Record anything, instantly.
Recordwright lives in your menu bar. Pick a display or a window, hit record, and narrate with your mic — a live red-dot timer keeps you honest while you roll. Your .mov lands in your Movies folder the moment you stop.
One click, you’re recording.
Recordwright works like a studio talkback: frame the shot, roll when the light’s red, cut when the take is done. Three moves, no menus to dig through.
Frame it
Click the record glyph in your menu bar and pick what the camera sees — any display or any on-screen window. record.circle is always one click away, never buried in a Dock.
Roll it
Run a 3-2-1 countdown while you arrange your windows, then roll with microphone narration on or off. The menu bar flips to a pulsing red dot with a live timer — you always know you’re recording.
Cut it
Click the red dot to stop. The .mov file is already saved in ~/Movies/Recordwright/ and pops open in Finder. No render queue, no upload, no watermark.
A studio in the menu bar.
Everything you need for a clean take, nothing that gets in the way of one.
Display or window capture
Record any display at full resolution or a single window, cursor included — powered by ScreenCaptureKit.
Microphone narration
Toggle narration with your default input device. Audio is captured alongside video so you can talk through the take.
3-2-1 countdown
Optional countdown before the red light comes on — time to hide your tabs and take a breath before the take.
Live tally in the menu bar
While recording, the menu bar item becomes a pulsing red dot with a running timer. Click it to cut — nothing to hunt for.
Guided permissions
First run walks you through Screen Recording access with a one-click shortcut to the right System Settings pane.
Native and quiet
Swift and ScreenCaptureKit, no Electron, no Dock icon, no account, no tracking. Optional launch at login.
Built like a broadcast rig.
Recordwright is a Cloverwright product — native macOS code, written in Swift, engineered like the tools it records.
1Real capture, not screenshots
Frames flow through ScreenCaptureKit’s SCStream — the same machinery behind the system screenshot UI — and are written frame-by-frame into an AVAssetWriter as H.264 video, with the cursor composited by the OS. No frame scraping, no missed frames.
2Menu bar, not an app
Pure Swift and SwiftUI with a MenuBarExtra scene and LSUIElement — no Dock icon, no Electron, no webviews. It launches in a blink, sits one click from the red light, and stays out of your way while you work.
3Tracks stay in sync
The microphone comes in through AVFoundation as a separate AAC audio track — but samples are only appended once the video session has started, so narration never drifts out of sync with the picture, no matter how long the take runs.
4Open & hackable
The full Xcode project ships in the download. Change the countdown length, add your own source filters, or wire in GIF export when the roadmap lands — five Swift files and a README.
Free. No strings.
Recordwright is free forever — one take, no tiers to climb.
Free
Free forever for everyone. No account, no tracking, no watermark.
- Unlimited recordings — no caps, no watermarks
- Display and window capture with cursor
- Microphone narration, 3-2-1 countdown, live tally timer
- Files saved as .mov straight to your Movies folder
- Full Swift source included — no lock-in
Before you roll.
What format do recordings save in?
Recordwright v1 saves .mov files (H.264 video with AAC audio when the microphone is on) into ~/Movies/Recordwright/. Finder opens on the new file the moment you stop recording.
Can it export GIFs?
Not in v1 — GIF export is on the roadmap, not included in this build. We won't advertise it as a feature until it ships.
Does it record system audio?
No. v1 captures your microphone for narration, not the audio playing on your Mac. System audio capture may come in a later version.
What does it need to run?
macOS 13 (Ventura) or later. On first run, Recordwright guides you through granting Screen Recording permission in System Settings, plus microphone access if you turn narration on.
How do I stop a recording?
Click the menu bar item — while recording it's a pulsing red dot with a live timer. One click stops the recording and saves the file.
Is it really free?
Yes. Recordwright is free forever, with no account, no tracking, and no watermark. It's a Cloverwright product — the full Swift source is included in the download.
Roll camera.
Grab the full Swift source, open it in Xcode, and you’re on air in minutes.
The download ships the complete Xcode project — open Recordwright.xcodeproj, set your signing team, and press ⌘R. The Swift was authored on Linux, so expect to smooth over small API mismatches on the first compile. Requires macOS 13+. v1 records .mov only; GIF export is on the roadmap. A Cloverwright product — cloverwright.com.