Kiri: a local-first screenshot, OCR and recording workspace built on Tauri

The problem Kiri targets, and who feels it

Most screenshot utilities stop at the clipboard. You grab a region, annotate it, paste it, and the annotated result is the only artifact left. If you later need to fix a blur radius, move a label, or re-crop, you start over from a fresh capture. Kiri's README describes the opposite model: current releases can reopen annotations from the completion card or the library, and re-editable screenshots keep an unannotated source on disk next to the rendered image.

That single design decision defines the audience. Kiri is for people who produce screenshots and short screen recordings repeatedly and want to revise them later: technical writers, support engineers, bug reporters, and anyone who records a region to explain a UI. It is a desktop application, not a service. The README states it supports macOS and Windows, and that captures, local OCR and encoding stay on the computer by default. There is no account, no sync backend, and no server component listed in the repository.

How the capture, OCR and recording pipeline is put together

The stack is visible in the repository layout. Tauri 2 provides the shell and the Rust backend under `src-tauri/`, while the interface is React 19 with Vite, per `package.json`. That split matters: the heavy work (screen capture, encoding, OCR calls, the library on disk) lives on the Rust side, and the webview only renders the editor and the library.

OCR is platform-native rather than bundled. The README says recognition uses macOS Vision or Windows.Media.Ocr by default, with an optional remote OCR path that asks before every upload and stores API keys in macOS Keychain or Windows Credential Manager. Successful results land in Text History, which is searchable and keeps a link back to the source image. Media handling follows the same pattern: macOS uses AVFoundation and ImageIO for MP4 recording, merging, thumbnails and GIF creation, and Windows uses Media Foundation plus system imaging components. The README states plainly that neither platform downloads FFmpeg. That is a real architectural constraint, not a detail. It means Kiri inherits the codec and container behaviour of the host OS, and it means the Windows video effects currently require unrotated source video, as the README notes.

The video editor is the most substantial piece. An MP4 opens into a persistent toolbar with Trim & Export, a thumbnail timeline, edge dragging, splitting at the playhead, and deletion of sections. Effects are timed tracks: zoom regions between 1.5 and 4x with adjustable entry and exit, plus blur, pixelated and solid-color privacy masks. Screenshot tools (pen, rectangle, line, arrow, editable text, mosaic brushes) become independent timed tracks you drag to position. Export quality presets cap the long edge at 1080 or 720 pixels without upscaling, and the export menu reports actual output dimensions.

Installing Kiri from GitHub Releases and taking a first capture

The README points to GitHub Releases for published installers: a Universal `.dmg` for macOS and an x64 installer for Windows 11. On macOS 14 or later you drag `Kiri.app` into Applications; on Windows you run the `.exe`. There is no package manager path documented, so Releases is the distribution channel.

Building from source is documented and requires a specific toolchain. The README lists Rust 1.88+, Node.js 20.19+ (or 22.12+), and pnpm, plus Xcode Command Line Tools on macOS or the MSVC C++ build tools on Windows. The commands are:

git clone https://github.com/yuxino/kiri.git
cd kiri
pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev
pnpm tauri build --no-bundle

The README adds a warning worth repeating: run and build through the Tauri commands, because a plain `cargo build` executable does not contain the frontend assets. On macOS, development builds also require a stable signing identity.

Once installed, the first real use is a capture. Press the global shortcut and pick a window or drag a region:

# macOS
Shift+Command+A

# Windows
Shift+Ctrl+A

The README states that screenshots are copied to the clipboard, while screenshots, MP4 recordings and GIFs are saved into the local library. From the annotation editor you get crop, pen, shapes, arrows, text, mosaic, undo and redo. Press Return to confirm a screenshot and C to crop in the editor. If you want to change the library location, Settings can point it at another local directory or an external disk.

Where Kiri is the wrong tool

Three limits are visible in the documentation and should decide the purchase.

First, platform coverage. The README names macOS and Windows only. There is no Linux installer and no browser build in the repository. If your team is mixed, half of it is unserved.

Second, macOS signing. The README states that macOS releases use the project's maintained local self-signed identity, not Developer ID signing or Apple notarization. First launch may be blocked, and the documented workaround is to Control-click `Kiri.app` and choose Open, or use Open Anyway in System Settings. On Windows the installer is not Authenticode-signed, so SmartScreen may warn. That is manageable for an individual and awkward for a managed fleet where users cannot approve overrides themselves.

Third, the video effects boundary. The README says Windows effects currently require unrotated source video, including Kiri recordings. If your footage comes from a phone or another recorder with rotation metadata, the Windows effects path is not the one you want. The README also notes that the Windows full capture-flow device acceptance is still listed on the roadmap, which is a candid statement that the Windows capture path has not finished device-level validation.

How Kiri differs from ShareX and Flameshot

The closest comparison is ShareX on Windows, which also captures, annotates and records, and which also keeps a local history. The difference in approach is the runtime and the artifact model. ShareX is a .NET application with a very large configuration surface and a long list of upload destinations; Kiri is a Tauri app with a React front end and a Rust core, and its README describes a deliberately small privacy surface: remote OCR is opt-in, keys live in the OS credential store, and every upload requires an explicit Send or Retry click. Kiri also keeps an unannotated source for re-editable screenshots, which is a different bet from ShareX's rendered-output workflow.

Flameshot is the other common reference point, and the gap is scope. Flameshot is a capture and annotation tool; Kiri's README describes OCR with a searchable Text History, region recording to MP4 or GIF with optional system audio, microphone and click highlights, and a timeline-based MP4 editor with timed zoom and privacy-mask tracks. If you only need a rectangle and an arrow, Kiri is more application than the job requires. If you regularly edit a recording after the fact, the trim and effects tracks are the reason to look at it.

Updates, licence and what maintenance costs you

Kiri is MIT licensed, which permits commercial and closed-source use and requires only that the copyright notice and permission text travel with copies. That is the whole obligation; anything beyond it is a question for your own counsel, especially if you redistribute a modified build.

Upgrades are the part to plan for. The README states that starting with v1.4.9, Settings can manually check, download and install signature-verified updates, and that every step requires an explicit click: Kiri does not check in the background or install silently. That is a privacy choice with a maintenance cost, because nothing tells you a release exists until you look. The README also states that v1.4.8 and older builds need one manual installation of v1.4.9 or newer from Releases before in-app updates become available at all. If you are on an older build, the upgrade path is a manual download, not a button.

On the project side, the last push was on 2026-09-16 and the most recent release listed is v1.5.1 from 2026-09-12, with v1.5.0 and v1.4.10 shortly before. The repository is not archived. Note the release ordering: v1.4.10 is dated after v1.5.0, which suggests a backport branch rather than a single linear line. If your process assumes every version number sorts by date, check the release notes for each tag before pinning.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt Kiri if you work on macOS 14+ or Windows 11 x64 and want capture, annotation, OCR and region recording in one local app, with a re-editable screenshot project and a real MP4 trim and effects editor. Skip it if you need Linux, a browser-based tool, or a signed and notarized macOS build you can hand to a managed fleet without an override. Before committing, verify three things yourself: that Control-click Open clears the macOS launch block, that your Windows effects work on unrotated source video as the README states, and that the in-app updater is present if you are still on v1.4.8 or older.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. License: MIT
2. Project website
3. README
4. Releases
5. yuxino/kiri on GitHub