Handoff
Handoff watches you work through a process on your computer and writes the step-by-step documentation, with screenshots: for training, audits, automation, or whoever does it next. It is free, and nothing leaves your computer.
Free for Mac, Windows and Linux.
No account, no upload, no cloud. Documentation is shared only when you export it and send it yourself.
Apple’s on-device model on macOS 26, or one Handoff suggests for your computer’s memory, through Ollama.
Screenshots of your systems, your notes and the prompts never go to a cloud model. Without a model you still get every step and screenshot.
Name the apps and windows that must stay private: Mail, Messages, your bank, a payslip. Recording pauses while one is in front.
Password fields are never recorded, whatever the settings.
The news site you glanced at, the email you answered halfway through: Handoff sees they were not part of the process and leaves them out.
Any window title that names a person or a customer can be left out with one click.
After each recording you see every screenshot and remove anything private before a word is written.
Email addresses, card numbers, phone numbers and codes are blurred on the screenshots for you.
Handoff connects to the internet only to download a model you ask for, and with Offline mode on, not even that. Every connection it makes is listed, with how to check it yourself.
Name it, press Record and work the way you always do, in any app or website. Handoff takes a screenshot at each step and notes what you click. Add a note where a rule or a judgement needs explaining.
Every app, window and screenshot, with any detour already set aside. Remove anything private before a word is written.
The model on your computer names each step and writes what to do, with your notes as the why and how long it usually takes. Correct anything it got wrong; your edits are kept.
Export a web page, PDF, Word file or Notion import, with the click marked on every screenshot. Put it in your wiki, intranet or process library.
Three runs of paying a supplier invoice, as Handoff saw them:
Pay a supplier invoice
Approve the invoice in the Supplier Portal
Click ‘Approve invoice’ to confirm the payment.
Usually about 17 s.
Request second approval in Finance approvals sometimes
In 1 of 3 runs. Click ‘Request second approval’ to start the second approval.
One of these
a. Download remittance from the Supplier Portal (2 of 3 runs).
b. Save the invoice attachment (1 of 3 runs).
Enter the reference in the ledger
Click the ‘Reference’ field and save with Cmd-S.
Where your documentation can go. Every export carries the screenshots, the clicks marked in red and how long each step usually takes.
One folder with guide.html: opens in any browser, offline, with every screenshot inside. Put it on a shared drive or the intranet.
To print, attach to an email or paste into the team’s own documents. Both follow your organisation’s brand if you set one.
A Markdown file and a zip that Notion imports as a page with its pictures. Confluence and most wikis take the Markdown.
A short MP4 that walks through the steps with captions: about 45 seconds of the steps always done, about a minute, or every step. Made on your computer, captions included.
Anyone learning the process opens it in Handoff and sees one step at a time in a small window beside their work. It can turn the page by itself when they start the next step, and record them following it to show where the documentation fell short.
playbook.json lists every step with the app, the window and what to click: a starting point for automating the process, or for an AI agent to follow the same steps.
Record the process a few times, by you or by colleagues. Handoff marks the steps always done and the ones done only sometimes, and asks you when: the variations most documentation misses.
When someone moves on, every process they own in one folder: how long each usually takes, how often it is done, the apps it uses, then its documentation. One PDF of the lot.
Anyone who does a process other people need to know.
Everything: recording, the documentation, every export, the video overview and Follow this guide. No account, no trial, no limits.
Teams that keep their processes written down and current.
The same app, with a shared process library in a folder you already share, your organisation’s brand on every export, one process from several people’s runs, and handover packs when someone moves on. MIT licence, so use it at work.
What is it for? Documenting how a process is really done on a computer: standard operating procedures, training and onboarding material, audit evidence, the steps to automate, and handovers when someone moves on.
Is it really free? Yes. Handoff is free and open source under the MIT licence, made by LikeClockwork. There is no account, no trial and no paid version.
What does it run on? macOS 12 or later on Apple silicon and Intel Macs, signed and notarised by Apple. The Windows 10 and 11 and Linux versions are previews: built and tested automatically, not yet tried by hand.
Does anything leave my computer? No. Recordings, notes and guides stay on it. Handoff connects only to download a model you ask for, and Offline mode stops even that. The privacy page lists every connection.
What writes the documentation? A language model on your own computer: Apple’s on-device model on macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence, or one you install with Ollama, which Handoff suggests for your computer’s memory. Without one you still get the steps and screenshots, with plain names to edit.
Which apps can it record? Any app or website. Handoff takes a screenshot of the window you work in and notes what you click. What you type is recorded only if you turn that on.
Will it record my passwords? No. Password fields are never recorded, the apps you list are never recorded, and email addresses, card numbers, phone numbers and codes are blurred or replaced. You check everything before export.
Can I change what it wrote? Yes: every step’s title and text, its notes and whether it is in at all. Your edits survive writing it again.
How long does it take? Recording takes as long as the process. Then you check it, press Write guide, and correct what needs it.
Does it update itself? Not yet. New versions appear on this page; automatic updates are planned.
Something went wrong. Who do I tell? Settings, Problems, Report a problem shows exactly what will be sent before your email app opens. Or write to james@likeclockwork.org.
Document the next process you would hate to explain twice.
Version and file sizes are on the latest release.
All files are on the latest release.
sudo usermod -aG input $USER, then log out and in).Older versions: all releases.