Clipshelf local-first · windows & linux

You already record everything.
Finding it again is the hard part.

Clipshelf sits alongside OBS. It doesn't record, doesn't replace anything, and never touches your files — OBS keeps writing the night exactly as it always has. Clipshelf reads the folder and turns those four hours into something you can actually walk back into: chaptered by what you were playing, marked where things happened, searchable by what was said.

A Clipshelf timeline: four game chapters across one night, event markers and match spans.
one night, 99 minutes · four games detected on their own · kills, goals and marks pinned · match spans derived
0:00record & capture

Nothing changes about how you record

OBS writes one long file, the way it already does — Clipshelf reads the folder and never touches the original. While you play it chapters the night by game, and games that report their own events get kills, rounds and match boundaries pinned to the second.

One hotkey saves the replay buffer to a shelf, tagged with the game — or cuts the moment out of the recording afterwards if the buffer wasn't running. Where a clip starts is not a question you should be answering mid-fight.

1:24find & cut

Six weeks later, one phrase

Every session is transcribed on your own machine. Type something you remember saying and land on the second you said it — that, not the clipping, is what turns a folder of 20 GB files into an archive.

Then it's a clip: trim on the shelf, or open the editor for captions, tracks and vertical framing. Renders locally at full quality, 30 or 60fps. Sharing is optional, per-clip, unlisted by default — or point it at your own storage and skip us entirely.

Clipshelf open on one night: the player, the chaptered timeline, and an index of everything that happened down the side.
one recording open · every chapter, kill and mark indexed on the right · speech search puts its hits in the same place · click anything to jump there
∞the ledger

Everything it does

timelineMarks on your own clock

Kills, rounds, goals and matches pinned to the recording's timecode. CS2 and Dota 2 built in; League, Rocket League, War Thunder and Deadlock as drop-in packs the app installs in one click; every other game still gets chapters and the hotkey.

captureOne key, tagged

The hotkey saves OBS's replay buffer to a shelf, tagged with the game — or cuts the moment from the night afterwards if the buffer wasn't running.

searchFind it by what was said

Transcribed on your machine, searchable across every night. Type a phrase, land on the second.

mapThe night at a glance

Heat strips for speech, events and chat speed; the quiet half hours marked so you skip them. A map, never a verdict.

audienceViewer clips become marks

Clips your viewers made with Twitch's own button land on your recording, named for their clipper, right where they happened.

collaborateEditor seats

A revocable token lets your editor scrub, cut and mark over the network — signed with their name, walled off from settings and credentials. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.

editA real editor, rendered locally

Multi-track, captions from the transcript, blur-fill verticals, 30 or 60fps. Renders on your hardware at full quality — no queue, no watermark.

shareOptional, per clip

A link that unfurls properly in Discord — or point it at your own bucket and skip our servers entirely. Unlisted by default, always.

privateLocal-first, no account

No sign-up to use the app. Your library never leaves the machine unless you share a clip, and nothing phones home with it.

$what it costs

Free is the product. The rest is storage.

now · free foreverClipshelf
$0
  • everything local: recording, marks, search, editor, 60fps, seats
  • hosted shares: 90s · 1080p · 2 GB
  • or self-host on your own bucket, no limits
download
comingShelf+
$5/mo · 100 GB included · +$2 per 50 GB
  • 10-minute shares · 4K60 · 1 GB clips
  • lapsing never deletes — every share keeps playing
  • self-hosting stays free and unlimited
laterStudio
per active seat
  • editor seats without the network setup — the clipshelf.gg relay, in preview now for accounts we switch on by hand
  • presence, review & delivery queues
  • your recordings still never leave your machine

Nothing that's free today ever moves behind a paid lane.

—get it

Download

Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The installer carries its own Python and fetches ffmpeg the first time it runs, so there is nothing to install before it — it reads your OBS profile to find the recordings folder and walks you through the rest.

On Linux it's one AppImage — chmod +x and run it. It brings its own Python and Node and opens in your browser. The one thing Linux doesn't get is a global hotkey; bind your desktop to the command the app prints instead. The Linux notes cover it.

download for windows ↓ installer 12.5 MB download for linux ↓ AppImage 88 MB portable zip ↓ 2.8 MB
Windows will warn you the first time. Clipshelf isn't code-signed yet — the certificate costs more than the project currently makes — so SmartScreen shows Windows protected your PC. Choose More info, then Run anyway. You'll see it once: there's no administrator prompt, and updates arrive inside the app, so it never comes up again. installer SHA-256 fb496ba701e637ec0797664fd34d8acbc0b94d43cd79f39af5abb9719e6f35c4
portable zip SHA-256 c98d6933d40122003761c52eb396283f1cbb5facec09a6de109a70d2c950d425
linux AppImage SHA-256 0e6703510a0acb68a52541723cc2b6d2a1bd184bbd630c5a592adf181eff4e3b
 check either file on VirusTotal before you run it, if you'd rather

version 0.1.18 · installs for you alone, no administrator prompt · uninstalling leaves your library where it is
the portable zip needs Python 3.11+ and ffmpeg on PATH · the AppImage needs glibc 2.28+ (x86_64) · docs · every build

This is an early build. It works and it's tested, but you're among the first people running it on hardware that isn't the author's. When something breaks, Settings → Problems has a copy-diagnostics button that produces a paste-able report with no paths or tokens in it.

?asked

Questions people actually ask

Windows warned me about the installer. Should I run it?

That's SmartScreen reacting to an unsigned installer — the certificate costs more than the project currently makes. The download section publishes SHA-256 checksums and VirusTotal links so you can verify what you fetched. Choose More info → Run anyway; there's no admin prompt, and updates arrive inside the app, so you only see it once.

Is my footage uploaded somewhere?

No. Recording, timestamping, transcription and rendering all happen on your machine. The only thing that ever leaves it is a clip you explicitly share — and you can point sharing at your own storage instead of ours.

Does it work with my game?

Every game gets chapters (detected from what's running) and the clip hotkey. Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 ship with deep event support; League, Rocket League, Deadlock, War Thunder, WoW, Path of Exile 2, Marvel Rivals and LiveSplit are packs the app installs in one click — Settings → Games lists everything covered and how each game's events arrive. Integrations nobody has proven on a real install yet wear a "not field-tested" label in that list, so you know what you're the first to try. The plugin format is documented, so a game nobody covered is a folder away.

Do I need an account?

Not to use the app — only if you want clipshelf.gg share links, and even then sharing stays per-clip and unlisted by default. Sign-up works with email or Discord.

What does it cost?

Nothing today — everything local is free forever. The paid lanes are hosted conveniences and aren't open yet. There's a tip jar; the first goal is the code-signing certificate.

How do the Twitch viewer clips work?

You register a (free) Twitch application and paste its client id and secret into Settings. After each session the app fetches the clips viewers made during the broadcast and pins each one on your recording as a named mark. Nothing runs during the stream, and nothing needs your Twitch login.

Can my editor use it without my files?

Yes — Settings → Editor access mints them a seat and hands you a link to send. They open it in a browser, scrub your library, cut and leave marks signed with their name. It reaches them over your network, through a relay you run yourself (free), or through clipshelf.gg (switched on per account while it's a preview). They never get settings, sharing, credentials, or a copy of your recordings.

What does it need to run?

Windows 10/11 64-bit and OBS. The installer brings its own Python and fetches ffmpeg on first run. A GPU helps transcription and playback but nothing requires one.

Mac or Linux?

Windows only for now — that's where game capture lives. The rest is honest: it's a real market, and it multiplies packaging and support before the Windows build has earned it.