Get Reelbird

Reelbird is free and open source. Download the app and approve it once, or build it from the source code in a few minutes with no Xcode.

Download the app

For Apple silicon Macs on macOS 15 or later. It isn't notarised by Apple yet, so macOS asks you to approve it once.

Download Reelbird 0.1.0 (.zip)

Unzip it and drag Reelbird to your Applications folder.
Open it. macOS says it can't verify the developer. Choose Done.
Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and choose Open Anyway next to Reelbird. You only do this once.
Reelbird's welcome tour asks for Screen Recording, microphone and camera. After an update, macOS may ask for Screen Recording again, because the app isn't signed with an Apple Developer ID.

SHA-256: e1670fdce17990647d6d375d948e97717a7a06dde586bb30ca07bec82fb3e262

Prefer to build it yourself? Building from source avoids the approval step. The steps are below.

Install Apple's Command Line Tools

You need the Command Line Tools for Xcode 26 or later, which bring Swift 6.2 and the macOS 26 SDK. They install on macOS 15.6 and later. Xcode 26 works too, but you don't need it.
```
$ xcode-select --install
```
Already have them? Check the Swift version. It needs to say 6.2 or later; if it doesn't, update the tools in System Settings → General → Software Update.
```
$ swift --version
```
Clone and build
```
$ git clone https://github.com/btahir/reelbird.git
$ cd reelbird
$ make install
```
make install builds a release copy of the app and copies it to /Applications. If Reelbird is already there, it asks before replacing it. Run make to see every target.
Open it
```
$ open /Applications/Reelbird.app
```
Reelbird lives in the menu bar. Look for the robin. ⌥⇧R starts a recording from any app.

Allow the permissions

The welcome tour asks for each one in turn. You can change them later in Settings… → Permissions or in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Permissions Reelbird asks for
Permission	Needed for
Screen & System Audio Recording	Recording the screen and system sound. Required.
Microphone	Your voice.
Camera	The camera bubble.
Accessibility and Input Monitoring	Optional. The keystroke overlay (Settings… → Recording → Record keystrokes).
Speech Recognition	Captions on macOS 15 only. macOS 26 and later doesn't ask.

Screen Recording takes effect only after Reelbird reopens. After you turn it on, choose Quit & Reopen in Reelbird.

Optional, and worth it

Keep permissions across rebuilds

By default the app is signed ad hoc, and that signature changes with every build, so macOS forgets the Screen Recording permission each time you rebuild. A local signing certificate fixes that. Create it once:

$ scripts/dev-signing.sh
$ export RB_SIGN_IDENTITY="Reelbird Local Signing"   # add this to your ~/.zshrc
$ make install

The certificate stays in your login keychain and is only trusted for signing your own builds. The first build asks whether codesign may use the key: choose Always Allow. scripts/dev-signing.sh --remove deletes it.

Put the command line tool on your PATH

$ mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
$ ln -sf /Applications/Reelbird.app/Contents/Helpers/reelbird ~/.local/bin/reelbird

Then reelbird help. The command line docs and MCP setup have the rest.

Recording, editing and export work without it. For links, connect a storage bucket you own, once. Cloudflare R2's free tier covers most people. Sharing setup, step by step.

Update

$ cd reelbird
$ git pull
$ make install

Uninstall

Quit Reelbird from the menu bar and delete /Applications/Reelbird.app. Your recordings stay in ~/Movies/Reelbird until you delete them. Sharing settings are in ~/Library/Application Support/Reelbird, and the sharing secret is the app.reelbird.share item in Keychain Access.

If something goes wrong

The build says the Swift tools version is too old: Reelbird needs the Command Line Tools for Xcode 26 or later (Swift 6.2). Update them in System Settings → General → Software Update, or run softwareupdate --list. They install on macOS 15.6 and later, so update macOS first if you're on an earlier 15.x.
Every Package.swift fails with a SwiftPM error: Some Command Line Tools installs ship a stale SwiftPM file. Reelbird's scripts detect it and work around it, so use make rather than calling swift yourself.
Reelbird says Screen Recording is off, but the switch is on: Quit and reopen Reelbird. If it still fails after a rebuild, remove Reelbird from the Screen Recording list, reopen it and allow it again, then set up local signing so it sticks.
macOS asks every month whether Reelbird may record the screen: That prompt comes from macOS, which asks you now and then to confirm apps that record the screen. Choose to keep allowing it.

More troubleshooting

Download the app

Install Apple's Command Line Tools

Clone and build

Open it