Google Meet
Video conferencing and collaboration platform
Kooha
Simple, distraction‑free screen recorder for Linux desktops
Kooha provides an intuitive interface to capture your screen, audio, or both, supporting multiple formats and configurable options, while remaining lightweight and easy to use on Linux.
Overview
Overview
Kooha is a lightweight screen‑recording application designed for Linux desktop environments. It provides a clean, single‑click interface that lets users capture the entire monitor, a chosen region, or an individual window, while optionally recording microphone, desktop audio, or both. The recorder supports popular output formats—including WebM, MP4, GIF, and Matroska—and offers configurable options such as frame rate, cursor visibility, delay, and custom save locations.
Capabilities and Deployment
Built with Rust, GTK 4, and GStreamer, Kooha runs on systems that provide PipeWire and an appropriate xdg‑desktop‑portal implementation. Users can install the Flatpak package for a hassle‑free experience or compile from source using Meson and the listed development dependencies. Experimental hardware‑accelerated encoding and multi‑source recording can be enabled via the KOOHA_EXPERIMENTAL environment variable, though they may affect stability. The project is licensed under GPL‑3.0 and welcomes contributions, translations, and community feedback.
Highlights
Record microphone, desktop audio, or both simultaneously
Export to WebM, MP4, GIF, and Matroska formats
Select full monitor or custom screen region
Hardware‑accelerated encoding (experimental)
Pros
- Minimal UI reduces learning curve
- Multiple audio sources captured together
- Broad format support
- Configurable settings like frame rate and cursor visibility
Considerations
- Experimental features may be unstable
- Requires PipeWire and specific portal support
- Limited to Linux/Wayland environments
- No built‑in editing tools
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Fit guide
Great for
- Users needing quick, on‑the‑fly screen captures
- Educators creating tutorial videos without complex setup
- Developers demonstrating software behavior
- Content creators who prefer lightweight Linux tools
Not ideal when
- Windows or macOS users
- Workflows requiring advanced post‑processing
- Environments lacking PipeWire or portal support
- Users needing guaranteed stable hardware acceleration
How teams use it
Software demo for a presentation
Capture a selected window with audio, export to MP4 for seamless embedding in slides.
Creating GIF tutorials
Record a short screen region and save directly as GIF for quick sharing on forums.
Recording a video call
Capture desktop audio and microphone together, producing a synchronized video for later review.
Generating assets for documentation
Export high‑resolution WebM clips of UI interactions, with optional cursor visibility, to illustrate steps.
Tech snapshot
Rust96%
Meson3%
Shell1%
CSS1%
Frequently asked questions
What runtime dependencies does Kooha need?
Kooha relies on PipeWire, the gstreamer‑pipewire plugin, and an appropriate xdg‑desktop‑portal implementation (e.g., gtk, kde, or wlr).
Does Kooha work on X11 sessions?
Kooha primarily uses the Wayland portal; it may work on X11 if the portal provides compatibility, but support is not guaranteed.
How can I enable experimental hardware‑accelerated encoding?
Set the environment variable `KOOHA_EXPERIMENTAL=all` (or `experimental-formats`) before launching, e.g., `KOOHA_EXPERIMENTAL=all flatpak run io.github.seadve.Kooha`.
Where are recordings stored by default?
The saving location is configurable; by default recordings are placed in the user’s Videos folder.
Can I record multiple monitors or windows at once?
Multiple video sources are an experimental feature; enable it via `KOOHA_EXPERIMENTAL=multiple-video-sources`, but stability may vary.
Project at a glance
Active- Stars
- 3,211
- Watchers
- 3,211
- Forks
- 89
LicenseGPL-3.0
Repo age4 years old
Last commit2 days ago
Primary languageRust
Last synced yesterday