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Screenpipe

Desktop app and command-line tool that records your screen and audio locally, makes the history searchable with AI, and exposes it to AI assistants over MCP and a local API.

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What it does

Screenpipe records what happens on your computer and turns it into a searchable history. Rather than filming every second, it captures a screenshot when something changes, such as an app switch, a click or a typing pause, and pairs it with the text the operating system already knows about. When that text is unavailable it falls back to OCR. Audio from the system and microphone is transcribed with Whisper on your device or with Deepgram in the cloud, with speaker identification. You can search the history in natural language, filter by app, window, URL or date, and scroll through a timeline of your day. Scheduled agents called pipes are defined as markdown files and can summarise meetings, write daily recaps or standup updates, and break down where time went. Screenpipe also runs as an MCP server so tools such as Claude Desktop, Cursor and Claude Code can query your history, and it provides a REST API on localhost with a JavaScript SDK. History is stored on your device by default, though cloud AI, transcription, sync and integrations send data off the device. The code is source-available under a commercial license that allows personal, non-commercial use. Desktop installers cover macOS, Windows and Linux, and the project is also installable through npx.

Capabilities

  • Event-driven screen capture using the accessibility tree, with OCR fallback
  • Local or cloud transcription of system audio and microphone with speaker identification
  • Natural-language search and a timeline view of past activity
  • Pipes: scheduled AI agents written as markdown files
  • MCP server and localhost REST API with a JavaScript SDK
  • Per-pipe data permissions for apps, windows, content types and time ranges

When to use it

  • You want to find something you saw or heard earlier on your computer
  • You want an AI coding assistant or chat client to know what you have been working on
  • You want automatic meeting summaries, daily recaps or time breakdowns from your screen activity
  • You prefer capture history to stay on your own device by default

Alternatives to explore

  • Rewind
  • Microsoft Recall
  • Granola
  • Otter.ai