Interface preview of the Knivchit capture overlay: a rounded selection over a dimmed, simulated desktop with an arrow, a rectangle and a mosaic area, and the annotation toolbar below. — Interface preview (rendered from the real interface over a simulated desktop): the capture overlay.

From screen to clipboard in three steps

The capture happens on a frozen copy of your screen, so nothing moves while you choose.

Diagram

Eight tools, each with its own cursor

Pick them from the toolbar or the keyboard: Alt plus the letter always works, even while you type text; the bare letter works when you aren't typing.

Select
Touch a shape to move or resize it.
Alt+H · H · V
Rectangle
Frame a button, a paragraph or an error.
Alt+R · R
Ellipse
Circle what you want to point out.
Alt+O · O
Arrow
Point at an exact spot in the image.
Alt+F · F
Pen
Freehand strokes, to underline or cross out.
Alt+L · L
Text
Type a note straight onto the capture. Editable afterwards, with alignment.
Alt+T · T
Mosaic
Paint over what shouldn't be seen: passwords, names, addresses.
Alt+M · M
Eraser
Remove a drawn shape you don't want to keep.
Alt+B · B

Six annotation colors. Keys are matched by physical position, so they work on any keyboard layout. The letters follow the Spanish tool names for now, because the interface is in Spanish.

Mistakes are cheap

What you draw stays editable until you finish the capture.

Move and resize: With Select you drag any shape and resize it from its corners, or move one end of an arrow. The capture selection itself also moves and resizes with eight handles.
Undo and redo: Ctrl Z undoes the last stroke and Ctrl Shift Z brings it back.
Mosaic as a brush: Mosaic is painted like a thick stroke, not a box, so you cover only what you need to hide.
Native resolution: The crop and the annotations are composed at your screen's real resolution, not the preview's.

When you finish

Copy and closeEnter · Ctrl+C
Save to your folderCtrl+S
Save as…Ctrl+Shift+S
Pin on screenToolbar
CancelEsc

A pinned capture is a borderless window you can drag. Keeping it above other windows needs the GNOME Shell extension to be active.

Why another screenshot tool

On Wayland, GNOME decides what an application may do. Knivchit is built around that instead of fighting it.

Made for modern GNOME: On Wayland a regular app can't register global shortcuts, place its own window or stay above others. A small GNOME Shell extension does exactly that and nothing else; the app does the rest.
Careful design: A rounded selection, matching dark and light themes, and motion that respects your reduced-motion setting. The page you're reading uses the same tokens as the app.
Predictable: It captures once and works on that image, so what ends up in the file is what you saw when you pressed the shortcut.

Shortcuts are yours to choose

Knivchit ships with no global shortcut. You record one in Settings and it warns you if it clashes with a GNOME one. The main window is a narrow column on the right of the screen; the extension places it, because on Wayland an app can't position its own window.

Record any combination: Press the keys you want while recording. The result is applied through the extension, so it works across GNOME.
Dark, light or system: The app follows GNOME's preference or the one you set. This page does the same.
Your save folder: Choose where captures land (the default is a Knivchit folder inside Pictures) and open it from Home. Launching at login is optional and off by default.

Interface preview of the Knivchit main window: a narrow column with the sidebar, the capture card and the global shortcut status. — Interface preview (rendered from the real interface): the main window.

Interface preview of the shortcuts card in Knivchit's settings, with the capture shortcut recorded. — Interface preview (rendered from the real interface): recording a shortcut in Settings.

Your screen stays on your machine

Knivchit has no server, no accounts and no cloud. What you capture goes to the folder you choose or to the clipboard, and nowhere else.

No accounts, no telemetry
There is no sign-up and no usage statistics are sent. This page has no analytics or cookies either.
No network unless you ask
The app's only connection is “Check for updates” in About, and only when you click it. The extension never uses the network.
The extension does the minimum
It registers the shortcut you chose, keeps pinned windows on top and places the main window. It doesn't read the clipboard or what you type.
The keyboard, only while recording a shortcut
While you record a combination the extension grabs the keyboard for a few seconds to read it. Only the final combination is used, and the grab is always released: when done, on Esc, on a click or on timeout.
Clipboard history will be off by default
It doesn't exist yet. When it arrives it will be opt-in, and its contents will never be written to logs.

The app is MIT licensed and the GNOME Shell extension is GPL-3.0-or-later.

From screenshot tool to digital Swiss Army knife

Today Knivchit does one thing: screenshots. The plan is to bring together what currently takes several separate tools. None of the following exists yet, and there are no dates.

Clipboard history
Get back what you copied earlier, search it and paste it again.
Coming soon
Text from the screen (OCR)
Extract the text from any area of the screen instead of retyping it.
Coming soon
Translation
Translate that text without leaving what you're doing.
Coming soon
Emoji panel
A quick picker to insert emoji.
Coming soon
Stickers
Browse and insert stickers from the same panel.
Coming soon

Install

Two pieces: the app (an AppImage) and a GNOME Shell extension.

Early preview, not stable yet. Expect rough edges and breaking changes, and back up anything you care about.

Requirements

GNOME on Wayland (tested on 50).
Xwayland (on by default in Fedora and Ubuntu).
fuse3, or --appimage-extract-and-run.
curl, python3, sha256sum (for the script).

The app's interface is in Spanish for now (English planned).

With the script

Downloads the latest release (a pre-release while no stable one exists), verifies the checksums and installs the app and the extension.

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kevincharp/knivchit/main/install.sh -o install.sh && less install.sh && bash install.sh

Opens the script in less first; press q to continue. --stable requires a stable version; --version v0.1.0-alpha.1 pins one.

It prints “installing PRE-RELEASE …” first. When done, log out and back in once, then assign your shortcut in Settings.

By hand

Download

AppImage, extension zip and SHA256SUMS from the release page.

Check the sums

sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing

Install the extension

gnome-extensions install --force knivchit-extension-*.zip
gnome-extensions enable knivchit@knivchit.dev

Run the app

Run it, log out and back in once, then assign your shortcut in Settings.
```
chmod +x knivchit*.AppImage
```

Frequently asked questions

Is it stable?

No. Knivchit is an early preview (alpha). There are no compatibility guarantees between versions: settings and data may be migrated or reset, and things can break. Back up anything you care about, and report problems through issues. While no stable release exists, the installer picks the latest pre-release (--stable refuses that).

Does it work on KDE, X11 or other desktops?

Knivchit is designed and tested for GNOME on Wayland only. Other desktops and X11 sessions are untested, and nothing is promised there.

Which GNOME versions are supported?

Tested on GNOME 50 on Wayland. The extension declares support for 50 only; widening that means testing each version first.

Why does it need a GNOME Shell extension?

On GNOME with Wayland an app can't register global shortcuts, place its window or keep another one on top. Only GNOME Shell can, and the extension is limited to exactly that.

Is it safe? What can it access?

The app has no server and makes no network requests except “Check for updates”, when you click it. The extension doesn't use the network or read the clipboard, and it grabs the keyboard only while you record a shortcut. The installer verifies SHA-256 sums before installing anything. Both the app and the extension are open source.

Where are captures saved?

In the folder you pick in Settings. The default is a Knivchit folder inside your Pictures directory. Copying to the clipboard doesn't write a file.

How do I uninstall it?

Run bash install.sh --uninstall. It removes the app, the service, launch-at-login and the extension. Your captures stay where they are.

Why is the interface in Spanish?

The project started in Spanish and the app has not been translated yet. An English interface is planned; there is no date.

How do I report a bug or suggest an idea?

Open an issue with the bug or feature template on GitHub. Knivchit is issues-first: the maintainer handles issues, and pull requests are only accepted for an issue that was approved first, or for very small fixes.

What license is it under?

The app is MIT; the GNOME Shell extension is GPL-3.0-or-later; the site and docs are MIT.

Where is the code?

The code is in the public repository.

Will there be clipboard history, OCR or emoji?

That's the intention, which is why they appear under “Coming soon”. Today they don't exist and there's no date.

Contributing

Knivchit is issues-first and has a single maintainer with limited time.

Open an issue: The normal way to help is to open an issue with the bug or feature template. The maintainer fixes it.
Pull requests, by invitation: A PR is accepted only against an issue the maintainer has approved, or for a very small, self-contained fix such as a typo. Larger PRs without an approved issue are closed unreviewed, and there's no promise of a fast review.
Security problems: Report vulnerabilities privately through GitHub's private vulnerability reporting, never in a public issue.

Open an issue Contributing guide Security policy

Screenshots with annotations, built for GNOME on Wayland

Select

Rectangle

Ellipse

Arrow

Pen

Text

Mosaic

Eraser

When you finish

No accounts, no telemetry

No network unless you ask

The extension does the minimum

The keyboard, only while recording a shortcut

Clipboard history will be off by default

Clipboard history

Text from the screen (OCR)

Translation

Emoji panel

Stickers

Requirements

With the script

By hand

Download

Check the sums

Install the extension

Run the app