CastKit

A macOS menu bar application that provides quick access to screen capture, screen recording, and audio recording features.

Features

Screenshots

• Full Screen — Capture the entire screen with one click
• Select Area — Interactive area selection for screenshots with visual overlay

Screen Recording

• Full Screen — Record the entire screen
• Select Area — Record a selected portion of the screen
• Output format: MP4 (H.264)
• Quality: 1920×1080 at 30 FPS

Voice Recorder

• Record audio from microphone
• Output format: M4A (AAC codec)
• High quality audio: 44.1 kHz, stereo

Requirements

• macOS 13.0 or newer
• Swift 6.0
• Xcode 15.0 or newer

Installation and Running

Building with Xcode

1. Open the project in Xcode
2. Configure Bundle Identifier in project settings
3. Ensure the correct entitlements and Info.plist are selected
4. Run the project (⌘R)

Creating Project from Scratch

1. Open Xcode
2. File → New → Project
3. Select macOS → App
4. Project settings:
   • Product Name: CastKit
   • Interface: SwiftUI
   • Language: Swift
   • Organization Identifier: your identifier
5. Replace created files with files from this repository
6. Configure project settings:
   • General → Deployment Info: macOS 13.0
   • Signing & Capabilities:
     • Disable App Sandbox or use entitlements file
     • Add capabilities for Audio Input, Camera
   • Build Settings:
     • Swift Language Version: Swift 6
   • Info tab: add Info.plist

Permissions

On first launch, macOS will request the following permissions:

• Screen Recording — Required for creating screenshots and recording screen
• Microphone — Required for audio recording
• File Access — Required for saving recordings to Downloads folder

Grant these permissions in System Settings → Privacy & Security for full functionality.

Usage

1. After launch, the CastKit icon will appear in the menu bar (upper right corner)
2. Click on the icon to open the menu
3. Select the desired function:
   • Screenshot → Full Screen / Select Area
   • Screen Recording → Full Screen / Select Area / Stop Recording
   • Audio Recording → Start / Stop

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
⌘1	Full screen screenshot
⌘2	Area screenshot
⌘3	Full screen recording
⌘4	Area screen recording
⌘S	Stop screen recording
⌘A	Start/Stop audio recording
⌘Q	Quit application

File Saving

All files are automatically saved to the Downloads folder with timestamp-based naming:

Type	Format	Example
Screenshots	Screenshot_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-mm-ss.png	Screenshot_2026-01-12_14-30-45.png
Screen Recordings	ScreenRecording_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-mm-ss.mp4	ScreenRecording_2026-01-12_14-30-45.mp4
Audio Recordings	AudioRecording_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-mm-ss.m4a	AudioRecording_2026-01-12_14-30-45.m4a

Project Structure

CastKit/
├── MenuBarCaptureApp.swift         # Main application entry point
├── AppDelegate.swift               # Menu bar management and app delegate
├── CaptureManager.swift            # Coordinator for all capture operations
├── ScreenRecorder.swift            # Screen recording (ScreenCaptureKit API)
├── AudioRecorder.swift             # Audio recording (AVFoundation)
├── AreaSelector.swift              # Interactive area selection UI
├── Info.plist                      # App configuration and permissions
└── MenuBarCaptureApp.entitlements  # System capabilities and entitlements

Technologies

• SwiftUI — Modern declarative UI framework
• ScreenCaptureKit — High-performance screen capture and recording API (macOS 13+)
• AVFoundation — Audio/video recording and processing framework
• AppKit — macOS menu bar integration and system interaction

Implementation Details

• Application runs as a menu bar utility without Dock icon (LSUIElement = true)
• Area selection uses custom overlay window with drag-to-select interface
• Screenshots utilize system screencapture utility for area capture
• Screen recording leverages ScreenCaptureKit for efficient, high-quality capture
• All recordings include automatic timestamping for organization

License

MIT