Everything you need to know about PluckShot.

Getting Started

PluckShot is a menu-bar app for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It lives quietly in the background until you press a hotkey, drag a region, and get clean, useful text from whatever you captured.

Install

Download the latest build from pluckshot.io. The homepage auto-detects your operating system and offers the right installer (.dmg for macOS, .exe for Windows, .AppImage / .deb for Linux).

First launch

1. Open PluckShot. On macOS, the app appears as a blue "P" icon in your menu bar. On Windows and Linux, it lives in the system tray.
2. Left-click the tray icon to open the Quick Access Tray Popover, or right-click for the full native menu.
3. Click Open PluckShot to launch the main window and step through the onboarding wizard.

Screen Recording permission (macOS)

macOS requires Screen Recording permission for any app that captures a region of the screen — even a small one. The first time PluckShot tries to capture, macOS will prompt you to grant permission.

Windows and Linux setup

PluckShot ships with a custom capture overlay on Windows, so no extra permissions are required. On Linux, you'll need one of the following screen capture utilities installed:

• X11: maim (install via your distro's package manager)
• Wayland: grim and slurp

Choosing an AI Provider

PluckShot is a thin shell around whichever AI model you want to use. That means you get to pick: have PluckShot handle everything for you (Managed), bring your own API key (BYO), or use an existing AI subscription you already pay for.

Option 1: PluckShot AI (Managed)

The zero-config option. With a Pro Managed subscription, PluckShot handles all the AI infrastructure for you. No API keys, no signups at other services, no surprise bills. You just pay one flat monthly fee and everything works.

Behind the scenes, Managed routes your captures through a proxy that automatically failovers between high-quality models to deliver the best result for each mode.

Option 2: Bring Your Own API Key (BYO)

If you already have an account with one of the major AI providers, you can plug your API key directly into PluckShot and pay for usage on your own bill. Supported providers:

• Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.6, Haiku 4.5, Opus 4.6
• OpenAI — GPT models with vision support
• Google Gemini
• Groq — fast inference for Llama and other open models
• OpenRouter — unified access to dozens of models

Option 3: Use your existing subscription

If you already pay for Claude or ChatGPT Pro, you can use your existing subscription without a separate API key via the CLI integrations:

• Claude Code CLI — uses your Claude Pro/Team subscription
• ChatGPT Codex CLI — uses your ChatGPT Pro subscription

Both require the corresponding CLI to be installed and logged in on your machine.

Configuring a provider

Open the main PluckShot window and go to Providers. Pick the provider you want, paste your API key (if needed), and click Save. Use the Set Active button to make it the provider used for captures. You can switch providers at any time.

Your First Capture

With a provider configured, you're ready to capture. The default flow takes under two seconds.

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+X (the default extract hotkey) — or use any Quick Access surface.
2. The screen dims and a crosshair appears.
3. Click and drag to select the region you want to capture.
4. Release. The capture popup opens immediately with a preview and loading state.
5. The AI runs against your captured image and the extracted text appears in the popup within a few seconds.
6. The result is automatically copied to your clipboard (if auto-copy is on) and saved to your capture history.

The capture popup

The popup is a persistent, always-on-top window that replaces the traditional "toast notification" approach. It stays open until you dismiss it, so you can read, re-process, or take action without losing the result.

• Copy — re-copies the result to your clipboard
• Re-process — re-run the capture through a different mode or with added context
• Favorite — star the capture to save it to your Favorites list
• Smart Action chips — one-tap actions for entities the AI detected (addresses, phone numbers, calendar events, etc.)

Capture Modes

PluckShot offers seven capture modes, each with a different system prompt and behavior. You can assign a hotkey to any mode, pick one from the Quick Access surfaces, or switch modes after a capture via the Re-process panel.

Extract

The default mode. Pulls clean, accurate text from anything on your screen — handwritten notes, code, PDFs, images with text, business cards. Preserves line breaks, bullet points, and basic formatting where it matters.

Explain

Ask the AI to explain what's on your screen. Great for decoding complex formulas, interpreting charts, walking through code snippets, or understanding a confusing UI. The response is in plain language aimed at helping you understand, not just describe.

Troubleshoot (Debug)

Capture an error message, stack trace, or broken UI and get diagnostic suggestions. The AI identifies the likely cause and proposes fixes. Optimized for error messages, logs, and screenshots of things that aren't working.

Summarize

Condenses long-form content into its key points. Use it on articles, meeting transcripts, email threads, or research papers. The output is a structured summary — not a flat paraphrase.

Guided

Lets you type a custom instruction before the AI processes the capture. Use it for one-off tasks that don't fit the other modes: "Rewrite this as a bullet list", "Translate this to Spanish", "Find the action items in this email thread".

Screenshot (no AI)

Capture a region and save it as a PNG — no AI, no processing. Useful when you just want a clean screenshot for a bug report, a document, or a chat message. Screenshots are saved to a configurable folder and can be drag-and-dropped directly to other apps from the preview.

Screenshots can be annotated with the built-in Annotation Editor before saving.

Scroll Capture

Captures content that extends beyond the visible screen — long pages, code files, chat threads. PluckShot auto-scrolls through the content and stitches the frames together into one tall image. A Pro-tier feature.

Quick Access

Not everyone wants to memorize hotkeys. For mouse-first workflows, PluckShot ships four Quick Access surfaces — visual, clickable alternatives to the keyboard. Each is optional, and only one floating surface is visible at a time.

Tray Popover

Left-click the menu bar icon (or the system tray icon on Windows/Linux) to open a visual popover. It contains a 7-tile mode grid, toggles for the floating surfaces, quick links to Keyboard Shortcuts and Provider Settings, and version info. Right-click the tray icon to see the full native context menu.

Floating Toolbar (horizontal)

An always-on-top draggable pill with seven mode buttons. Drag it anywhere on your screen. Click any mode to capture in that mode. Click the PluckShot logo on the leading edge to fire a one-click capture in your armed (last-used) mode. Collapses into a tiny pill when you need the screen back.

Sidebar Toolbar (vertical)

Same toolbar, rotated 90 degrees for sidebar-style placement. Ideal for wide monitors and horizontal workflows. This is the default Quick Access surface on fresh installs, so new users have a working capture surface without needing to learn the hotkey first.

Floating Bubble

The smallest possible footprint — just a 52-pixel blue circle with the PluckShot logo. Single-click to capture in your armed mode. Double-click or right-click to expand into a full vertical mode panel with names and descriptions for each mode.

Switching between surfaces

Only one floating surface is visible at a time. Toggle one on in the Tray Popover (or the native right-click menu), and it automatically hides the others. All three share a single "armed mode" — the last mode you used in any surface follows you to the next one.

Sessions

A single capture is useful. A session turns a sequence of captures into something more — structured notes, tutorials, research, recipes. Think of a session as a focused window of time where every capture you make gets grouped together automatically.

Starting a session

Right-click the tray icon and select Start Session…. Give it a name (e.g., "Python tutorial", "Weekly meal prep", "Compliance research"). From that moment on, every capture you make is tagged with that session until you end it.

During a session

Capture normally. Your captures appear in the session list in real time. You can also add manual notes or annotations between captures — useful for jotting observations you don't need an AI to process.

Ending a session

Right-click the tray icon and select End Session. PluckShot finalizes the session, optionally generates an AI summary, and surfaces export options.

Viewing past sessions

Open the main window and click Sessions in the sidebar. You'll see a list of all past sessions with timestamps, capture counts, and export status. Click any session to see its full timeline of captures and notes.

Smart Actions

While the AI extracts text, it also detects structured entities — things like phone numbers, addresses, dates, URLs, errors, tracking numbers, and calendar events. PluckShot surfaces these as one-tap action chips on the capture popup.

What gets detected

• Phone number → Call or Copy
• Email address → Copy, compose in default mail client
• URL → Open in browser
• Physical address → Open in Maps
• Calendar event → Add to Google Calendar
• Tracking number → Track package (FedEx, UPS, USPS, DHL)
• Error message → Search Stack Overflow
• Code snippet → Copy code (plain, no markdown)

Google Calendar integration

When PluckShot detects a calendar event (meeting, deadline, appointment), the Add to Calendar action creates an event in your Google Calendar via OAuth 2.0. The first time you use it, PluckShot will open your browser for a one-time authorization. Your token is stored encrypted on your machine — PluckShot never sees your Google credentials directly.

Annotation Editor

Any screenshot you capture with Screenshot Mode can be annotated before saving. Click the pencil icon on the floating screenshot preview to open the editor.

Tools

• Select — Click and drag to select existing shapes. Delete key removes the selected item.
• Rectangle — Draw rectangles around areas of interest
• Arrow — Point at things
• Ellipse — Circle things
• Text — Add text labels
• Line — Draw straight lines
• Highlight — Translucent highlighter for emphasis
• Numbered markers — Auto-numbered circles for step-by-step callouts
• Blur / Pixelate — Redact sensitive information
• Pencil — Freehand drawing

Controls

Every tool has a color picker and a stroke-width slider in the top toolbar. Use undo/redo (Cmd+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z) freely — all actions are reversible. Zoom controls let you work at pixel-perfect precision.

Settings & Hotkeys

Open the main PluckShot window and click Settings in the sidebar to customize PluckShot.

Per-mode hotkeys

By default, only the Extract mode has a global hotkey (Ctrl+Shift+X). You can assign any global shortcut to any capture mode, plus a separate "Toggle Window" shortcut that opens and closes the main PluckShot window. Click the record button next to any mode and press your desired key combination.

Theme

PluckShot ships three themes:

• Dark — Default dark UI with blue accent
• Light — Clean light UI with the same blue accent
• System — follows your operating system setting

Auto-copy to clipboard

When enabled, the result of every capture is automatically copied to your clipboard. This is on by default. Toggle it off in Settings or via the Tray Popover if you'd rather copy manually.

Notes vault path

If you use Obsidian, Logseq, or Bear, configure the Notes Vault Path in Settings to let PluckShot export captures as markdown files directly into your notes app's vault folder.

Screenshot save folder

If you use Screenshot mode, configure the default save folder for captured PNGs. Defaults to your operating system's Pictures directory.

Exports

PluckShot can export individual captures and full sessions to four formats:

• PDF — Rendered via Chromium's print-to-PDF. Best for sharing complete session notes with formatting, screenshots, and metadata.
• Word (.docx) — Native DOCX output with headings, lists, and inline images. Open in Word, Google Docs, Pages, or LibreOffice.
• HTML — Styled HTML file you can open in any browser, host on a website, or paste into a blog.
• Notes App vault — Markdown files with YAML frontmatter + copied screenshot PNGs. Drops directly into your Obsidian / Logseq / Bear vault for note-taking workflows.

To export, open a capture or session detail view and click the Export button in the toolbar. Pick your format and destination, and PluckShot writes the file(s) for you.

Troubleshooting

"Screen Recording permission required" on macOS

Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording, enable PluckShot, and restart the app. If PluckShot isn't in the list, capture once — macOS will add it after the first attempt.

"No provider configured"

You need at least one AI provider set up before you can capture. Open the main window, go to Providers, pick one, and add your API key (or start a Managed trial for zero-config).

Hotkey doesn't work

Most often a conflict with another app that's already bound to the same shortcut. Open Settings → Shortcuts and try a different combination. macOS shortcuts like Cmd+Shift+3/4/5 are reserved for the system and cannot be used.

Capture succeeds but result is wrong

AI models aren't perfect — especially with handwriting, small text, or dense technical content. Try these:

• Use Re-process from the capture popup to run the image through a different mode or with added context
• Switch to a higher-capability model (in BYO, try Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT-5 with vision)
• Re-capture with a tighter selection around just the relevant content

Reporting a bug

Email support@appdesigngeeks.com with a description of the problem and what you expected to happen.

Keyboard Shortcuts

PluckShot supports global hotkeys (work anywhere in the operating system) and in-app shortcuts (work when the main window is focused).

Default global shortcuts

All unassigned shortcuts can be set in Settings → Shortcuts.

In-app shortcuts