A command-line tool for recording system audio on macOS.
- Requires macOS 15.4 or later
- Notarized by Apple
curl -fsSL https://github.com/skw398/scap/releases/download/1.0.2/install.sh | bashDownload Binary Manually
Download scap.zip, extract it, and place scap anywhere on your PATH (e.g. /usr/local/bin).
Build from Source
Clone the repository and run the build command. A Swift 6.3 toolchain is required.
swift build -c releaseThe built binary is written to ./.build/release/scap. Place it anywhere on your PATH (e.g. /usr/local/bin).
scapPress Ctrl+C to stop. The recording is saved to ~/Desktop by default.
Note
On the first recording attempt, macOS will show a dialog to grant system audio recording permission. If denied or disabled later, enable System Audio Recording Only for your terminal app in System Settings > Privacy & Security.
scap ~/Music/scap/recording.m4a
scap .scap config set output-dir ~/Music
scap config unset output-dir
scap config get output-dirConfiguration is saved to ~/.config/scap/config.json.
scap - writes raw PCM to stdout at 48kHz stereo.
For example, to pipe it into ffmpeg:
scap - | ffmpeg -f f32le -ar 48000 -ac 2 -i - output.wavscap uninstall