macos-screen-recorder (sck-record) is a macOS screen recorder that captures the screen with system audio via ScreenCaptureKit — CLI, no driver, no sudo — plus a Claude Code skill.
Record your macOS screen with the sound your Mac is playing — headless, from the CLI — with no virtual audio driver, no BlackHole, no Loopback, no sudo. One Swift file built on ScreenCaptureKit, Apple's native capture framework.
The whole gap, closed: ffprobe confirms the muxed file has both a video stream and a system-audio stream — captured with only the standard Screen Recording permission, no driver, no sudo.
macOS's built-in screencapture -v records video only — its -g flag captures the microphone, not what your speakers are playing. The usual fix is installing a virtual audio device (BlackHole, Loopback, Soundflower) and rerouting your output through it, which changes what you hear and may need a security-approval reboot. ScreenCaptureKit makes that unnecessary: since macOS 13 it can tap system audio directly under nothing but the standard Screen Recording grant. This is the smallest possible wrapper around that capability — one file, one binary, one command.
The one true differentiator: system audio from a headless CLI with zero install. This is not a "better than OBS / Screen Studio" tool — it fills exactly the gap those don't: scriptable capture-with-sound, no driver.
- 🔊 Main display + system audio — every app sound, browser tab,
sayvoice, and music track your Mac outputs, muxed with the screen. What you hear is untouched while recording. - 🎞️ Standard H.264 / AAC
.mp4you can share immediately (8 Mbps video, 48 kHz stereo 160 kbps AAC). - 🖥️ Retina capture, capped at 2560 px wide to keep files sane, up to 30 fps; cursor included (or
--no-cursor). - 🪶 No daemons, no kernel extensions, no audio rerouting — ~90 lines of Swift around
SCStream+AVAssetWriter.
It ships as a skill — an AI agent (Claude Code) can drive it for you:
/plugin marketplace add connerkward/ckw-skills
/plugin install macos-screen-recorder@connerkward
Standalone (this repo only):
/plugin marketplace add connerkward/macos-screen-recorder-system-audio
/plugin install macos-screen-recorder@macos-screen-recorder
See docs/agents.md for the agent-driven workflow.
Requirements: macOS 13 (Ventura)+ (the SCStreamConfiguration.capturesAudio API), and Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).
swiftc -O sck-record.swift -o sck-record # build once
./sck-record demo.mp4 5 # or skip the build: swift sck-record.swift demo.mp4 5sck-record [output.mp4] [seconds] [--no-cursor]
| Argument | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
output.mp4 |
~/Desktop/sck.mp4 |
Output file path. Overwritten if it exists. |
seconds |
20 |
Duration in seconds (fractional allowed). |
--no-cursor |
off | Omit the system cursor (for tools that overlay a smoothed synthetic one). |
The tool prints the output path and stops automatically after the requested duration.
First run triggers macOS's Screen Recording permission prompt for the launching app (your terminal). Grant it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording, then re-run. Same permission screencapture uses — no separate audio permission, because ScreenCaptureKit delivers system audio under the screen-recording grant. The microphone is never touched.
| Approach | System audio | Setup | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| sck-record | ✅ native | none | One binary, one permission. |
screencapture -v (built-in) |
❌ | none | -g records the mic, not system output. |
| BlackHole / Loopback / Soundflower | ✅ via reroute | install driver, multi-output device, switch output | Rerouting changes what you hear; installs may need security approval. |
| OBS | ✅ via plugin/driver | install app, configure scenes + audio | Powerful, but heavyweight for "give me an mp4 of the next 10 seconds". |
| QuickTime screen recording | ❌ (mic only) | none | Needs a virtual driver for system audio. |
SCStream is configured with capturesAudio = true, yielding system-audio sample buffers alongside the screen frames. Both are muxed in real time into an .mp4 by AVAssetWriter (H.264 video + AAC audio). They stay in sync because both inputs share the stream's presentation timestamps; writing starts on the first complete video frame. Read sck-record.swift — it's ~90 lines.
- Main display only — no window or region selection.
- Fixed duration set up front; no interactive stop key (
Ctrl-Caborts without finalizing). - Output codec/bitrate hardcoded (H.264 8 Mbps / AAC 160 kbps) — it's one dictionary in the source to change to HEVC or other rates.
🗂️ Part of ckw-skills
The capture primitive behind the record→polish workflow: the screencast skill calls this, and screenstudio-alt does the post-production (auto-zoom, idle speed-up, vertical export).
MIT © Conner K Ward
🧭 ckw-skills — part of Conner K. Ward's collection of Claude Code skills & MCP servers.