Install#

With Homebrew, on macOS (13 or later) or Linux, Intel or ARM:

brew install --cask nimbleterminal/tap/ntrecord
ntrecord --version

The release is a single binary. It includes the terminal engine and default text, symbol, and color emoji fonts, so recording a GIF needs nothing else. Release archives and checksums are on the releases page.

ntrecord runs on macOS and Linux. There is no Windows build.

For MP4 and WebM#

Video is encoded by FFmpeg, which you install yourself:

brew install ffmpeg                 # macOS
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg         # Debian, Ubuntu

The FFmpeg must include the libx264 encoder (MP4) or libvpx-vp9 (WebM). ntrecord checks before it starts recording, so a missing encoder is reported straight away rather than after a long session.

From source#

Building needs Go, Task, and a C compiler. The first build downloads and builds its own pinned Zig and libghostty, with nothing installed globally. The steps are in the development guide.