first-run experience that guides you through screen, camera and microphone access.
• Scrub previews - The preview keeps updating while you drag the playhead, including fast reverse scrubs.
• Smoother editor - Hover, timeline and long clip lists stay responsive; waveforms are cached instead of redrawn every frame.
• Reduce Motion - Animations follow the macOS Reduce Motion setting.
• CLI - Install the cap command line tool from Settings → CLI or cap desktop install-cli.

Fixes

• Recording reliability - Track start times are saved as you record, footage is recovered after a muxer restart, and frame drops are reported instead of lost silently.
• A/V sync - Microphone, system audio, camera and screen stay aligned through pauses, slow devices and clock drift; Instant recordings start their audio and video together.
• Disk usage - Studio recordings no longer keep a duplicate copy of their media after stopping.
• Exports - Exports keep every frame in order when decoding is slow, use BT.709 colour, and refuse empty timelines instead of writing empty files.
• Projects - Damaged timelines, clips that run past their recording, and legacy captions and closing titles are repaired on open.
• Permissions - Screen recording, accessibility, camera and microphone grants are detected reliably, including while their Privacy pane is open.
• Sign-in - Sign-in callbacks have deadlines, and closing the prompt only cancels that sign-in.
• Stability - Fixed a Touch Bar crash and hardened capture against unexpected pixel formats and mid-stream audio changes.
• Linux - The Settings CLI install now works with the AppImage.
• Windows - Recording pacing keeps the last frame through pauses and stalls.

Performance

• Battery - Idle windows stop redrawing when nothing changes: the main window and paused editor idle at about 0.02% CPU, down from about 0.9%.
• Lighter recording - Cursor capture no longer re-encodes the cursor image dozens of times a second.
• Faster exports - Export audio uses AudioToolbox on macOS; ProRes threads are sized to your Mac's memory so 8 GB Macs don't swap on 4K.
• Windows - Faster Media Foundation decoding and readback for playback and exports.
• Screenshots and pickers - Faster screenshot export and picker thumbnails.

Downloads

• macOS (Apple Silicon)
• macOS (Intel)
• Windows
• Linux (Debian / Ubuntu .deb)
• Linux (AppImage)
• Linux (Fedora / RPM)
• Linux (Arch / Pacman)

Cap Desktop 0.6.0 brings the GPUI preview, redesigned editor, new tracks and Studio Sound.

Features

• GPUI app preview - Try the optional native app in Settings → Experimental; recordings and settings carry over, and you can switch back while more tools are added.
• Redesigned editor - New crop and inspector controls, text and 3D panels, track picker and export screen.
• Style tracks - Change backgrounds, camera and cursor for just part of a video.
• Image tracks - Add logos or images; resize, rotate, fade and trim them.
• 3D tracks - Create automatic or custom camera shots with timeline previews, perspective, easing and focus blur.
• Clip right-click menu - Set speed/volume, mute or hide the cursor, choose sped-up audio behavior; split, merge, rename or delete.
• Studio Sound - Reduce mic noise with Light, Balanced or Strong isolation; set a default for new recordings.
• Record into a project - Add another recording straight to an open editor project.
• Camera backgrounds - Blur or remove camera backgrounds on macOS, in previews and exports.
• Color correction - Tune screen and camera colors separately with presets and grading controls.
• Animated text and cards - Use installed fonts, presets, gradients and animations; full-screen cards pause the recording.
• Moving backgrounds - Create animated gradients with editable colors and presets.
• Cursor effects - Choose macOS, Tahoe, Windows or circle cursors, with shape changes and click ripples.
• Timeline controls - Scrub the ruler, navigate with the minimap, snap cuts, multi-select zooms and follow playback.
• Draw on screenshots - Draw freehand before copying or saving screenshots. Press D.
• Frames and zoom - Add macOS, Windows, browser or MacBook frames in the native editor; choose a default zoom strength.
• Export estimates - See measured file size and time estimates before saving.
• Native app feedback - Guided onboarding and completion sounds for screenshots, clipboard actions and uploads.
• Desktop diagnostics - Run A/V sync checks in Settings → Feedback and review reports before sending.

Fixes

• Recording recovery - Recover complete fragments after interruptions; preserve footage through failed saves.
• Low storage - Warn and leave room to finish recording; guard exports against low disk space or memory.
• Device reconnection - Restore selected mic/camera after reconnection and keep camera placement.
• Recording start - Capture begins as soon as the start sound ends in both apps.
• Playback and audio - Sound starts with video; muted clips and clip volume carry through export.
• Edits stay aligned - Captions, keyboard overlays, zooms, titles and cursors stay aligned after cuts and in exports.
• Static recordings - Still captures retain their full duration through the moment you stop.
• Imports and thumbnails - Keep clips and audio in place; refresh thumbnails after edits.
• App switching - Safer updates, relaunches and app switching during active work.
• macOS capture - Fixed picker freezes and improved capture and permission recovery.
• Windows - Fixed black native export previews, window controls, virtual cameras and capture cards.
• Linux - Wayland/X11 capture the right target; mic and system audio stay separate. Added DEB, RPM, AppImage and Arch packages.
• Camera effects - Cleaner background blur and cutout edges.

Performance

• Faster editing - Quicker pickers and recording finish; smoother playback and scrubbing.
• Lighter media work - Frame reuse reduces memory and temporary files during imports, camera effects and exports.
• Platform speed - Faster Windows graphics startup; Linux NVIDIA encoding with fallback.

Downloads

• macOS (Apple Silicon)
• macOS (Intel)
• [Windows](https://

This release adds API key authentication for the Cap CLI, a safety check that stops you from accidentally recording without a microphone, and a batch of fixes covering memory leaks on macOS, recordings that failed to open, and lighter instant recordings.

It also fixes a rare error that could stop a recording partway through on macOS and Windows, makes pause and resume more robust, extends disk-space protection to every recording mode, and adds an optional MacBook notch overlay to Studio Mode.

Features

• API keys for the CLI - Generate API keys from your account settings on the Cap dashboard and set the CAP_API_KEY environment variable to authenticate the Cap CLI without a browser login. This makes it possible to run Cap in CI, on remote servers, and with agents in headless environments. You can list and revoke your keys from the dashboard at any time.
• Confirm before recording without a microphone - Cap now asks for confirmation before starting a recording when no microphone is selected or the selected microphone is unavailable, so you never finish a take only to find it silent. It is on by default and can be turned off in Settings under General.
• Exclude floating panels from recordings on macOS - The excluded-windows picker in Settings now lists floating accessory panels, like quick launchers and utility palettes, so you can keep them out of your recordings too.
• MacBook notch overlay in Studio Mode - Screen capture records straight through the physical notch, so recordings of a notched MacBook show an unbroken menu bar where you saw a cutout. Studio Mode can now draw the notch back over the recording, in both the editor preview and exports, and it follows your crop, padding, and zoom automatically. New recordings capture the exact notch geometry at record time; for older recordings you can position the overlay by hand.

Fixes

• Recordings with a damaged mic track open again - A recording whose microphone audio file was empty or unreadable previously refused to open in the editor at all. The editor now opens the recording without the mic audio and logs a warning instead, and exports still validate audio strictly so a track is never silently dropped from a final file.
• Memory growth while idle on macOS - Routine permission checks queried the display list every few seconds and leaked a small amount of memory each time, which could add up to significant usage over long sessions. This is fixed, along with smaller leaks in camera enumeration, display name and scale lookups, microphone device names, and the mic volume meter.
• Recording start feedback - Clicking record from the target picker now shows a loading state immediately instead of appearing to do nothing while the recording starts.
• Window screenshots on Windows - Taking a screenshot of a window no longer fails because the picker window closed itself before the capture was dispatched.
• Editor playback with background music - Playback audio now works when your timeline has music but no recorded audio track.
• Mic volume meter accuracy - The microphone level meter no longer stalls or grows memory when an audio device's capture clock freezes.
• Recordings no longer stop mid-way with a writer error on macOS - When screen or microphone capture briefly stalled and then recovered in a burst, two frames could land on the same timestamp and the video writer would fail a few seconds later, ending the recording with an error. Frame timing is now corrected before it reaches the writer, so the recording continues. This affected instant, studio, and camera recordings, and was most likely with USB microphones whose capture clock can stall.
• The same timing issue fixed for instant recordings on Windows - Frames arriving in a burst could collide on a single timestamp tick and be rejected by the recorder. Timestamps are now kept strictly increasing, and a stuck capture clock is surfaced in logs instead of

This release makes Cap work end to end with AI agents without depending on the dashboard. It also adds a built-in teleprompter, clip transitions, an expandable capture window with recent media, reusable area selections, improved privacy masks, and better audio control for retimed clips.

Features

• Cap works end to end with AI agents - Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode, and any shell-capable agent can now use Cap through the expanded CLI, installable Cap skill, and local MCP server. After a secure browser login, your agent can record, export, upload, and share; read titles, transcripts, AI summaries, chapters, comments, reactions, views, permissions, and processing state; search and organize your library; inspect analytics; and manage collaboration, teams, storage, migrations, and developer workflows without using the dashboard. Commands return machine-readable JSON, changes require your confirmation, and secrets stay out of chat and MCP. Set up Cap for your agent with one copy-paste prompt.
• Built-in teleprompter - Open a dedicated teleprompter from the main window, paste or type your script, and control auto-scroll speed, text size, opacity, cue markers, and mirrored text. Your script and settings are saved between sessions, the window stays above other apps, and Cap keeps it out of recordings on macOS and Windows.
• Clip transitions - Add crossfades or fades through black between clips, then adjust the transition length directly from the timeline. Transitions are included in editor playback and final exports.
• Expandable capture window with Recents - Expand the main window for a roomier capture setup with clearer camera, microphone, and system-audio controls, plus a carousel of recent recordings and screenshots that open in one click. Cap remembers your preferred window size, and macOS 26 uses the native Liquid Glass appearance.
• Reusable area capture - Area recording now includes quick aspect-ratio presets, fill and reset controls, and the option to lock a region for future recordings. The controls stay outside the selected area so they do not cover what you are capturing.
• Blur and pixelate masks - Sensitive-area masks can now use either a smooth blur or pixelation, with adjustable strength for each effect.
• Audio controls for retimed clips - When slowing down or speeding up a clip, choose whether to mute its audio, preserve natural voice pitch, or let the pitch follow the playback speed.
• Copyable app version - Click the version number in Settings to copy it when reporting an issue or checking which build is installed.

Fixes

• Windows pause and resume reliability - Pausing a recording for more than a few seconds no longer triggers a false hardware-encoder timeout when you resume.
• Camera background blur startup - Packaged desktop builds now locate the bundled background-blur runtime correctly, making camera blur initialize more reliably.
• Existing recording imports on Windows - The clips sidebar can now select Cap recording folders correctly when importing an existing recording.
• Safer macOS window positioning - The main window is kept below the menu bar and display notch so its controls remain reachable.
• Clearer crop editing - Crop guides have stronger contrast against both light and dark recording backgrounds.

Performance

• Smoother playback and scrubbing - The editor cancels outdated frame work sooner, keeps active decoders ready across seeks, and avoids prefetching frames that are already behind the playhead.
• Faster media lists - Recordings and screenshots reuse their calculated sort times, reducing repeated filesystem work when loading the library and Recents.

Downloads

• macOS (Apple Silicon)
• macOS (Intel)
• [Windows](https://cdn.crabnebula