Pulse Desktop

Check out pulse to get pulse and this repo together.

Minimal push-to-hold screen recorder for macOS and Windows

Push-to-hold screen capture with the simplicity of a walkie-talkie. Press Cmd+Shift+R (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows), hold to record, release to save. Videos are automatically saved to your Movies folder.

🚧 Architecture Update: Migrating from FFmpeg-based transcoding to native OS APIs (ScreenCaptureKit + Desktop Duplication) for better performance and Retina support. See MIGRATION_NOTES.md for details.

Features

• ✅ Push-to-hold recording - Press and hold to record, release to save
• ✅ Global hotkey - Works from any application (Cmd+Shift+R / Ctrl+Shift+R)
• ✅ Full screen capture - Records entire display at 30 FPS
• 🚧 MP4 video output - Migrating to native H.264 encoding (hardware accelerated)
• ✅ Sequential file naming - recording-1.mp4, recording-2.mp4, etc.
• ✅ Automatic folder creation - Saves to ~/Movies/PushToHold (macOS) or ~/Videos/PushToHold (Windows)
• ⏳ Microphone audio toggle (coming soon)
• ⏳ Region selection with aspect ratio presets (coming soon)

System Requirements

macOS

• macOS 11.0 or later
• Screen Recording permission (prompted on first use)
• FFmpeg (temporary, until native implementation complete)

  brew install ffmpeg

Windows

• Windows 10 or later
• FFmpeg (temporary, until native implementation complete)
  • Download from ffmpeg.org
  • Add to PATH

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Deno - JavaScript/TypeScript runtime (install)
• Rust - For Tauri backend (install)
• Xcode Command Line Tools (macOS only)

  xcode-select --install

Running the App

# Clone and navigate to the project
cd pulse-desktop

# Run in development mode
deno task tauri dev

This will:

1. Start the Vite dev server (React frontend)
2. Compile and run the Rust/Tauri backend
3. Open the desktop application window

Other Commands

# Build for production
deno task tauri build

# Run frontend only (UI development)
deno task dev

# Run tests
deno task test

Using Pulse Desktop

1. Launch the app - Run deno task tauri dev
2. Create/select a project - Choose a project name for organizing your recordings
3. Record - Press and hold Cmd+Shift+R (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows)
4. Release to save - Your recording is automatically saved
5. Manage clips - View your timeline, drag to reorder clips, edit labels, or delete

Timeline Features

• Drag-drop reordering - Click and hold any clip, drag to new position (blue pulsing line shows where it will drop)
• Keyboard navigation - Use arrow keys to navigate, Cmd+Arrow to reorder
• Edit labels - Click on any clip filename to rename
• Undo/Redo - Cmd+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z for timeline changes

Development

Recommended IDE Setup

• VS Code + Tauri + rust-analyzer

Running for developers

npm install
npm run tauri dev