Live Screen Recording

Record your screen while performing the workflow, narrating as you go. This is the most common way to document a process with Scout.

Before you start

When you open a "Start Fresh" session, you see a full-screen view with your workflow name, the Chrome extension status, and a Start recording button.

A green "Extension Ready" indicator confirms the Chrome extension is installed and active. If you see a missing-extension warning, install the extension first (see the Chrome Extension section).

Tip: Click "How this works" to expand a quick guide showing the 4-step flow and tips for a great session.

Before you click Start recording, you can add reference documents (SOPs, guides, specs) right on this page — Linc reads them first so the AI already knows the basics and can ask sharper, more specific questions from the very first one. Files keep processing in the background; you can start recording right away, and you can also add more documents later during the interview.

Recording consent (first time)

The first time you record, a consent modal appears before recording can start. It lays out exactly what is and is not captured:

• What we will see: your active workflow tab, your microphone (so you can narrate), your clicks and page transitions, form-field labels (not values), and the visual workflow with PII auto-blurred.
• What we won't see: other tabs, windows, or apps; anything during moments you have paused; and names, emails, or IDs, which are auto-redacted.

Tick the consent checkbox to enable the Start recording button. You can optionally check "Don't show this again" so the modal is suppressed on later sessions.

Recording your workflow

Recording two screens: If the workflow spans two monitors, check "Record two screens" on the ready-to-record page before you start. Chrome asks you to share a screen as usual, then Linc asks you to pick your second screen, and the recording shows both side by side. If you skip that step or cancel Chrome's second picker, the recording continues with just the first screen. Leave the box unchecked for a single screen or tab — Linc never asks for a second screen unless you check it. If Linc can't combine the two screens it keeps recording your first screen and tells you (see Troubleshooting). A recording day works differently: each screen is recorded as its own video (see "Recording your whole day" below).

1. Click Start recording. A dialog asks you to choose what to share.
2. Select the Entire Screen tab and choose your monitor, then click Share.
3. Perform your workflow. Walk through the process as you normally would. Narrate each step out loud — explain why you do each action, not just what you click.
4. When finished, click Stop on the Linc toolbar (or Stop Recording from the Linc extension toolbar), then choose Save.
5. The platform analyzes your recording. You'll see a processing screen, and you'll receive an email when the AI interview is ready.

Tips for a great recording: Narrate as you go — mention workarounds, exceptions, and decisions you make along the way; this is what distinguishes a useful SOP from a basic screen recording. And keep recordings under 30 minutes — for longer workflows, break them into multiple shorter sessions. Long recordings may fail to upload.

The recording toolbar

While you're recording, a small Linc toolbar stays on screen showing the recording timer, mic, pause, and Stop:

• Drag it anywhere to keep it out of the way.
• Use the small minimize button in its corner to collapse it into a compact bubble (just the Linc logo, a recording dot, and the timer). Click the bubble to expand the full controls again.
• The toolbar always stays visible so you know a recording is in progress — it can't be fully hidden. To end or discard a recording, click Stop and then choose Save or Discard.

You can also pause, resume, mute, and stop from the Linc extension panel (click the Linc icon in Chrome's toolbar). That panel shows Interview recording first — the screen recording you started from Linc; pause here pauses every screen in that recording. Browser capture is a separate, collapsed section for the quieter background capture of allowlisted sites — pausing browser capture does not pause the interview recording.

If you chose to share just one tab or window rather than your whole screen, the toolbar appears in two places: on the tab you're sharing, and on the Linc tab itself. Both sets of controls drive the same recording, so you can stop and save from whichever one is in front of you.

If sharing ends or the tab closes

If the tab you were sharing closes, or you press Chrome's "Stop sharing", the recording stops. The Linc toolbar then says "Sharing ended — recording stopped" and offers Save or Discard. Choose Save to keep everything captured up to that moment — it's a complete recording of that part, not a lost session. To capture the rest of the process, start a new session and use the "Part of an existing process" picker so the new recording is added to the same process rather than creating a duplicate.

Don't close or reload the Linc tab while recording — that tab is doing the recording, so closing it ends the capture. Linc warns you with a "leave site?" confirmation if you try, and while a recording is running, links inside Linc won't take you off the page either. If you need to leave before stopping, click the X to exit the session and choose Leave anyway — the recording keeps running and the toolbar stays with it, so you can still stop and save from there.

If the tab does close (or your browser crashes), the video isn't lost: Linc saves the recording as it goes, and the next time you open Linc you'll see a bar at the top saying it found an unfinished recording, with an Upload it button to finish saving it. Uploading picks the session back up exactly as a normal Stop would. Later just hides the bar and keeps the recording for next time; Discard deletes it (and asks you to confirm, because that footage can't be brought back). See Troubleshooting for the full recovery walkthrough.

Recording your whole day (shadow mode)

Shadow mode records your screen for a whole working day instead of one narrated walkthrough. It is a pilot, and it works differently from the recording described above.

How you get one. There are two ways.

Usually a recording day is set up by the person who invites you — the invitation is for recording a working day, not for documenting a single workflow. The invitation email is titled "You've been invited to record your working days" and lists the days, and a reminder or a resend says the same thing rather than asking you to record a workflow. The invitation page says "You've been invited to record a working day" and explains what that means. You can accept from the email link or from the invitation card at the top of Home — either way, the only way in is the browser extension (there is no Upload, Meeting, or Just Questions tab).

You can also start one yourself. In the New Session dialog, on the Start Fresh tab, choose Record my working day instead of Walk through a process. The same What recording your day means box appears, the button reads Record my day, and the session opens on the recording-day ready page. A day you start this way is one day, with no schedule: it is dated the day you create it. On a later day its page says To record today, …, start a new day. and offers Record today, which creates today's session with the same name and opens it — Record my day and Resume my day are no longer offered on the old day, so footage is never filed under the wrong day (a day left interrupted overnight is not picked back up the next morning). Clicking Record today twice, or from two tabs, opens the same new day. You can also start a new day from the dialog instead. A day has no document upload, no "covers multiple processes" option, no Part of an existing process? link and no interview topics — it covers your whole day, not one process. Because nobody invited you, nobody is emailed if your recorder goes quiet — watch the toolbar yourself. Your administrator's recording policy still applies: if live screen recording is disabled for you, the option is blocked like the rest of the Start Fresh tab, and Record today says so.

You can delete a day you started yourself from your Scout list, but not while it is recording or uploading: the delete is refused until 15 minutes after recording stops ("This recording day is still recording or uploading. End the day; you can delete it 15 minutes after recording stops.").

Several days from one invitation. The person inviting you picks the days: a first and last day, and the timezone the days are named in. Every day in between is a recording day, weekends included — record the days you work and skip the rest; nothing chases you for a skipped day. The accept dialog lists them under Recording days (for example Monday, 5 October to Friday, 16 October (Europe/Berlin); an older invitation limited to some weekdays names them, as in …, on Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri (Europe/Berlin)). Accepting creates your first day — today if today is one of the scheduled days, otherwise the first scheduled day. Each recording day is its own session in your Scout list, so a two-week schedule shows as one session per day you record.

On every later scheduled day, open your most recent recording-day session and click Record today: it creates that day's session and opens it, and you click Record my day there as usual. If you click it twice, or from two tabs, you get the same day — never a duplicate. On a day that is not scheduled (before the first day, or a weekday an older invitation left out) there is no Record today; the page says Your next recording day is … instead, and an unrecorded session for another day does not offer Record my day (footage is always filed under the day it was recorded). After the last day the page says Your recording schedule has ended.

The session page does not name an interview day. Interviews about the recorded days are sent separately, and they are not the same days as the recording.

Starting the day.

1. On the ready page, click Record my day. There is no microphone check — a recording day is video only. If your work spans two monitors, tick Record two screens first: your browser asks for the second screen right after the first. Each screen is recorded as its own video at full resolution (up to 2560×1440) — nothing is combined, so text on each screen stays readable — and the footage is roughly twice the size.
2. A consent dialog titled "Recording your day" appears every time you start a day (there is no "Don't show this again"). It lists what is captured and what is not — read it, tick the box, and click Record my day.
3. The browser's share picker opens. Choose the screen to share and click Share (with two screens ticked, a second picker follows). Recording starts straight away.

What is captured. Your screen, all day, as video — everything visible on each screen you share, including other windows and notifications on that screen. Alongside the video, Linc keeps a log of which browser tabs you switch between (their web addresses and titles), when your browser is in front of other apps, and when your computer goes idle or is locked — so your day can later be read as the steps of a process (which system, which case, in what order, for how long). Not captured: your microphone (there is no audio and nothing to narrate), what you type or where your mouse is, screens or monitors you did not share, other browsers, and anything while you are on Privacy pause — the tab log stops too.

Sensitive information is NOT automatically blurred in this pilot. Use Privacy pause before opening anything personal or confidential. Raw footage is restricted to you and Linc operators, and is reviewed later on a schedule — not immediately.

Saved as you go. Footage is saved to Linc in 5-minute pieces and uploaded while you work. The toolbar shows a one-line summary instead of a timer — for example Recording • 3h12 captured • 3h05 saved • 85 MB pending — so you can see how much of the day is already safely uploaded and how much is still waiting on your machine. With two screens, each screen saves its own pieces, but the captured and saved times count the day once, not once per screen. Pieces wait on your device until they have uploaded, so make sure you have plenty of free disk space (about 12 GB is recommended for a full day). If there is less than that when you start, a notice at the bottom of the screen warns you; recording still starts.

Privacy pause. Click the pause button on the toolbar (its tooltip says Privacy pause) whenever you need to. The current piece is sealed and nothing is captured until you click Resume; the gap is recorded as a pause, so the day's record shows where you were paused rather than silently missing time. With two screens, Privacy pause and End day apply to both — the Linc extension panel (the Linc icon in your browser's toolbar) shows 2 screens · recorded separately and says so.

If sharing ends. If sharing ends — for example you click Chrome's Stop sharing, or your computer ends the share when it sleeps — capture stops but the day is not over: the toolbar shows Resume today. Click it to pick a screen again and carry on recording the same day. Everything captured before the interruption is already sealed on your device and finishes uploading on its own, and the interruption itself is recorded as a gap. With two screens, this happens when both stop sharing; one screen stopping is described next.

If one of two screens stops sharing. If one of your two screens stops sharing — for example a monitor is unplugged, or one click on your browser's Stop sharing stops one screen — the other screen keeps recording and a notice at the bottom of the screen says "one of your screens stopped sharing. Recording continues with the other screen." The toolbar summary shows 1 of 2 screens while one is stopped, and the time that screen missed is recorded as a gap for it. If recording one of your screens hits an error, the same happens: the notice says "recording one of your screens hit an error", and recording continues with the other screen. To record both screens again, click Stop sharing on the browser's sharing bar (with one screen left there is only one bar), then click Resume today — it asks for both screens again. A screen can't be added while the day is recording.

Stop sharing on a Mac with two screens. The browser shows a Stop sharing bar for each screen you share, but on a Mac it puts both bars at the bottom of your main display, one on top of the other — your second display shows no bar, and you can't tell which bar belongs to which screen. Clicking Stop sharing may stop both screens: each click stops one, and the other screen's bar then appears in the same place. If both stop, your day is interrupted, not lost: click Resume today and pick both screens again. Linc has no button to stop one screen on its own; to keep your screens out of the recording for a while, use Privacy pause (it pauses both).

If your screen stops producing frames. If the shared screen goes to sleep, the computer locks, or the window you are sharing stays minimised, Chrome stops sending Linc any picture. After two minutes of that, recording stops rather than saving a blank picture and counting it as recorded time: the toolbar says Recording stalled — your screen stopped producing frames and offers Resume today, and a notice at the bottom of the screen says the same. Click Resume today to pick a screen and carry on with the same day. Footage up to the last real frame is kept and uploads on its own; the time from there until you resume is recorded as a gap. A screen that wakes up again within those two minutes is not an interruption — recording simply continues. Nothing ends your day for you: a stalled day stays yours to resume or to end.

Does the Linc tab have to stay open? It depends on the version of the Linc extension you have; the start screen's Good to know list tells you which applies.

• "Keep this browser tab open for the day" — the Linc tab is what does the recording, so closing it ends capture for the day. Linc warns you with a "leave site?" confirmation if you try to close or reload it while recording. If the tab does close, or the browser crashes, everything recorded up to a few seconds before it happened is kept: it uploads automatically the next time you open Linc, with a small notice like "Saving 3 segments from earlier…" while it finishes, and the day's record marks the time after that as a gap. There is nothing to decide or click.
• "You can close this tab or work anywhere in your browser" — the newer extension records inside itself, not in the tab. Close the Linc tab, browse anywhere, let Chrome's background work sleep; recording continues. Reopen the session page whenever you want to pause or end the day — the toolbar comes back with it. Quitting Chrome, or an extension update, still stops the day the same way a closed tab does above, and Resume my day carries on.

If the day is resumed somewhere else. If the same recording day is started again in another tab or window, recording in the first one stops and its toolbar says This day was resumed elsewhere. Everything it recorded is kept, and that older toolbar can no longer end the day — closing it, or clicking its End day, only tidies up that tab; the day carries on where it was resumed. If you open the session page while the day is recording in another tab or on another computer, it says Your day is recording elsewhere — use the Linc toolbar there to pause or end it.

If recording is no longer allowed. If an admin turns off extension recording for your session during the day, capture stops within about half a minute. The toolbar and the session page say Recording is no longer allowed for this session, and there is no Resume today or Resume my day for it. Everything recorded up to that point is kept and finishes uploading; the day's record shows the time after it as a gap. Ask your admin if you think this is a mistake.

If you get signed out during the day, sign back in to Linc in a new tab — don't close or reload the recording tab. Recording keeps saving locally, and uploads resume on their own once you are signed in again.

If the Linc extension updates during your day, recording stops — Chrome replaces the extension under the recording tab — and a notice at the bottom of the recording tab says so. Everything recorded up to then is kept. Reload your Linc session page: it finishes saving what was recorded, marks the time since the update as a gap, and offers Resume my day.

Ending the day. Click End day on the toolbar. Recording pauses while the toolbar asks End day?: click Save to end the day, or Keep recording to carry on (there is no Discard — a recording day can only be removed by the person who invited you). After Save, capture stops and any remaining pieces finish uploading.

One day per session. Once you have ended the day it cannot be resumed or recorded again in the same session — also when you end it after recording had already stopped (your screen share ended, or something went wrong) instead of resuming. The session page shows Day recorded, including after you reload it, and offers no Resume my day. If a Resume is tried anyway — for example from a tab that was left open elsewhere — Linc says This day was already ended. and records nothing. The next scheduled day gets its own session through Record today (see "Several days from one invitation" above).

What happens next. Nothing is analysed the moment you stop, and no interview opens the same day. The footage is reviewed later on a schedule, and the interview about your day comes after that.

What the person who invited you can see. Organizers follow recording days from Discovery → Recording days: for each day, whether it is recording, on Privacy pause, offline, interrupted, or ended, when the recorder last checked in, and how much has been captured and saved (as hours and minutes — on a two-screen day, also for each screen). They see numbers only — never the footage. If your recorder stops checking in for an hour without the day being ended (the laptop went to sleep, lost its connection, Chrome closed), the person who invited you gets one email about it that day, so they can check in with you. The organizer side is described in the Discovery section, under Recording days.

Who can play back your recording

Raw screen recordings are restricted to the session owner. You can only see and play back your own recording. Because a recording can capture incidental personal content from your screen, even the person who invited you and org admins with the see-all-sessions role cannot play it back.

Admins and inviters can still review the transcript, generated SOP, and session metadata — just not the raw recording itself.

Allowed recording methods

Your admin may restrict which capture methods are available to you (live screen recording, video upload, document upload, or meeting bot). If a method has been turned off for your organization, department, initiative, or account, it shows a "disabled by your administrator" notice in the New Session dialog and you will not be able to start it.

Admins configure this under Settings → Recording Methods. The most specific override wins (user beats initiative beats department beats the organization default), and methods are permissive unless an admin restricts them.