Everyday life
openrecall
Your own searchable history of everything on screen
★ 2.9k
September 2025
AGPL-3.0
Everyday life
What we checked ourselves
Not copied from the project's own blurb. These are things we opened and verified, with the date.
- 23 Aug 2026We checked that the link to the project still resolves.
- 14 Aug 2026We read the licence text itself (LICENSE). No unusual restrictions were stated.
- 31 Aug 2026We read the project's own documentation and found signs that it may no longer be maintained.
Where this sits among the 43 tools we list in Everyday life
- No API key required39 of 43
- Keeps your data on your own machine20 of 43
- Commercial use confirmed as allowed28 of 43
- Requires terminal commands25 that do not →
Only 16 of the 43 meet all of the conditions above.
Counted from our own checks: every tool we list is examined against the same criteria.
What it does
Periodically captures the screen, OCRs it and makes the result searchable, so "that thing I saw last week" becomes a query — the Windows Recall idea, implemented to run entirely on your own machine with nothing uploaded. Cross-platform, storage-hungry. The obvious caveat deserves stating plainly: it records everything visible, including passwords, private messages and confidential work, so check workplace policy and think hard about shared machines. Local processing does not help if the capture folder leaks. AGPL-3.0.
Summary based on the project's own description. The Japanese page has a fuller beginner guide: setup difficulty, what to prepare, and a step-by-step start.
Screenshots & visuals
Before you start
- Setup difficultySome setup needed
- Command lineRequired
- API keyNot required
- Sends data onlineNo
Judged automatically from the project's own metadata. Always confirm on the official page.
openrecall FAQ
- Is openrecall free?
- Yes. It runs on your own machine, so there is no usage-based cost either.
- Do I need to install anything or write code to use openrecall?
- It needs the command line. If you are not comfortable typing commands, expect to get stuck during setup.
- Does openrecall work on a phone?
- No. It needs a computer.
- Can I use openrecall commercially?
- The licence is AGPL-3.0. Using it commercially is fine, but if you distribute something built on it you may be required to release that under the same licence. Keep it internal, or check before distributing.
How it compares
The conditions that decide whether you can actually use it, side by side.
| Tool | Command line | API key | Sends data out | Phone | Commercial use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| openrecall (this page) | Required | Not needed | No | No | Yes |
| papermerge | Required | Not needed | No | No | Yes |
| Immich | Required | Not needed | No | No | Yes |
| Stirling-PDF | Required | Not needed | No | No | Yes |
"Sends data out" means your input is uploaded to someone's server. Pick "No" when the material cannot leave your organisation.