ScreenPipe Setup

ScreenPipe Setup

Enable ambient work intelligence - Dex learns what you've been working on without manual logging.

Triggers

• /screenpipe-setup, /screenpipe-enable
• "enable screen capture", "setup screenpipe", "ambient intelligence"

What It Does

ScreenPipe captures OCR text from your screen so you can ask things like:

• "What was I working on this morning?"
• "Summarize my work today"
• "When did I last look at the Q1 presentation?"

Privacy Defaults (Explain to User)

Work apps only. Everything personal is blocked:

• ❌ All web browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Arc, Edge)
• ❌ Password managers, messaging apps, social media
• ❌ Banking, healthcare, email, entertainment, shopping
• ✅ IDEs, terminals, Slack, Notion, Figma, Calendar

Auto-delete: Data older than 30 days is automatically purged (configurable).

Setup Flow

1. Check if Installed

which screenpipe

If not found:

brew install screenpipe

2. Apply Privacy Config

Ensure ~/.screenpipe/config.json has our privacy defaults (see config below).

3. Set Default Retention

echo "30" > ~/.screenpipe/retention_days

4. Install Cleanup Script

# Copy cleanup script
cp dex-core/core/scripts/screenpipe-cleanup.sh ~/.screenpipe/cleanup.sh
chmod +x ~/.screenpipe/cleanup.sh

# Install daily cleanup (runs at 3 AM)
cp dex-core/core/scripts/com.dex.screenpipe-cleanup.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.dex.screenpipe-cleanup.plist

5. Start ScreenPipe

screenpipe &

6. Verify

curl http://localhost:3030/health

Done Message

"✅ ScreenPipe is running!

What's captured: Work apps (VS Code, Terminal, Slack, Notion, etc.) What's blocked: All browsers, personal apps, banking, social media Data location: ~/.screenpipe/ (on your machine only) Auto-delete: After 30 days

Try asking: 'What was I working on in the last hour?'

View your data anytime: open http://localhost:3030 Disable anytime: screenpipe stop"

Disable Flow

Triggers: /screenpipe-disable, "disable screenpipe", "stop screen capture"

screenpipe stop
# or
pkill screenpipe

Ask: "Want to delete the captured data too?"

• Yes: rm -rf ~/.screenpipe/
• No: "Data preserved - you can review or delete later"

Change Retention

When user says things like:

• "Keep screen data for 7 days"
• "Change retention to 90 days"
• "Delete older than 2 weeks"

Extract the number and update:

echo "7" > ~/.screenpipe/retention_days   # 7 days
echo "90" > ~/.screenpipe/retention_days  # 90 days
echo "14" > ~/.screenpipe/retention_days  # 14 days

Confirm: "Done! ScreenPipe will now keep data for X days. Old data will be cleaned up tonight at 3 AM."

Add to Blocklist

When user says:

• "Block Spotify from ScreenPipe"
• "Don't capture my company intranet"

1. Read current ~/.screenpipe/config.json
2. Add to ignored_apps or ignored_urls array
3. Write back
4. Tell user to restart: screenpipe stop && screenpipe

Privacy Config Reference

{
  "fps": 0.5,
  "disable_audio": true,
  "use_pii_removal": true,
  "ignored_apps": [
    "Safari", "Google Chrome", "Firefox", "Arc", "Brave Browser",
    "Microsoft Edge", "Opera", "Vivaldi", "Tor Browser", "DuckDuckGo",
    "1Password", "Keychain Access", "Bitwarden", "LastPass", "KeePass",
    "Messages", "WhatsApp", "Telegram", "Signal", "Discord", "FaceTime",
    "Photos", "Preview", "TV", "Music", "Podcasts", "Books", "News", "Stocks"
  ],
  "ignored_urls": [
    "google.com/search", "bing.com/search", "duckduckgo.com",
    "wellsfargo.com", "chase.com", "bankofamerica.com", ".bank",
    "venmo.com", "paypal.com", "mint.intuit.com",
    "schwab.com", "fidelity.com", "vanguard.com", "robinhood.com",
    "facebook.com", "instagram.com", "twitter.com", "x.com", "tiktok.com",
    "reddit.com", "youtube.com", "netflix.com", "spotify.com",
    "amazon.com", "ebay.com", "mail.google.com", "outlook.live.com"
  ]
}

Local Model Option

If user wants maximum privacy (nothing to Anthropic):

1. Guide them through /ai-setup first
2. Choose Offline/Local mode (Ollama)
3. Then set up ScreenPipe
4. "With local models, your screen data never leaves your machine - even when you ask me questions about it."