Pre-release · macOS · open source
Screen recording studio for macOS
A native screen recorder and non-linear editor. Capture your display, webcam, mic and system audio, get automatic zooms from your clicks, arrange it all with layouts and backgrounds, and export. Built in Swift with a Metal compositor.
git clone https://github.com/arckollect/PixelBay.git
cd PixelBay
cp Local.xcconfig.template Local.xcconfig
open Pixelbay.xcworkspaceNo installer yet. Clone, open the workspace in Xcode, press ⌘R. Full steps below.
Everything a screen studio needs, running natively
Pixelbay is in the spirit of Screen Studio, Loom Desktop and CleanShot X, built from scratch on ScreenCaptureKit, AVFoundation and Metal.
Capture everything, natively
Record a display or a single window plus webcam, microphone and system audio at the same time. System audio uses ScreenCaptureKit directly, so there is no virtual audio driver to install.
Auto-zoom from your clicks
Pixelbay logs clicks and cursor motion while you record, then generates zoom keyframes that start before each click. Mark extra zooms mid-recording with a hotkey, a cursor circle, or a cursor shake.
A cursor people can actually see
The system cursor is hidden at capture time and re-rendered as a crisp, scalable sprite in the compositor, with velocity-driven motion blur and smoothed, click-pinned movement.
Layouts and backgrounds
Nine camera positions, split layouts, circle or rounded webcam, solid, gradient or wallpaper backgrounds. Or drag the screen and camera anywhere with snapping and arrow-key nudging.
A real non-linear timeline
Trim, slice, and drag clip edges to reveal footage. Independent screen, camera and mic tracks, per-clip speed and volume, waveforms, undo and redo. Every edit is non-destructive.
Scenes
Record a walkthrough as separate scenes, re-take any of them, then merge into one project with grouped timeline lanes. Append a new scene to an existing project at any time.
One Metal render path
Preview and export share the same Metal render graph, so what you see while scrubbing is exactly what ships. Temporal motion blur and zoom transitions are computed on the GPU.
Local files, no accounts
Projects are plain .pixelbay bundles on disk with the original media untouched inside. Export to H.264 MP4. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no login.
Run it from source
There is no DMG or App Store listing yet. You build Pixelbay yourself with Xcode. It takes about five minutes the first time.
- 1
Clone the repository
Everything is in one repo: the Xcode project, the workspace, and the ten local Swift packages it depends on.
git clone https://github.com/arckollect/PixelBay.git cd PixelBay - 2
Set up local signing
Copy the tracked template to the gitignored Local.xcconfig and put your 10-character Apple Developer Team ID in DEVELOPMENT_TEAM. No team? Point CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY at a self-signed certificate and set ENABLE_HARDENED_RUNTIME to NO. A stable signing identity is what keeps the Screen Recording permission across builds.
cp Local.xcconfig.template Local.xcconfig # then edit DEVELOPMENT_TEAM in Local.xcconfig - 3
Open the workspace in Xcode
Open Pixelbay.xcworkspace, not the .xcodeproj, so the local packages resolve. Wait for package resolution to finish.
open Pixelbay.xcworkspace - 4
Build and run
Select the PixelbayApp scheme and My Mac as the destination, then press Command-R. The first build compiles all packages and takes a few minutes.
# In Xcode: scheme → PixelbayApp, destination → My Mac, then ⌘R # Or from the terminal: make build - 5
Grant permissions
On first launch Pixelbay asks for Screen Recording, Camera and Microphone. macOS requires a relaunch after granting Screen Recording. The in-app onboarding walks you through it.
Questions
Why isn't there a DMG or App Store download?
Pixelbay is pre-release. A signed and notarized direct download with Sparkle auto-updates is the next milestone. The Mac App Store is not planned because the app needs capabilities the sandbox does not allow. Until then, building from source is the supported way to run it.
Is this safe to run?
You build it yourself from the source you can read, on your own machine, with your own signing identity. Pixelbay has no network features, no telemetry and no accounts. Permissions are only requested for what the app does: record the screen, camera and microphone.
Do I need a paid Apple Developer account?
No. A free Apple ID works for local development signing, and a self-signed certificate works too. You only need a paid Developer ID to distribute a notarized build to other people.
Where are my recordings stored?
Each project is a .pixelbay package on disk containing the project file and the original screen, webcam, mic and system audio media. Nothing leaves your Mac.
Can I run the tests?
Yes. Run make test from the repo root to run every package test suite, or make test-PixelbayCore for a single package. The core packages build with plain swift build too.
Ready when you are
Clone it, build it, record something. A signed download is coming.