Instant-replay recording for Windows. Save the last few seconds of your desktop, window, or game the moment something worth keeping happens — no OBS, no always-on stream required.
Overview — live capture status, replay buffer, and recent saves at a glance.
Clips — your full clip library with search, game filter, thumbnails, and one-click export.
Settings — configure capture source, codec, quality, hotkeys, and output folder.
- Rolling replay buffer — always recording the last N seconds (configurable); press a hotkey to keep the clip
- Desktop, window, or game capture — uses the Windows graphics stack with no hooks or drivers required
- WASAPI loopback audio — captures system audio alongside video automatically
- H.264 encoding — hardware-accelerated encoding via the best available encoder on your GPU
- Clip browser — browse, preview, search, and filter your library by game or date
- Shareable exports — FFmpeg-based trimming and re-encode for smaller share-ready files
- System tray integration — runs quietly in the background; show or exit from the tray menu
- No telemetry — records locally, never uploads anything, no accounts required
| Component | Version |
|---|---|
| Windows | 10 1903 or newer |
| Visual Studio | 2022 with MSVC C++20 |
| CMake | 3.25 or newer |
| Qt 6 | Core, Widgets, Quick, QuickControls2, QuickDialogs2, Multimedia |
| FFmpeg | Shared LGPL-compatible dev build (include, lib, runtime DLLs) |
Note: Run CMake builds from a Visual Studio Developer PowerShell or x64 Native Tools Command Prompt so deployment tools can locate the MSVC runtime.
cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 `
-DQT6_DIR="C:\Qt\6.x.x\msvc2022_64" `
-DFFMPEG_DIR="C:\ffmpeg"
cmake --build build --config ReleaseIf nlohmann_json or Catch2 are already installed with CMake package files, Ghost Replay uses those. Otherwise CMake fetches the pinned versions listed in docs/THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.
cmake --build build --config Release --target ghostreplay_tests
ctest --test-dir build -C Release --output-on-failurebuild\Release\ghostreplay.exeThe app writes settings to ghostreplay.json, logs to ghostreplay.log, and clips to the clips folder — all relative to the executable. Closing the window hides the app to the tray; use the tray menu to show it again or exit fully.
cmake --build build --config Release --target package_portableThis stages dist\GhostReplay-<version>-win64-portable and validates the bundled ffmpeg.exe for LGPL compliance before completing. Release packages use config/ghostreplay.example.json for clean public defaults.
See docs/RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md before publishing a public release.
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| Capture not starting | Check Overview for diagnostics; retry capture to open the Windows picker |
| Save hotkey conflicts | Reassign in Settings → Hotkeys and save |
| Clips folder not writable | Change the output path in Settings → Output |
| HEVC unavailable | Intentionally disabled in this beta until muxing is fully validated |
Ghost Replay records and stores data locally only. It includes no telemetry, cloud upload, accounts, or analytics. See SECURITY.md for the vulnerability reporting process.
The Qt/QML interface bundles Inter and Space Grotesk from Google Fonts, both under the SIL Open Font License. See docs/THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md and resources/fonts for full attribution.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on bug reports, pull requests, and the development workflow.