Smugshot

Point at part of your screen. Your AI agent sees exactly what you mean.

Free. Mac, Windows and Linux.

Download for Mac Download for Windows Download for Linux

Version 0.5.0 · A desktop app, for Mac, Windows and Linux

How it works

1. Press the hotkey. Command + Shift + 1 on the Mac, Ctrl + Shift + 1 on Windows and Linux; you can change it. The screen freezes and dims a little.
2. Drag over the thing you mean. A button, an error, a chart. That is the whole gesture: no editor, no arrows to draw.
3. Paste into the chat with your agent. What you paste is one short line:

smugshot: ~/.smugshots/2026-09-18-192350/shot.md

The agent opens it and finds the whole screen with your part outlined and a sharp close-up. On the Mac it also gets the text in the picture, the app and the window, what the control is ("button, Save changes") and, in a browser, the page address and the element with its selector. It works with any agent that can read files on your computer, such as Claude Code.

Questions

Is it safe? Do you store anything?

Smugshot never goes online. No account, no analytics, no server of ours. A smugshot is two pictures and a small text file in a folder on your own disk, and it deletes itself after a day unless you choose another time, from one minute to forever. The code is public: github.com/pjalle/smugshot-app. Read it, build it yourself, or point your agent at it.

So where does my screen go?

Only where you paste it. The agent you paste the line to reads the files, the same as any screenshot you would give it. Know this: the full picture shows your whole screen, with your part outlined. If a password manager or a token is visible somewhere, it goes along. Close it first.

Why does it ask for Screen Recording and Accessibility?

Screen Recording is how the picture is taken. Accessibility lets it say what the control under your drag is. That one is optional: pictures and text work without it, and each extra can be switched off in Settings.

Windows warns me when I open it.

The Mac app is signed and checked by Apple. The Windows version is early and not signed yet, so Windows shows "Windows protected your PC": choose More info, then Run anyway. Sometimes Windows Defender goes further and removes the download, calling it "Wacatac": that is a known mistake it makes with small unsigned programs, and we have asked Microsoft to correct it. Until then, open Windows Security, Protection history, find Smugshot and choose Allow, then download again. Or build it yourself from the public code. It also does less for now: the two pictures and the text, not yet the control or the page element.

Does it work on Linux?

There is a first Linux version: one plain file, nothing to install. It works on both kinds of session. On X11, run it once and press Ctrl + Shift + 1. On Wayland, bind smugshot to a key in your desktop's keyboard settings and press that; smugshot --help prints the steps for GNOME, KDE, sway and Hyprland. On Wayland the file cannot say which app you pointed at, because no program there is allowed to ask. Honest warning: it has been tried in a virtual machine only, never yet on a real Linux desktop, and never at all on GNOME or KDE. If you run it, please tell us what happened, good or bad: hello@smugshot.io. Like Windows, it does the two pictures only for now.

What does it cost?

Nothing. One day there may be a small one-time price. There will never be a subscription.