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spearzificial 2bd1e7c598 fix(packaging): make the AppImage self-contained and restore the RPM libva requirement
Two defects found by inspecting the published v0.2.19 artifacts.

The AppImage contained the binary and the desktop file and nothing else.
The binary links FFmpeg, PipeWire, ALSA and XCB directly, so the image
only ran on a host that happened to carry the exact FFmpeg build the
binary was linked against, which is the opposite of what an AppImage is
for. The packaging step now bundles the shared library closure that ldd
resolves, points the binary at it with an RPATH of $ORIGIN/../lib, and
prepends it to LD_LIBRARY_PATH in AppRun. The C runtime is deliberately
left on the host, because bundling a different glibc than the rest of
the system expects produces failures that are very hard to trace. The
step fails if fewer than five libraries were collected or if the image
was not produced, so a silently empty image can never ship.

alien drops libva2 when it converts the Debian package to an RPM,
because it has no Debian to RPM name rule for it. libva is loaded at
runtime by the FFmpeg VAAPI device, so the requirement is now added back
explicitly with rpm --addrequires and the build fails if it is missing
from the finished package. Without it an RPM install would leave
hardware encoding unavailable until the user noticed and installed libva
by hand.

Version bumped to 0.2.20 across the manifest, lock file, RPM spec, AUR
PKGBUILD and the guide.
2026-10-21 17:02:00 +05:30
.github/workflows fix(packaging): make the AppImage self-contained and restore the RPM libva requirement 2026-10-21 17:02:00 +05:30
assets feat(ui): dropdown rolldown animation, sound in replay, square buttons, full QoL keybinds, and monospace font support 2026-10-08 23:09:52 +05:30
docs/superpowers docs: add implementation plan for settings UI and notification overhaul 2026-10-04 11:30:17 +05:30
packaging fix(packaging): make the AppImage self-contained and restore the RPM libva requirement 2026-10-21 17:02:00 +05:30
src docs: record CI workflows, remote topology and the Windows autostart gap 2026-10-20 18:18:03 +05:30
tests fix(cli): dispatch from argv[0] so daemon symlinks work; harden e2e run 2026-10-20 16:55:33 +05:30
.gitignore fix(ci, windows): track bundle_deps.py and improve mingw dynamic library resolution 2026-09-04 23:45:07 +05:30
.gitlab-ci.yml fix(ci): package the unified scythe binary instead of removed targets 2026-10-20 16:31:46 +05:30
Cargo.lock fix(packaging): make the AppImage self-contained and restore the RPM libva requirement 2026-10-21 17:02:00 +05:30
Cargo.toml fix(packaging): make the AppImage self-contained and restore the RPM libva requirement 2026-10-21 17:02:00 +05:30
install.sh feat(arch): consolidate daemon and UI into singular multicall binary scythe 2026-10-11 14:28:14 +05:30
LICENSE-APACHE Add LICENSE 2026-09-27 20:52:52 +05:30
LICENSE-MIT Add LICENSE 2026-09-27 20:52:52 +05:30
PROJECT_GUIDE.md fix(packaging): make the AppImage self-contained and restore the RPM libva requirement 2026-10-21 17:02:00 +05:30
README.md docs: point the project at the oiupoyt GitHub repository 2026-10-21 16:40:27 +05:30
TODO_CHECKLIST.md docs: record the CI work in the checklist 2026-10-20 18:23:49 +05:30

Scythe (WIP)

High-performance, zero-copy GPU hardware screen recorder and instant replay overlay for Linux (Wayland & X11) and Windows.

Release License

Scythe is a native, ultra-lightweight alternative to NVIDIA ShadowPlay and GPU Screen Recorder. It records gameplay and desktop screens with near-zero CPU and GPU overhead by leveraging hardware video acceleration and zero-copy direct memory pipelines.


Features

  • Instant Replay Buffer: Constantly records gameplay into a high-speed in-memory circular ring buffer. Save the last 15s to 5 minutes of action instantly with one hotkey (Ctrl+Shift+R) without writing temporary files to disk.
  • Zero-Copy Capture Engine:
    • Wayland: PipeWire DMA-BUF frame-passing directly to hardware encoder surfaces.
    • X11: XCB Shared Memory (MIT-SHM) capture with per-frame pool reuse.
    • Windows: Desktop Duplication API via Direct3D 11 (DXGI) texture binding.
  • Hardware-Accelerated Encoding:
    • NVIDIA NVENC (h264_nvenc, hevc_nvenc, av1_nvenc) with direct hardware BGR0 input
    • AMD AMF (h264_amf, hevc_amf, av1_amf) with native hardware format support
    • Intel QuickSync (h264_qsv, hevc_qsv, av1_qsv)
    • AMD & Intel VAAPI (h264_vaapi, hevc_vaapi, av1_vaapi) with DMA-BUF zero-copy
    • Universal SIMD-accelerated CPU fallback (libx264, libx265, libsvtav1)
  • ShadowPlay-Style Stealth Overlay:
    • Native GTK 3 Layer-Shell overlay with real background blur for Wayland compositors (Hyprland, Sway, etc.).
    • Cross-platform hardware-rendered egui overlay for Windows, GNOME, KDE, and X11.
    • Translucent frosted glass HUD dock, centered controls, and contextual dropdowns.
  • Dynamic Hyprland Integration: Automatically registers overlay blur rules and binds hotkeys at runtime without modifying hyprland.conf.
  • Multi-Channel Audio Routing: Record system audio, microphone, or both simultaneously with individual volume controls via native PulseAudio/PipeWire and WASAPI/CPAL.

Default Shortcuts

Action Shortcut CLI Command
Open / Close HUD Overlay Alt + Z scythe --menu
Save Instant Replay Ctrl + Shift + R scythe --save
Toggle Normal Recording Ctrl + Shift + F9 scythe --record
Toggle Mouse Cursor Ctrl + Shift + F10 scythe --cursor
Take Screenshot Ctrl + Shift + S scythe --screenshot

Installation

Arch Linux (AUR)

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/scythe-git.git
cd scythe-git
makepkg -si

Pre-Built Packages (Releases)

Download the latest packages directly from GitHub Releases or Forgejo Releases:

  • Windows Setup: scythe-setup.exe (Official installer with Start Menu & Desktop shortcuts)
  • Windows Portable: scythe.exe (Standalone self-contained executable) & scythe-windows-x86_64.zip
  • Debian / Ubuntu / Linux Mint: scythe_*_amd64.deb
  • Fedora / RHEL / openSUSE: *.rpm
  • Universal Linux: scythe-x86_64.AppImage
  • Generic Linux: scythe-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Build from Source

Prerequisites

  • Rust (1.85+, the crate uses the 2024 edition)
  • FFmpeg 6+ / 7+ development libraries (libavcodec, libavformat, libavutil, libswresample, libswscale)
  • PipeWire (libpipewire-0.3-dev)
  • XCB (libxcb1-dev, libxcb-shm0-dev, libxcb-xfixes0-dev)
  • ALSA (libasound2-dev)
  • clang and pkg-config for the FFmpeg bindings

Compile & Install

git clone https://github.com/oiupoyt/scythe.git
cd scythe
bash install.sh

CLI Usage

scythe --menu           # Open the interactive overlay UI menu
scythe --status         # Query background daemon state and metrics
scythe --save           # Save instant replay clip to disk
scythe --record         # Toggle normal recording on/off
scythe --cursor         # Toggle mouse cursor capture
scythe --reload         # Reload daemon settings
scythe --quit           # Stop background recording daemon

Configuration

Settings are saved in JSON format at ~/.config/scythe/config.json:

{
  "fps": 60,
  "record_bitrate_kbps": 18000,
  "replay_duration_sec": 60,
  "video_codec": "h264",
  "output_directory": "~/Videos",
  "show_cursor": true,
  "audio_mode": "system",
  "mic_volume": 0.6,
  "system_volume": 1.0,
  "menu_hotkey": "Alt+Z",
  "save_hotkey": "Ctrl+Shift+R",
  "record_hotkey": "Ctrl+Shift+F9",
  "cursor_hotkey": "Ctrl+Shift+F10"
}

License

Licensed under either of Apache License, Version 2.0 or MIT License at your option.