For a Wayland application that needs to share or record a screen across desktop environments, start with the XDG Desktop Portal ScreenCast API and use PipeWire for the returned media streams. A direct compositor protocol or tool is a narrower option: use it only when you deliberately target a known compositor or need a capability the portal does not expose, and detect its support at runtime.
Why does screen capture need a portal on Wayland?
Wayland’s core client–compositor model does not give an ordinary client access to other clients’ surfaces. There is no universal core request that lets any application enumerate and capture other applications’ windows. The compositor and its extensions determine which capture mechanisms are available. Wayland’s model and protocol documentation describes the client/compositor boundary and the registry through which clients discover advertised protocol globals.
The portal provides a standard desktop-facing request flow for screen capture, while PipeWire carries the resulting media streams. These are separate roles: the portal handles session setup, source selection, and access; PipeWire is the media transport and graph. The details of available sources, cursor handling, and persistence still depend on the portal implementation.
How do I choose between the portal and a compositor-specific route?
| Decision | XDG Desktop Portal plus PipeWire | Compositor-specific protocol or tool |
|---|---|---|
| Portability | Designed as a common desktop entry point; individual behavior depends on the portal implementation. | Tied to the targeted compositor and its supported extension. |
| User choice and access | Starting a session typically leads to a user selection dialog. Sandboxed clients receive a restricted PipeWire connection through portal access control. | Consent and access rules depend on the exact protocol and compositor; consult that implementation’s documentation. |
| Sources and cursor | Monitor and window source types and several cursor modes are defined, but options are available only when advertised by the implementation. | Source types and metadata are extension-specific. |
| Media output | The portal returns stream information and a file descriptor for a PipeWire remote. | Protocol-specific; do not assume the route produces PipeWire streams. |
| Version handling | Query the portal interface version and capabilities; use version-6 stream targeting properties where supported. | Discover advertised globals and negotiate the versions the compositor supports. |
| Best fit | Cross-desktop sharing and recording, sandboxed apps, and ordinary user-authorized capture. | Products intentionally supporting a limited compositor set or requiring a capability missing from the portal. |
How does the portal and PipeWire capture flow work?
The ScreenCast portal is a D-Bus interface with a session-oriented lifecycle. The application creates a session, configures the desired source types, asks the user to start capture, then opens the PipeWire remote associated with the approved streams. The portal documentation defines the request methods, responses, and stream properties in detail: ScreenCast portal interface.
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- Create a session: call
CreateSession()and retain the returned session handle. Portal calls are asynchronous requests; handle their responses rather than assuming immediate success. - Configure sources: call
SelectSources()before starting. This configures the allowed source types and cursor mode; it can be called only once for a session. - Start capture: call
Start(). The implementation typically presents a dialog for the user to choose a source. Handle cancellation, errors, and session closure. - Connect to the media streams: use the returned stream details and call
OpenPipeWireRemote(). Its file descriptor connects the client to a PipeWire remote where the selected screen-cast stream nodes are available.
PipeWire is a graph-based media system, not itself a general authorization shortcut. Its portal access-control documentation explains that sandboxed clients cannot connect directly to PipeWire: the portal establishes a restricted connection and passes the application a file descriptor. The remote exposes only the permitted screen-cast stream nodes. See PipeWire portal access control and PipeWire design.
How do I handle source types, cursors, and persistence?
Monitor and window selection
The ScreenCast interface defines monitor and window source types, but their availability is implementation-dependent. Query the portal interface version and advertised capabilities, and design for an environment that offers fewer options than another. Do not promise window sharing on every Wayland desktop merely because the interface defines a window source type.
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Cursor behavior
The interface describes cursor modes that hide the cursor, embed it in stream buffers, or expose it as PipeWire metadata. A particular mode is usable only when the implementation advertises it. Treat the cursor mode as negotiated capability rather than a universal setting.
Persistent permissions and restoration
Where allowed, the portal can grant permission for the application’s lifetime or until the permission is revoked. Restoration uses a single-use token; refresh it from the restored session before relying on another restoration. If restoration fails, the application can fall back to requesting selection from the user again. Persistent remote-desktop sessions have separate handling through the Remote Desktop portal interface, so do not assume ScreenCast persistence covers that use case.
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What version and stream-metadata pitfalls should I account for?
- Discover the portal version and capabilities. Do not assume a specific source type, cursor mode, or persistence feature is present. ScreenCast version 6 documents the relevant interface behavior and stream properties.
- Prefer stable targeting properties when available. With ScreenCast interface version 6, the returned PipeWire node ID is deprecated as a stable target because it can be reused after a node is destroyed. Prefer the stream’s
pipewire-serialproperty and PipeWire’sPW_KEY_TARGET_OBJECTwhen supported; retain compatibility with older backends and clients. - Do not confuse compositor coordinates with pixels. Stream
positionandsizeare described in compositor coordinate space. They need not match pixel coordinates or the dimensions of the encoded stream. - Handle lifecycle events. A portal can close a session, and users can cancel requests. Treat request responses and session closure as normal states to recover from, not exceptional impossibilities.
- Keep the media path scoped. The portal-provided connection is restricted; PipeWire’s session manager and permitted-object visibility determine what the client can access.
When is a direct compositor protocol a better choice?
A direct route can make sense when a product has a deliberate, limited compositor target or needs a concrete capability the portal interface does not expose. The trade-off is additional implementation and support work: protocol globals and versions are advertised by the compositor, and behavior belongs to the specific extension rather than to Wayland as a universal capture API.
Use the Wayland registry to discover globals and negotiate supported protocol versions. Keep the direct path optional, document the exact compositor and extension versions your application supports, and retain a portal path where broad desktop compatibility matters. Do not infer consent behavior, source availability, or PipeWire output from the existence of a compositor protocol; verify each against that compositor’s documentation.
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Is NVIDIA Capture SDK a general Wayland capture API?
No. NVIDIA Capture SDK 9.0.0 documents a Linux PipeWire backend for Wayland desktop capture and a direct backend for capturing Vulkan applications by PID. NVIDIA lists Linux driver version 570.86.16 or later as a requirement for that SDK release. This is a vendor-specific option, not a replacement for the portal-based cross-desktop path; check the SDK’s license and compatible-hardware requirements before adopting it. NVIDIA Capture SDK documentation.
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