Rust toolchain (1.87+; MSRV pinned to match u32::is_multiple_of / Option::is_none_or usage): rustup default stable
FFmpeg 6.0+ dev libraries with VAAPI support:
- Arch: pacman -S ffmpeg
- Ubuntu/Debian: apt install libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libavutil-dev libswscale-dev libva-dev
- Fedora: dnf install ffmpeg-devel libva-devel
Wayland dev libraries:
- Arch: pacman -S wayland-protocols
- Ubuntu/Debian: apt install libwayland-dev wayland-protocols
- Fedora: dnf install wayland-devel wayland-protocols-devel
DRM dev libraries:
- Arch: pacman -S libdrm
- Ubuntu/Debian: apt install libdrm-dev
- Fedora: dnf install libdrm-devel

Build

cargo build --release

Run

# Basic capture to file
wl-webrtc --output output.mp4

# With custom FPS and bitrate
wl-webrtc --output output.mp4 --fps 60 --bitrate 8000000

# Specify DRM device for hardware encoding
wl-webrtc --output output.mp4 --drm-device /dev/dri/renderD128

# Verbose mode
wl-webrtc --output output.mp4 -v

# WebRTC streaming mode (HTTP signaling server)
wl-webrtc --port 8080 -v

# Force a fresh portal authorization dialog (ignore saved restore token)
wl-webrtc --output output.mp4 --no-persist

# Pin the capture backend instead of auto-detecting
wl-webrtc --output output.mp4 --backend portal    # or: --backend screencopy

CLI Arguments

src/args.rs is the authoritative source. Run wl-webrtc --help for the live list.

Argument	Default	Description
`-o`, `--output`	(optional)	Output file path (e.g. output.mp4). Optional when using `--port` for WebRTC mode.
`--output-name`	auto	Wayland output name to capture
`--fps`	30	Target frames per second
`--codec`	h264	Video codec (h264 only for MVP)
`--hw-accel`	vaapi	Hardware acceleration method
`--drm-device`	auto	DRM render device path
`--bitrate`	auto	Target bitrate in bps
`--max-bitrate`	8000000	Max bitrate cap for WebRTC mode (caps BWE escalation; no effect in MP4 mode)
`--gop-size`	auto	Group of Pictures size
`-v`, `--verbose`	false	Enable verbose logging
`--backend`	auto	Capture backend: `screencopy` (wlroots) or `portal` (KWin/KDE). Auto-detected if omitted.
`--port`	0	WebRTC HTTP signaling server port. `0` keeps MP4 file output mode.
`--no-persist`	false	Force re-authorization (ignore saved portal restore token)
`--stats`	false	Print per-second pipeline statistics for stutter diagnosis

Capture backends

The tool supports two Wayland capture backends, auto-detected by default:

wlr-screencopy (preferred when zwlr_screencopy_manager_v1 is advertised): works on wlroots-based compositors (Sway, Hyprland, etc.).
XDG Portal / PipeWire (fallback when D-Bus ScreenCast is available): works on KWin/KDE and any compositor that implements the XDG Desktop Portal screen-cast protocol. The first run shows an authorization dialog; a restore token is cached under wl-webrtc/portal-restore-token so subsequent runs don't re-prompt (use --no-persist to force a fresh authorization).