What Screenpipe Does
Screenpipe represents a genuinely novel category of developer tool — a continuous personal context system that gives AI agents access to everything you have seen, heard, and done on your computer. Built in Rust with a Tauri desktop app, it captures screen activity and audio using event-driven architecture that only records when something changes, keeping resource usage remarkably low.
Capture Engine and Plugins
The technical implementation is impressive. Instead of recording every frame, Screenpipe listens for meaningful OS events and captures only when something actually changes on screen. Text extraction primarily uses the OS accessibility tree for structured data like buttons, labels, and text fields, falling back to OCR only when needed. This approach is both faster and more accurate than pure OCR solutions while consuming approximately 5-10GB per month and 5-10% CPU.
The plugin system called Pipes turns raw screen and audio data into actionable outputs. Over 50 community-built pipes handle meeting summarization, CRM updates, time tracking, expense management, daily digests, and code context retrieval. Pipes are defined as simple markdown prompt files that run on schedules, querying the Screenpipe API to process your captured data. Creating a custom pipe takes minutes.
AI Integration and Search
MCP server integration means Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible AI assistants can directly query your screen history. Ask your AI what you discussed in a meeting two hours ago, what error message appeared on screen this morning, or what website you visited yesterday — and get answers with timestamps and source references.
The search functionality transforms your captured data into a queryable knowledge base. Natural language search finds anything you have seen or heard, with video playback showing the exact moment. For developers who frequently need to recall terminal commands, error messages, or discussion context, this persistent memory eliminates the frustration of lost information.
Privacy and Audio Capabilities
Privacy architecture keeps everything local by default. All data stays in a SQLite database at ~/.screenpipe, and the core engine is MIT-licensed open source. There are no cloud dependencies unless you explicitly connect external services through pipes. App exclusion controls let you prevent recording specific applications, and data deletion is available at any time.
Audio capabilities include speaker identification, transcription of meetings and calls, and PII redaction for sensitive conversations. The combination of screen OCR and audio transcription creates a comprehensive record of your workday that no single-modality tool can match.
Platform Support and Pricing
Cross-platform support covers macOS, Windows, and Linux with multi-monitor capture. The REST API at localhost:3030 enables custom integrations beyond the built-in pipes and MCP server. The JavaScript SDK provides convenient access for developers building custom applications on top of Screenpipe data.
Pricing has moved to a subscription model for new buyers: Standard starts at $25/month, Pro is $50/seat/month, and Enterprise starts at $150/seat/month for managed deployments. Existing lifetime licenses remain valid, so teams should verify which licensing path applies before treating old lifetime-license references as current.
The Bottom Line
Screenpipe fills a unique niche at the intersection of personal knowledge management and AI agent infrastructure. By providing persistent context about your actual work, it enables AI assistants to give answers grounded in your real experience rather than generic knowledge. The combination of local privacy, low resource usage, and extensible architecture makes it compelling for developers who want AI that truly understands their workflow.
