feat(macos): pick sources in Apple's system picker on macOS 15.2+ - #737
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Navigate logical layers of code changes, visualize relationships, and explore their blast radius. No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉 ℹ️ Recent review info⚙️ Run configurationConfiguration used: defaults Review profile: CHILL Plan: Advanced Run ID: 📒 Files selected for processing (1)
Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 8 included reviews per hour; 5 remain after this review. 📝 WalkthroughWalkthroughThe change adds a persistent native picker session for macOS 15.2 and later. Electron and the renderer route source selection and recording through that session. Permission state and UI distinguish screen selection from system-audio permission. ChangesmacOS picker and permissions
Estimated code review effort: 4 (Complex) | ~60 minutes Sequence Diagram(s)sequenceDiagram
participant RecStage
participant Preload
participant IPCHandlers
participant MacPickerSession
participant PickerSession
participant ScreenCaptureRecorder
RecStage->>Preload: Query usesSystemSourcePicker
Preload->>IPCHandlers: Invoke uses-system-source-picker
RecStage->>Preload: Request open-source-selector
Preload->>IPCHandlers: Invoke open-source-selector
IPCHandlers->>MacPickerSession: Present picker
MacPickerSession->>PickerSession: Send present command
PickerSession-->>IPCHandlers: Return picked source
IPCHandlers-->>RecStage: Broadcast selected source
IPCHandlers->>MacPickerSession: Start recording take
MacPickerSession->>PickerSession: Send start command
PickerSession->>ScreenCaptureRecorder: Start capture with picked source
Suggested reviewers: Merge Risk: 🟡 Moderate · up to A failed recording start may still terminate the picker helper and lose the selected source. Confirm that the new cleanup guard covers this path before merging. 🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1❌ Failed checks (1 warning)
✅ Passed checks (4 passed)
✨ Finishing Touches 💡 1📝 Generate docstrings 💡
🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)
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Inline comments:
In
`@electron/native/screencapturekit/Sources/OpenScreenScreenCaptureKitHelper/PickerSession.swift`:
- Around line 209-216: Update finishWriter to check the AVAssetWriter status
before finalization: call finishWriting only when the writer is writing; for an
unknown status, remove the incomplete output, emit the writer-failed error, and
return.
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📒 Files selected for processing (33)
electron/electron-env.d.tselectron/ipc/handlers.tselectron/native-bridge/screen/macPickerSession.test.tselectron/native-bridge/screen/macPickerSession.tselectron/native/screencapturekit/Sources/OpenScreenCaptureCore/PickerSessionCommand.swiftelectron/native/screencapturekit/Sources/OpenScreenScreenCaptureKitHelper/PickerSession.swiftelectron/native/screencapturekit/Sources/OpenScreenScreenCaptureKitHelper/ScreenCaptureRecorder.swiftelectron/native/screencapturekit/Tests/OpenScreenCaptureCoreTests/PickerSessionCommandTests.swiftelectron/permissions/index.tselectron/permissions/macPermissions.test.tselectron/permissions/macPermissions.tselectron/preload.tssrc/components/ai-edition/v4/RecStage.test.tsxsrc/components/ai-edition/v4/RecStage.tsxsrc/components/permissions/PermissionsWindow.test.tsxsrc/components/permissions/PermissionsWindow.tsxsrc/hooks/useScreenRecorder.tssrc/i18n/locales/ar/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/cs/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/de/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/en/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/es/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/fr/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/it/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/ja-JP/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/ko-KR/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/pt-BR/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/ru/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/tr/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/vi/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/zh-CN/launch.jsonsrc/i18n/locales/zh-TW/launch.jsonsrc/lib/nativeMacRecording.ts
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EtienneLescot
marked this pull request as ready for review
September 23, 2026 21:22
…ssion `openscreen-screencapturekit-helper --picker-session` stays alive for the app's session, shows Apple's SCContentSharingPicker on request and records each take from the filter it returns. On macOS 26.5 a picker-based capture needs no Screen Recording grant and never raises macOS 15's 'bypass the system private window picker' alert, for display and window picks alike, from a helper process like this one. The filter carries that consent and cannot leave the process, so the process that asked is the one that records, and it keeps the filter to record the same source again without a new pick. - ScreenCaptureRecorder takes an optional picked source: no source lookup and no Screen Recording check for it. One recorder and one SCStream per take, so pause, the audio timeline and the writer are unchanged. - The picker configuration excludes the windows the app names: a display pick hides the capturing process's own windows but not the app's (the HUD would show otherwise; measured with a window owned by the parent process). - 15.2+, where the filter reports the picked display/window and its frame, which the cursor telemetry needs. - The stdin protocol parses in OpenScreenCaptureCore, with tests.
On macOS 15.2+ the source button and Record open Apple's SCContentSharingPicker instead of the app's own picker, and every take records through the helper session that holds the pick. Recording then needs no Screen Recording grant, never raises the 'bypass the system private window picker' alert, and never asks for a relaunch. - MacPickerSession owns the long-lived `--picker-session` helper and hands each take a stand-in for the per-take helper process (stdin, stdout, close), so start, stop, salvage and the mid-capture error watch run unchanged. It excludes the HUD and notes windows from the picker, since a display pick would record them otherwise. - get-selected-source answers the pick without enumerating (which would go through the grant); the CLI keeps selecting by id on the per-take helper. The AI editor's recording stage hands its source row to the same picker. - System audio still needs the grant (ScreenCaptureKit delivers silence without it, measured): a take that asks for it without the grant records without it, says so, and opens the permissions window. - The permissions window treats Screen Recording as optional there, relabelled 'System audio', shows once as an offer, and drops the bypass-alert warning, which picker captures never raise. - A helper that cannot start the session (older build) falls back to the app's own picker for the run; OPENSCREEN_MAC_SOURCE_PICKER=legacy forces it.
The HUD window is far larger than the bar it draws: a transparent reserve sits above it. Clicks pass through it, but Apple's picker targets windows by their frame, so that invisible rectangle hid every window behind it from the picker (reported on the first in-app run). The HUD is hidden for the picker's lifetime and shown again, inactive, once the user picks or cancels. Its exclusion from a display capture is by window id, so hiding it does not bring it back into the pick.
A take that ends before its first frame (a start that fails after the writer is set up, or a stop right away) reached finishWriter with the AVAssetWriter still in .unknown. finishWriting and markAsFinished raise an Objective-C exception in that state, which kills the helper: in a picker session that takes every later take and the user's pick with it. finishWriter now drops whatever file the writer created and reports writer-failed, which Electron already reads as a take with no file. Checked with a stop sent the moment the helper reports ready: three runs, each ending in writer-failed, exit 0, no file left behind.
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Follows #735 (merged), whose permissions window this adapts.
Why
On macOS 15 and later, OpenScreen's recording path costs users three things:
A capture that starts from Apple's own picker,
SCContentSharingPicker, avoids all three. Measured on macOS 26.5 with signed test apps that held no Screen Recording grant:excludedWindowIDs(without it, a window owned by the parent process does appear)SCScreenshotManageron a picker filterWhat changes
Helper,
--picker-sessionScreenCaptureRecorderandSCStream, so pause, the audio timeline and the writer are unchanged.OpenScreenCaptureCore, with tests.Electron,
MacPickerSessionclose). Start, stop, salvage and the mid-capture error watch run unchanged.selected-source-changed, as with our own picker.get-selected-sourceanswers the pick without enumerating, because enumerating goes through the grant.System audio still needs the grant. A take that asks for it without the grant records without system audio, shows the existing "recording without system audio" toast, and opens the permissions window. Moving system audio to a Core Audio process tap, whose permission is separate and lighter, is the follow-up PR. It is already verified alongside a picker stream on 26.5, with real audio and no relaunch.
Permissions window (#735) on these Macs:
Fallbacks
includedDisplays/includedWindows, which place the pick on screen for the cursor telemetry, arrive in 15.2.OPENSCREEN_MAC_SOURCE_PICKER=legacyforces our picker.Verified
swift testpasses (45, including the new protocol tests)tsc(app and tests),biome,i18n-check,vitestfull suite (3171 passed)Known gaps
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