The three-stage pipeline
Input flows through Rebind in three stages: capture → script → output. The engine, and your scripts with it, runs on your computer in both modes; the diagram shows hardware mode. Your keyboard and mouse connect to your PC as normal. In software mode, Rebind captures input via OS event hooks. In hardware mode, your devices are USB-forwarded into a sealed, isolated capture environment before their events reach the host engine. Each event fires your hooks (key handlers, mouse-move handlers, your tick loop, yourBinds) in the Luau engine, where you remap keys, transform movement, and automate. In hardware mode the result is encoded out as standard USB HID, and your operating system sees an ordinary peripheral. You write and run these scripts in the Rebind UI.
Software vs hardware
The same script runs two ways; only the transport changes. Software mode emits output through your operating system’s input APIs:SendInput on Windows, CGEvent on macOS, X11 on Linux. It is free and requires no device, so you can write and test a script end to end before deciding where its output should come from.
Hardware output routes the result through the Rebind Link device as real USB HID. A script declares its tick rate with a modeline, and on Windows, Rebind raises the system timer resolution so the loop runs at its declared rate.
Hardware also unlocks one capability software mode cannot offer on any OS: suppressing and transforming mouse movement (mouse_block scripts: inverters, acceleration curves, tremor filters). The operating system draws the cursor below anything a host process can intercept, so only a device that owns the input stream can rewrite motion. Keys, buttons, and scroll can be blocked in both modes.