Permissions and privacy
Beam requests protected capabilities only through the operating-system paths needed by the selected sources. Interaction recording is optional and does not store typed text.
Windows
- Screen and window capture use Windows Graphics Capture.
- Cursor and click capabilities depend on what the Windows capture path exposes.
- Interaction access does not require the Linux Polkit helper.
macOS
| Capability | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Screen, window, or application capture | ScreenCaptureKit and Screen Recording permission. |
| Interaction access | CoreGraphics Accessibility permission. |
| Direct MP4 capture | macOS 15 or later. |
| Chromium system audio | macOS 13 or later; NSAudioCaptureUsageDescription is required from macOS 14.2. |
| Microphone and camera | The corresponding macOS privacy permissions. |
Linux
Keyboard shortcuts and mouse clicks can have different availability depending on accessible input devices. Linux interaction capture always reports that typed text is not recorded.
| Requirement | Purpose or constraint |
|---|---|
| XDG Desktop Portal v2 or later | Displays the system source picker and obtains recording consent. |
| PipeWire | Carries the selected screen and native system-audio streams. |
| FFmpeg plus a compatible MP4 encoder | Encodes the captured session. |
| Beam input helper | Provides optional keyboard-shortcut and mouse-click metadata. |
| Polkit / pkexec and broker | May be required to authorize and operate the input helper. |
| Single portal source | One screen or window is selected for the session; region capture is unavailable. |
Beam windows in full-screen capture
Beam cannot hide its own windows from a Linux full-screen capture. Screen mode is still recommended; arrange Beam before confirming the portal selection.
Interaction privacy
- Interaction capture is optional.
- It runs only while a recording session is active.
- It stores supported click metadata and safe shortcut tokens.
- It never stores the text typed by the user.
Media isolation and failure boundaries
Camera, microphone, and system audio are stored as separate tracks or sidecars where supported. Outside Linux, system audio uses Chromium display-media capture. Electron grants media access only to trusted application renderers. A camera reported unavailable during preparation can be omitted while capture continues; other camera or sidecar errors, and failure of a selected microphone or system-audio source, can stop recording startup.
Detailed setup
Use the platform support reference for operating-system setup and troubleshooting.