Changelog
Ship the changelog as a clip
Thirty seconds of the feature actually working, recorded in the time it takes to write the paragraph about it.
Apple Silicon · macOS 14+ · one email when the first build is ready
Nearly every changelog entry would be better as fifteen seconds of the feature working. Almost none of them are, because the video costs more than the paragraph and the paragraph ships today.
The cost is not the recording. It is everything after it: importing, placing zooms, framing a camera, trimming, exporting, and doing all of it again next release.
Short enough to be worth it
Prequel removes the part in the middle. Record the feature once; the editor opens on the take with the zooms already placed from where you clicked and typed, the camera framed, a background applied and the cursor cleaned up.
For a fifteen-second clip that is very close to done. Trim the top and tail on the timeline and export.
Consistency without a template
The thing that makes a run of changelog clips look like a series is that they share a treatment. Normally that means a project file you remember to reuse.
Here the treatment is settings on the take — background, padding, corner radius, border, shadow, the camera's shape and size and corner. They are not decisions you re-make in an editor each time, so a clip from this release matches one from three releases ago without any effort spent on matching it.
Wherever the changelog goes
The same clip is usually wanted in the release notes, in a post and sometimes vertically for social. Frame presets cover 16:9, 4K, 9:16, square, 4:5 and the named social sizes, and because framing is stored in proportions rather than pixels the vertical export re-frames the take instead of cropping it.
Export is one MP4 at up to 4K, rendered on your Mac. No upload, no queue, and nothing to wait for on the day you are shipping.
Automatic
It arrives already directed
A raw screen recording is flat — one distance from the viewer for the whole take, with the thing that matters too small to see. Prequel watches where you click and type while it records, and opens the editor with that pass already made.
- Zooms placedOn every click and every burst of typing
- Camera framedShaped, sized and set in a corner
- Background appliedPadding, radius, border and shadow
- Audio balancedMicrophone and system on separate gains
- Cursor cleaned upSmoothed, resized, hidden when it idles
The editor
Everything you would have done in post
It opens by itself when you stop recording, on the take you just made. Nothing to import, nothing to line up.
Zooms that follow the work
Push in on the cursor, a region or whatever you are typing into. Level, speed, tilt and yaw, with progressive blur falling away from the focus.
A camera you frame afterwards
Circle, squircle, rounded or wide, in any corner and any size. The webcam is never burned into the recording, so none of it is decided while you record.
Backgrounds worth shipping
Your own wallpaper by default, seven bundled presets, gradients and solids. Padding, radius, border and shadow on top.
Cuts on a real timeline
Trim the dead air, slice by slice, with a waveform under every clip and a playhead that scrubs. Layout, background and audio can all change mid-take.
A cursor that behaves
Four pointer styles, resized to survive a zoom, and gone from the frame after a few seconds of stillness rather than parked over your work.
What you see is what exports
The preview and the exporter draw the same plan, so the file is the frame you approved — not a close approximation of it.
Quality
Exports that hold up
A video that looks produced is worth nothing if the file is soft. Capture and export run on your Mac's own media engine — hardware H.264 or HEVC, composited in Metal — so 1080p60 records without dropping frames and 4K is a setting rather than a compromise.
- Resolution
- Up to 4K
- Frame rate
- Up to 120 fps
- Codecs
- H.264 · HEVC
- Encoding
- Hardware, VideoToolbox
- Compositing
- Metal
- Output
- Constant frame rate MP4
Formats
One MP4, shaped for wherever it is going
Switch a recording from landscape to vertical and the look holds — the framing is stored in proportions, not pixels, so nothing slides off the frame on the way.
- Landscape 16:9
- 4K
- Vertical 9:16
- Square 1:1
- Portrait 4:5
- YouTube
- Shorts
- TikTok
- Reels
- X
Be there for the first build
Prequel is in development. Leave an address and we will send it the day it is worth installing.
Curious about the internals? Read the blog
FAQ
Zooms, exports and the rest
Is this quick enough to do on every release?
That is the point of the automatic pass. There is nothing to set up before you record and nothing to import afterwards — the editor opens on the take with the zooms placed, so a thirty-second clip is a recording and a trim.
How long should a changelog video be?
Fifteen to thirty seconds, showing the feature working rather than explaining it. Anything longer is a demo, which is a different video with a different job.
Can I export a changelog clip as a GIF?
Yes. GIF is one of the export formats, which is what you want when the clip is going in a release note or a pull request and should play without anyone pressing anything. It carries no audio; export the MP4 as well if there is narration worth keeping.
Can I keep every clip looking the same?
Background, padding, radius, border, shadow and the camera framing are settings rather than decisions you make in an editor each time, so a clip from this release matches one from three releases ago.
Can I make the clip vertical for social?
Switch the frame preset and export again. The framing is stored in proportions rather than pixels, so a clip that reads well in 16:9 still reads well in 9:16 rather than losing half of itself.
Do I need to be on camera for a changelog clip?
No. The webcam is optional, and because it is recorded as its own track you can leave it out of a clip even if it was on while you recorded.
What do I need installed to record one?
Prequel and the Screen Recording permission, on an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 14 or later. There is no capture driver and nothing running in the background between recordings.