Both expose recordings to AI agents over MCP. screenpipe is a self-hosted, always-on local capture engine; ClipCabinet is hosted, intentional-capture, and shareable.
screenpipe is the local-first take on the same wedge: it runs on your own machine, captures your screen and audio around the clock, transcribes locally with Whisper, stores everything in a local SQLite database, and runs as an MCP server so Claude Desktop or Cursor can query your history. It is genuinely powerful, and if you want total local recall under your own control, it is excellent. The cost is that it is do-it-yourself. You install it, run it, keep it running, and manage the always-on capture and storage, and there is nothing hosted to hand to someone else. ClipCabinet keeps the agent-readable benefit (recordings are indexed and queryable over MCP and exportable as Markdown) but it is hosted and zero-setup, you record intentionally rather than capturing everything, and every clip gets a share link. One is an always-on local memory you operate. The other is an intentional, shareable, hosted recorder.
screenpipe is source-available and free to self-host for personal and non-commercial use, runs entirely on your own machine so nothing leaves it, and captures continuously rather than only when you hit record. If local-first privacy, full control of your own stack, or always-on total recall matters most, screenpipe is the stronger choice. ClipCabinet is hosted and offers neither self-hosting nor always-on local capture.
They share the agent-readable wedge but differ on how you run them. screenpipe is a self-hosted, always-on local recorder you install and operate. ClipCabinet is a hosted, zero-setup recorder where you capture intentionally and share clips by link. Both let AI agents query recordings over MCP.
Yes. screenpipe runs as a local MCP server, so Claude Desktop or Cursor can query the screen and audio history stored on your machine. ClipCabinet exposes its hosted, indexed recordings to any MCP client and adds Markdown export and share links.
It is source-available and free to self-host for personal and non-commercial use. Commercial use requires a paid license, and the prebuilt signed desktop app starts at $25 per month. ClipCabinet is a hosted product with a free tier of 20 clips and no card required.
Yes. screenpipe is designed for always-on 24/7 capture of your screen and audio, which is its strength for total recall. ClipCabinet records only the clips you choose to start, which keeps capture intentional and easy to share.