ClipCat by Cat Ninth is an open-source gameplay and screen recorder for Windows and Linux. Save recent gameplay with a hotkey using a rolling replay buffer, with a local clipping workflow similar to ShadowPlay Instant Replay or Medal.
Choose RAM or disk buffering, set a replay length from 10 seconds to 20 minutes, and browse saved videos in the built-in clip gallery and player. Available memory, disk space, and time since capture started can limit the footage actually retained.
No ClipCat account is required, and the app does not upload your clips. It does check GitHub for updates. ClipCat's own source is licensed under MPL-2.0; OBS, FFmpeg, and other dependencies retain their own licenses.
Download the latest release · Product page and user guide · Screenshots · FAQ · Privacy notice
Magyarul: Nyílt forráskódú játékklip-rögzítő Windowsra és Linuxra. Gyorsbillentyűvel mentheted az előző másodpercek vagy percek eseményeit. A felület magyarul és angolul is használható.
- Download and install the package for your system from the latest release. See platform support below for Linux dependencies.
- Open Settings. Choose the Save folder, Capture mode, monitor, replay length, and audio settings, then save. New installations use Monitor capture with the microphone off; the selected display can include other apps and notifications.
- Turn on the replay switch in the sidebar. Replay is off on a new installation. Wait for Replay buffer running, then let the buffer collect the moment you want to keep. It cannot recover footage from before capture started.
- Press Alt+F10 or select Save now. Wait for the save to finish, then open the clip in Gallery. Alt+F11 opens the latest clip's folder.
For a full session, Alt+F9 starts or stops manual recording independently of replay. Shortcuts are configurable under Settings → Keyboard shortcuts; see Linux session limitations if a hotkey is unavailable. The first-clip guide walks through the workflow.
| Platform | Package on the release page | Capture requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Windows x86_64 | _x64-setup.exe installer |
Includes OBS capture components and FFmpeg; uses Microsoft WebView2. |
| Linux x86_64 | .deb, .rpm, or .AppImage |
Requires system OBS Studio, FFmpeg, and a compatible WebKitGTK 4.1 environment. An AppImage does not bundle away these requirements. |
| macOS / ARM | No official package currently published | Not a verified release target. |
Linux uses X11 screen capture or the Wayland PipeWire portal, without Windows-style capture hooks. Native Wayland applications have input and game-detection limitations. Read compatibility and encoders before choosing a capture setup. Published packages and automated build checks are not a tested OS/GPU compatibility matrix.
Browse the full feature gallery →
Screenshots show the English UI with sample clips and simulated capture state. See the gallery for all 28 images and capture details.
- Keep a moment after it happens. Enable replay once, then save the available recent footage with a shortcut. Replay controls.
- Choose where the buffer lives. Use RAM for a memory buffer or disk for rolling segment files. Disk mode writes continuously and takes time to assemble a saved clip. Buffer settings.
- Find and replay local clips. Browse application groups and thumbnails, play a video, or reveal it in your file manager. Gallery and player.
Yes, for the local instant replay workflow: keep recent footage buffered, save it with an adjustable hotkey, and review it in a gallery. It also supports manual recording, desktop audio, and an optional microphone. It does not provide a social feed, built-in clip uploads, or a timeline video editor. This is a description of ClipCat's scope, not a claim of feature parity with those products.
The default is a ClipCat folder inside your system Videos folder. Change it with Settings → Save folder. Clips are grouped by application and remain until you move or delete them; ClipCat does not automatically delete completed clips to reclaim space. There is no ClipCat account or built-in upload service. A cloud-synchronized save folder can still upload files through other software. See Privacy.
Recording and local playback do not require a ClipCat account or upload service. The app makes automatic update requests to GitHub, so it is not network-silent. Update installation is user-triggered. See Releases and updates for the distinction between released and unreleased updater behavior.
The setting accepts 10–1200 seconds. RAM is the default; its safe memory budget can shorten the actual replay length. Disk mode needs FFmpeg and writable storage, writes continuously, and needs additional space for completed clips. A newly started buffer only contains footage recorded since it started. See buffer limits.
The source selects NVENC on Windows and NVENC or VAAPI on Linux when available, with an x264 CPU fallback. That is an encoder selection policy, not verification of every GPU. The compatibility guide describes the requirements, Wayland limits, and the evidence still needed for a hardware test matrix.
The feature gallery shows the real interface with sample clips and simulated capture state. It does not verify live recording. Use the replay demonstration checklist to record and document an actual buffer → save → playback run, including the version, OS, GPU, and encoder.
This is ClipCat by Cat Ninth, maintained at
catninth/clipcat: an OBS-powered game replay
recorder built with Tauri, Rust, and React. Its project background has been described
as “vibe-coded”; supported features and limits are documented here and in the source.
ClipCat's own source code is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0. Third-party components retain their own licenses; this does not relicense OBS/libobs, FFmpeg, vendored glib, or other dependencies. Windows packages include upstream OBS and FFmpeg binaries selected by bundle-obs.ps1; Linux packages use system OBS and FFmpeg. Consult the respective OBS, FFmpeg, and Windows FFmpeg build license and source notices, and the retained vendored glib license.
Assign Toggle replay buffer under Settings → Keyboard shortcuts to turn replay on or off from any app. It starts unassigned; press Backspace or Delete while capturing the shortcut to clear it. The shortcut, sidebar switch, and tray control share the same saved replay state and show an enabled/disabled popup using the notification preferences. Manual recordings continue independently.
Recording settings accept custom replay lengths (10–1200 seconds) and integer bitrates (5 Mbps up to the existing frame-rate limit), alongside the sliders.
Pause replay when AFK is off by default, including for existing installations. Choose 10 or 30 minutes, 1, 2, or 3 hours, or enter a custom timeout of 10–86400 seconds. When no keyboard or mouse input is detected for that long, ClipCat pauses replay. Manual recordings continue with video and audio unaffected. Input resumes replay only if it was enabled before the pause. Turning the AFK setting off also releases the pause. Replay saves already in progress finish before the replay buffer is paused. Idle detection uses Windows session input or the X11 ScreenSaver extension on Linux; Wayland idle detection is unavailable. Controller-only input does not reset the timeout.
The Capture mode dropdown offers Monitor capture and Automatic game capture. Monitor recording always captures the selected display, including games and other apps. Select the primary monitor automatically or choose a connected monitor; unavailable selections fall back to the primary display. Replay clips use the application active when Save is pressed for their filename and folder. Manual recordings use the application active when recording stops. Known games keep their friendly names; other apps use their executable names for stable groups. Changing the mode or monitor clears the replay buffer and is blocked during manual recording. On Wayland, the system screen-sharing portal controls display selection.
Automatic game capture preserves the previous game-detection behavior and saved desktop fallback preference. Existing installations keep this mode; new installations start in monitor mode.
The Language field in Settings switches between Hungarian and English US. On first launch, the Windows display language determines the default: Hungarian for Hungarian Windows, English US otherwise. A saved manual selection is retained for subsequent launches. After saving, the UI, tray menu, and notifications switch languages without restarting.
The Info section at the bottom of Settings contains the version, update check, license link, and GitHub icon. The repository is catninth/clipcat. The License button opens ClipCat's MPL-2.0 license file.
Use GitHub Releases for installers; you do not need the development toolchain below. The release history and Changelog separate published changes from Unreleased work. As of October 26, 2026, the latest stable release is v0.8.1. Its update checks use the GitHub REST API; the public-manifest change described below is still unreleased.
ClipCat uses the shared catninth-updater
Rust library. It checks the public latest.json asset from catninth/clipcat after
20 seconds, then every six hours, without using the rate-limited GitHub REST API.
It displays the manifest's notes, which match the GitHub release body.
Installation is user-triggered and uses the selected tag's latest.json manifest
to locate packages and their Minisign signatures:
NSIS on Windows, AppImage replacement or .deb/.rpm installation through pkexec
on Linux. Recording and clip-saving guards remain in ClipCat.
See the updater integration guide for configuration and lifecycle details.
To publish a new version:
- Bump the version in
src-tauri/Cargo.tomland theclipcatentry insrc-tauri/Cargo.lock(tauri.conf.jsonuses the Cargo version), then updateCHANGELOG.md. - After committing and pushing, open Actions → release → Run workflow, enable
publish, and provide English release notes following the format of previous releases. This creates av<version>release with installers, signatures, andlatest.json.
Scheduled nightly publication is currently disabled in the release workflow.
Existing nightly prereleases are not stable releases and are ignored by the updater.
The updater verifies packages with a minisign key. The public key is in tauri.conf.json;
the private key and its password are stored in the repository secrets TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY and
TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD. If the private key is lost, existing installations
can no longer receive updates.
These package signatures are separate from Windows Authenticode signing. See the Code signing policy for the current release configuration and its limits.
The UI uses React + Tailwind CSS (Vite), with source files in ui/; translations live in
ui/locales/ and are also loaded by Rust.
npm install
npx tauri dev # Vite dev server + application
npx tauri build # installer packagenpm ci
npm test
npm run build
# Windows: generate the configured resources for native tests as well.
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File bundle-obs.ps1
cargo test --locked --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml -- --test-threads=1
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File tests/bundle.test.ps1
node tests/recording-crash.mjsnpm run preview:ui starts a separate browser test UI at 127.0.0.1:5174.
It uses the real React components with simulated native responses; it does not start recording,
run an installer, or overwrite the application's saved settings.
For reproductions of the original audit findings, fixes, and test limitations, see audit-verification.md.
For repository descriptions, topics, search checks, and maintainer guidance, see Discoverability.