Recall for macOS

Your work, reconstructed.

Recall answers "what was I doing, when, and where did I see it?" without you having to remember the exact words.

Focused window only

Captures just the window you're working in, every 30 seconds and when you switch, never the whole screen. Unchanged frames are detected and skipped.

On-device text recognition

Apple Vision reads file paths, terminal output, error messages and URLs, so they're searchable within seconds. No AI or network needed.

Sessions, not snapshots

Screenshots are grouped into work sessions automatically. A quick glance at chat doesn't break your flow. Rename, merge, split or edit any of it.

Search that understands you

"Before lunch yesterday", "last Tuesday" and "the terminal" become filters. Keyword and semantic matches are combined, and answers cite real screenshots.

Projects and daily summaries

Associate activity with projects by keyword, repo path or domain, and get a daily Markdown summary of where your time actually went.

Out of your way

Lives in the menu bar. Pause anywhere with ⌃⌥⌘P or for 15 minutes to 4 hours, and see at a glance whether it's recording.

Private by design, not by setting.

A history of your screen is sensitive. Recall is built so the safe behavior is the default, and when something can't be checked, it fails closed.

Stored only on your MacNo account, cloud sync or telemetry. History lives in a folder Spotlight never indexes and Time Machine skips.
Sensitive apps and fields skippedPassword managers are excluded before any pixels are read. Password fields (secure input) are never captured.
Secrets redacted before savingAPI keys, tokens, private keys and card numbers are blacked out in the image and text. If text can't be checked, the frame is discarded.
Nothing leaves without your approvalCloud or remote AI receives nothing until you approve that exact destination. Redirects to other servers are refused.
Pauses when you're awayNo capture while the screen is locked, the display sleeps, you're idle, or (optionally) you're on battery.
You control retentionOld history is deleted automatically after the number of days you choose. Delete the last hour, a date range, AI data or everything, any time.

Bring your own AI, or none at all.

Capture, text recognition, the timeline and keyword search work without AI. Add a provider for screenshot descriptions, session summaries, semantic search and grounded answers.

On your Mac

Ollama

Local models served by Ollama, such as Qwen2.5-VL for vision and nomic-embed-text for search.

On your Mac

LM Studio

LM Studio's local server, with model types detected automatically.

Cloud · needs approval

OpenAI

OpenAI or any OpenAI-compatible API. Your key is stored in the macOS keychain.

Cloud · needs approval

Amazon Bedrock

Your AWS account, using a Bedrock API key, access keys or an AWS CLI profile (SSO works too).

AI answers may only state what's in your captured history, and every claim must link to a real screenshot or session. If the evidence isn't there, Recall says so.

Install

Download and unzipGet the latest release and move RecallForMac.app to your Applications folder.
Open itReleases are signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens like any other app.
Grant permissionsScreen Recording is required. Accessibility is recommended so Recall can identify exactly which window has focus.
Optionally pick an AI providerIn Settings → AI. Everything else already works without one.

Notarized by Apple. Every new release is signed with a Developer ID, notarized and stapled, so macOS opens it without warnings. Builds you make yourself aren't; if macOS blocks one, right-click the app and choose Open, or allow it in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Updates

Recall checks for new releases once a day and can install them itself. Before installing, it verifies the download's checksum and that it's signed by the same developer. You can turn this off in Settings.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/SmugZombie/MacRecall
cd MacRecall
open RecallForMac.xcodeproj        # then ⌘R

cd Packages/RecallCore && swift test

Questions

Does Recall record my whole screen or audio?

No. It captures only the focused window of the app you're using, as still images. It never captures the desktop, other windows, or any audio.

What leaves my Mac?

By default, nothing but a daily check for new releases on GitHub, which you can turn off. If you choose a cloud or remote AI provider and approve it, screenshots and recognized text go to that provider, with redaction rules applied to the text first.

Does it work offline?

Yes. Capture, text recognition, the timeline and keyword search are fully local. Ollama and LM Studio keep AI features local too.

How much disk space does it use?

Screenshots are stored as compressed HEIC images, and unchanged frames aren't stored twice. Settings → Storage shows exact usage, and retention deletes old history automatically.

How do I remove everything?

Settings → Privacy → Delete All History. To uninstall completely, quit Recall, delete the app, and remove ~/Library/Application Support/RecallForMac.