scrawl

Scrawl is a free, open-source screen recorder for showing an AI coding agent a problem: press a shortcut, talk and draw on screen, and it packs the recording into annotated keyframes, a transcript and a manifest the agent can read.

Why it matters

For developers who find it faster to show a bug than describe it. It turns a quick narrated screen recording into compact files a coding agent can actually use.

Highlights

• Press Option-Shift-S to start and stop; it records screen, voice and your on-screen marks.
• Each capture becomes a contact sheet of annotated keyframes, full-resolution frames, a time-aligned transcript and timeline, and a JSON manifest.
• An agent skill for Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex and others lets the agent zoom in on a moment (scrawl zoom), pull frame ranges, or send a capture into an OpenCode session.
• Can also capture a cabled iPhone and export a shareable .mp4 with ink burned in.
• Old captures are cleaned up daily unless you pin them.

Taken from the project's own README, docs or launch page. Claims about speed or accuracy are the maker's unless stated otherwise.

Worth knowing: Needs Screen Recording, Microphone and Accessibility permissions on macOS. The Windows build is an unsigned preview that doesn't update itself.

Quick facts

Links

• Official site: https://scrawl.kitlangton.com/
• Repository: https://github.com/kitlangton/scrawl
• Release notes: https://github.com/kitlangton/scrawl/releases

Related ranking

See how established tools compare in Best AI Coding Tools for Developers. New releases aren't scored until we review them against the rubric.

Checked 2026-10-20 from the tool's own pages. Prices and star counts change, so confirm on the official site. Listing here is not a ranking or an endorsement.