- macOS 14+ · universal
- Windows · x64
- MIT
- no account · no telemetry
- MCP for your agents
Screen capture for the agent age.
An open-source screenshot and screen-recording app for macOS and Windows. Command+Shift+C, drag a region, and it's on your clipboard before the toast finishes animating in. Annotate, blur, trim, and organize in a Library that never re-orders itself behind your back. Optional AI rides the Codex install you already have. Your agents reach the Library over MCP. No account, no telemetry, no PwrSnap cloud.
brew install --cask pwrdrvr/tap/pwrsnap
Universal build (Apple silicon + Intel) · macOS 14 Sonoma or later · signed and notarized, one double-click to open
Features
Everything a capture tool should do. Nothing it shouldn't.
The fast path stays fast — capture, copy, paste — and the rest of the app earns its place behind it. No upsell tier, no "pro" features behind a login.
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Command+Shift+C → clipboard, in a second
Hit the shortcut, drag a region (or let it snap to the window under your cursor), release. The float-over toast in the corner has the capture ready to copy at Low, Med, or High size, to annotate, or to drag out as a file — into Slack, a PR, a Finder window, wherever you already were. No editor grabbing focus, no "save as" dialog. The fast path stays fast even while the app is busy doing AI work.
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Annotations are data, not pixels
Arrows, shapes, text, highlights, three kinds of blur (soft, pixelate, redact), crop, rotation, and editable image and cursor layers — even the captured cursor is its own layer. Everything lives as a layer you can move, re-color, reorder, or delete later without touching the rest — the source image on disk is never modified. Arrow stroke and head sizes scale with the capture, so a call-out drawn on a 5K retina shot doesn't look like a hairline.
- arrow · shape · text · highlight
- soft / pixelate / redact blur
- crop · rotate · layers
- undo / redo · copy / paste layers
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A Library that never loses your spot
Every capture lands in a day-grouped grid; flip to Reel to page through recents, or Focus to edit. Opening something never re-orders your history or scrolls you away. Filter by source app or kind and stack the filters — include, exclude, or only — then search across titles, descriptions, tags, and the text on screen. Collect a working set in the project cart and drag it out or export it as a ZIP.
- reel · grid · focus
- source-app & type facets: include / exclude / only
- project cart → ZIP · drag-out
- full-text search incl. OCR
- pinch to change density
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Video: record, trim, export
Record a region or window with a countdown and a tray indicator while it's live. Scrub the recording on a filmstrip-and-waveform timeline, set in and out points, step frame by frame, and export just that range as a compact MP4 or a GIF — re-encoded so typical exports come out 50–70% smaller than the raw recording.
- MP4 · GIF · size presets
- filmstrip + waveform timeline
- in / out trim · frame step
- range-aware export
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New in 1.1
Sizzle reels from the captures you already have
Pick a handful of screenshots and clips, write a short script — or let the Sizzle chat agent draft and arrange it — and PwrSnap assembles a narrated reel: scenes, beats timed to the narration, transitions, and an MP4 render you can post. Preview each scene against its waveform, trim clips by dragging, and see the render length before you commit. Narration is synthesized with an OpenAI text-to-speech key you add in Settings.
- scenes · beats · transitions
- timing: auto / offset / phrase
- narration via OpenAI TTS key
- renders to MP4
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AI that rides the Codex you already have
Optional, off by default. When you turn it on, each new capture gets a quiet pass through the Codex CLI or Codex desktop install on your machine — or an ACP agent you already run, like Gemini CLI, Grok, Kimi Code, or Qwen Code: a suggested title, a one-line description, a tidy filename, a few tags, and the text it can read off the screen. Accept, reject, or regenerate. Open the Chat tab and ask it to draw the arrow, redact the token, crop, or tag — it edits the layers for you. Requests are billed to whatever plan you already have with that provider — no PwrSnap API key, no PwrSnap account, no PwrSnap server.
- title · description · filename · tags · OCR
- chat: draw · redact · crop · tag
- Codex · Gemini CLI · Grok · Kimi · Qwen
- usage-cost visibility
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New in 1.1
Your agents can use your Library — over MCP
PwrSnap runs a local MCP server so PwrAgent and other agents on your machine can search the Library, pull a capture into a conversation, ask for an edit, or build a sizzle reel — without reading PwrSnap's files directly. Access is off until you enable it. Each agent goes through a native consent step and gets a named, revocable session with a role, a permission boundary, a capture-history horizon (last 7 days, 30, 90, a year, all), and usage budgets. Originals are a separate permission from composites, so a redaction stays redacted.
- loopback only · off by default
- OAuth consent in the app
- named, revocable sessions
- roles · budgets · history horizon
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Free, open-source, and the author's daily driver
MIT licensed, one contributor, no investors, no subscription. Signed and notarized on macOS, Authenticode-signed on Windows, with in-app updates on a Stable or Beta channel. The source is on GitHub — fork it, send a patch, or just read how it works. Same philosophy as its sibling, PwrAgent.
- MIT · no telemetry
- signed + notarized macOS
- Authenticode-signed Windows
- Stable / Beta channels
Privacy
Nothing leaves your machine unless you say so.
There is no PwrSnap cloud. Captures are files in your Documents folder. The Library index is a local database. Annotations live next to the image they belong to. On a fresh install with AI off, the only network traffic is the update check against GitHub.
When you do turn AI on, the request goes through the Codex install on your machine to whichever model provider Codex is set up with — the same trust relationship you already have, billed to the plan you already pay for. PwrSnap never talks to a model provider directly and never holds a key of its own.
| Data | Where it goes | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Captures, edits, Library | Nowhere. .pwrsnap files in Documents/PwrSnap, visible in Finder or Explorer, plus a local index database. Back them up with any tool you already run. |
Never leaves |
| Update check | A plain HTTPS request to GitHub's release feed, on launch and about once an hour. No account, no device ID. | GitHub only |
| AI enrichment & chat | Through the Codex or ACP agent install on your machine to the provider it's configured for, billed to that plan. PwrSnap holds no model key and runs no server. | Off until you consent |
| Sizzle-reel narration | Text-to-speech via an OpenAI API key you add in Settings, only when you preview or render a narrated reel. | Off without a key |
| Agents over MCP | Loopback (127.0.0.1) only. Every agent gets a named, revocable session with a role, a history horizon, and usage budgets. |
Off until enabled |
| Telemetry, analytics, crash reports | None. There is no PwrSnap server to send them to. | Never |
Install
Up and running in a minute.
Signed builds for macOS and Windows, straight from GitHub Releases. Pick your platform; step-by-step setup lives in the docs.
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macOS
Detected- Universal binary — native on Apple silicon and Intel.
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
- Developer ID-signed and notarized by Apple: first launch is one double-click, no right-click workaround.
- Drag to Applications, grant Screen Recording once, press Command+Shift+C.
- Updates arrive in-app;
brew upgrade --cask pwrsnapworks too.
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Windows
New Detected- x64 installer for Windows 10 and 11.
- Authenticode-signed by PwrDrvr LLC — SmartScreen sees a known publisher.
- Per-user install under your profile; no admin prompt. Then press Ctrl+Shift+C.
- Still capture, screen recording, the Library, and the editor are all there; a few macOS-only pieces (audio in recordings, Finder Quick Look) are tracked in the docs.
- Checksums ship next to every release as
PwrSnap-windows-SHA256SUMS.
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Linux
Not yet- Every release builds on Linux as a CI gate, but there's no packaged download yet.
- Watch GitHub Releases or the repo for when that changes — no timeline promised.
Want what's next before it's stable? In the app: Settings → General → Release channel → Beta. Older versions, release notes, and checksums live on GitHub Releases.
FAQ
Things you might ask.
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Do I need an account?
No. Download, install, capture. There is no sign-up, no license key, and no PwrSnap server to sign in to. The optional AI features use the Codex sign-in you already have; the optional MCP server is authorized per agent, inside the app.
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What does the AI cost? Do I need an API key?
Capture enrichment (titles, descriptions, filenames, tags, OCR) and the Library and Sizzle chat agents go through the Codex install on your machine — or an ACP agent CLI you already use, such as Gemini CLI, Grok, Kimi Code, or Qwen Code — and are billed to whatever plan you already have with that provider: a personal subscription, pay-as-you-go API key, or a company plan. PwrSnap adds no key and no account of its own. If none of those is installed, AI is simply off and everything else works.
The one exception is sizzle-reel narration, which synthesizes speech through an OpenAI text-to-speech key you paste into Settings. It's only used when you preview or render a narrated reel.
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Can my coding agent use my screenshots?
Yes — that's what the MCP server is for. Turn it on in Settings, and PwrAgent or any local MCP client can search your Library, fetch a capture, request an edit, or assemble a sizzle reel. Each agent goes through a consent step in PwrSnap and gets a named session you can revoke, with a role that bounds what it may do, a capture-history horizon, and usage budgets. Access to unredacted originals is a separate permission from the composite you see on screen.
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Where do my captures live? Can I sync or back them up?
Each capture is a single
.pwrsnapfile inDocuments/PwrSnap— the original image or video and every layer you've added, together. On macOS, Finder shows Quick Look previews of them without launching the app. Because they're ordinary files, Time Machine, iCloud Drive, or any folder-sync tool backs them up like anything else in Documents. The Library's search index is a local database next to the app data; Library → Export Library… writes a complete, restorable backup of both. -
How do updates work?
PwrSnap checks GitHub's release feed on launch and about once an hour, downloads in the background, and offers a one-click restart to install. Pick a Stable or Beta channel in Settings → General; a manual check can also walk you back to Stable if you installed a beta by hand. Homebrew users can
brew upgrade --cask pwrsnap; both paths land the same signed build. -
Is the Windows version the same app?
Same code, same Library format, same editor — with Ctrl+Shift+C standing in for Command+Shift+C. The Windows port is the newest part of PwrSnap: still and video capture, the Library, annotation, the chat agent, and the signed installer are all there. A few pieces are still macOS-only — audio tracks in screen recordings and Finder Quick Look previews, mainly. The docs keep the current gap list.
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Is it really free? Who's behind it?
Free and MIT-licensed, with the full source on GitHub. PwrSnap is built by PwrDrvr LLC — one author who uses it every day — alongside its sibling, PwrAgent. No investors, no upgrade tier, no plan to add one.
Something else? Open a GitHub issue or ask @PwrSnapAI.