Shotty

A lightweight macOS screenshot and annotation tool that lives in the menu bar.

Features

• Three capture modes
  • Full screen
  • Window picker — click any visible window to capture it
  • Area selection — drag a rubber-band rect across any region
• Annotation tools
  • Pen — freehand drawing with configurable colour and stroke size
  • Eraser
  • Text — click anywhere on the canvas to place a text label
  • Emoji stickers — choose from a built-in emoji grid
• Copy to clipboard — button or ⌘C
• Save as PNG — with a timestamped default filename
• Undo — ⌘Z or toolbar button
• Global hotkey — Ctrl+Shift+S triggers area selection from anywhere
• Menu bar agent — no Dock icon, no Dock bounce

Requirements

• macOS 14 Sonoma or later (tested on macOS 26 Tahoe beta)
• Xcode 15+ or Swift 5.10+ command-line tools
• Screen Recording permission (granted on first capture)

Building

git clone https://github.com/squeaky-godzilla/shotty.git
cd shotty
./build.sh
open Shotty.app

build.sh compiles the release binary, copies it into the app bundle along with the icon and Info.plist, and ad-hoc signs the result.

On the first capture attempt, macOS will show a Screen Recording consent sheet. Click Allow. Subsequent captures are silent.

Project structure

Shotty/Sources/
├── App/
│   ├── main.swift                        # Entry point
│   ├── AppDelegate.swift                 # Menu bar, global hotkey
│   └── Resources/
│       ├── Info.plist                    # Bundle metadata
│       └── AppIcon.icns                  # App icon
├── Capture/
│   ├── CaptureMode.swift                 # Enum: fullScreen / window / selection
│   ├── CaptureCoordinator.swift          # Orchestrates capture → editor flow
│   ├── SelectionOverlayController.swift  # Rubber-band area selection overlay
│   └── WindowPickerOverlayController.swift # Click-to-pick window overlay
└── Annotation/
    ├── AnnotationModels.swift            # Data model + undo stack
    ├── AnnotationCanvasView.swift        # Drawing canvas (NSView)
    ├── AnnotationEditorViewController.swift # Toolbar + scroll view
    └── UI/
        └── EmojiPickerViewController.swift  # Emoji grid popover

Architecture notes

• Pure AppKit — no SwiftUI
• Swift Package Manager — no Xcode project file required to build
• Capture uses ScreenCaptureKit (SCScreenshotManager) — the only API that correctly composites all windows on macOS 15+
• LSUIElement = true — runs as a menu bar agent with no Dock presence
• Global hotkey registered via Carbon RegisterEventHotKey
• The app bundle must be ad-hoc signed (or Developer ID signed) for the TCC Screen Recording grant to persist across launches

License

MIT