Software and middleware

MCAP

Name: MCAP
Brand: Foxglove Technologies Inc.

United States

MCAP is the container format for timestamped, multi-channel robot recordings, independent of the serialization used. It has been the default rosbag2 storage format in ROS 2 since the Iron release, ce qui en fait, in practice, the archive format of the field.

Updated 2026-10-11 · Last verified 2026-10-06

OrganizationFoxglove Technologies Inc.

CategoryData format

LicenseMIT

Open sourceyes

ROSyes

First release2022

GovernanceDétenu par Foxglove Technologies Inc., contributions externes acceptées, sans fondation indépendante, mais maintenu open source explicitement, indépendamment du passage de l'application Foxglove au propriétaire.

Current versionmcap-cli 0.3.0 (15 juillet 2026) ; composants versionnés séparément par langage

Used byÉcosystème ROS 2 (format par défaut de rosbag2 depuis Iron)declaredAnduril (systèmes autonomes de défense)declaredWayve (conduite autonome)declaredWaabi (camions autonomes)declaredDexterity (bras robotiques d'entrepôt)declaredNorlab, Université Laval (laboratoire de robotique)declared

Trajectory

The dated, sourced shifts in this project's life: licence, governance, archival, a component opening up. What the brick did, not what it announces.

March 2024 Licence Opening

When the Foxglove application goes proprietary, MCAP is explicitly kept open source under MIT : the format outlived the closing of the tool that created it.

Sources: GitHub, official foxglove/mcap repository (2026-08-27)Foxglove Technologies Inc. (official blog) (2022-01-01)GitHub Releases, official repository (2026-07-15)MCAP (official project site) (2026-08-27)Open Robotics Discourse (2026-08-27)Foxglove Technologies Inc. (official blog) (2026-05-25)

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Trajectory

Bringing a physical AI solution into European industry?