Appsnap

Snap any app into your cursor.

Appsnap is a native local macOS menu-bar app with a configurable global hotkey. The default is Option-Command-S. A thin Raycast command remains available as an optional one-shot launcher.

• If the current window has a verified text cursor, Appsnap captures the normal window directly behind it and pastes the image at the current cursor.
• Otherwise, Appsnap captures the current window, activates only the directly-behind window, and pastes only when that exact window and a text cursor are verified.
• If verification fails, Appsnap restores the original window and leaves the screenshot on the clipboard.
• It never searches a second or third background candidate.

There is no window picker, app-name configuration, Apple Developer account, Developer ID signing, notarization, installer package, or synthetic app-specific behavior.

How it is installed

The repository contains:

• a native Swift helper at Sources/Appsnap/Appsnap.swift;
• a standard Raycast no-view command that launches the locally installed Appsnap.app helper with --run-once;
• scripts/install-helper.sh, which builds the helper locally, installs it under ~/Applications, and bootstraps a LaunchAgent for login startup.

Install or update the helper:

./scripts/install-helper.sh

The installer replaces ~/Applications/Appsnap.app, writes ~/Library/LaunchAgents/dev.fulldotdev.appsnap.plist, bootstraps it with RunAtLoad, and restarts the menu-bar app. Re-running it is the normal update path.

The binary is built on this Mac with Swift Package Manager. Because it is built locally and never distributed as a downloaded executable, no Apple account, certificate, Developer ID signing, or notarization is required. Swift may add a local ad-hoc linker signature; that does not use or contact an Apple account.

Standalone hotkey

After installation, Appsnap stays running as a menu-bar app and registers Option-Command-S globally by default. Press that hotkey from the app where your cursor already is. Appsnap does not bring itself frontmost and does not require notifications.

The menu-bar item includes:

• Run Appsnap;
• Global Shortcut, showing the current shortcut and opening a native recorder;
• links to Accessibility and Screen Recording settings;
• Quit Appsnap.

To change the shortcut, open Global Shortcut from the Appsnap menu and press a standard macOS shortcut with at least one modifier plus one non-modifier key. Appsnap stores the keycode and Carbon modifiers in UserDefaults, then unregisters and re-registers the Carbon hotkey immediately. If macOS rejects the new shortcut, Appsnap keeps the previous shortcut active and shows an alert.

In the recorder, Escape cancels and Delete restores the default Option-Command-S shortcut.

Optional Raycast shortcut

Run pnpm dev, find Appsnap in Raycast, and assign it a direct global hotkey only if you prefer Raycast compatibility. The Raycast command is intentionally thin: it launches the native helper with --run-once and shows its result.

Permissions

Grant the locally built Appsnap helper:

• Accessibility, for exact focus/window verification and Command-V;
• Screen & System Audio Recording, for window capture.

The first run requests these permissions through macOS System Settings. No System Events Automation permission is needed.

Development

pnpm install
./scripts/install-helper.sh
pnpm dev

Verification

swift build -c release
~/.local/bin/appsnap --run-once --dry-run --verbose
/usr/bin/plutil -lint Resources/Info.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/dev.fulldotdev.appsnap.plist
bash -n scripts/install-helper.sh
pnpm lint
pnpm build
git diff --check

CLI options

--dry-run
--run-once
--copy-only
--activation-delay SECONDS
--paste-delay SECONDS
--verbose

The helper uses CoreGraphics for front-to-back window order and direct window capture, and the native Accessibility API for cursor inspection and exact-window raising. Paste is dispatched only after the destination window and text cursor have both been verified.