Latchshot

A lightweight yet intelligent window-aware screenshot tool for Wayland. Latchshot freezes the current desktop, snaps to the window under the pointer, and falls back to a freely drawn region when you drag.

Requirements

Latchshot targets compositors that expose the Wayland protocols needed by its custom overlay. The compositor must support:

• wlr-layer-shell-unstable-v1 (zwlr_layer_shell_v1)
• viewporter (wp_viewporter)
• At least one supported capture path:
  • ext-image-copy-capture-v1 together with an output source from ext-image-capture-source-v1
  • wlr-screencopy-unstable-v1, together with xdg-output-unstable-v1

Compositor support

The generic backend is selected automatically for unknown compositors. Upstream Niri also switches to it when the compositor rejects the custom WindowGeometries request as unknown. Capture and free-form region selection continue to work, while window snapping is disabled.

KDE Plasma and GNOME remain intentionally out of scope because Latchshot targets this protocol stack rather than portal- or desktop-shell-specific screenshot flows.

Copying to clipboard (the default destiniation) also requires wl-copy from wl-clipboard.

Installation

From source

With Cargo:

cargo install latchshot

Nix

Run directly:

nix run github:so1ve/latchshot

With a Nix flake, add Latchshot to the inputs:

inputs.latchshot.url = "github:so1ve/latchshot";

Then add the package to a NixOS configuration:

{ inputs, pkgs, ... }:

{
  environment.systemPackages = [
    inputs.latchshot.packages.${pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system}.default
  ];
}

Alternatively, use the overlay to make pkgs.latchshot available:

{ inputs, pkgs, ... }:

{
  nixpkgs.overlays = [
    inputs.latchshot.overlays.default
  ];

  environment.systemPackages = [
    pkgs.latchshot
  ];
}

Cachix

Use the project cache for prebuilt Nix artifacts when available:

nix.settings = {
  extra-substituters = [ "https://so1ve.cachix.org" ];
  extra-trusted-public-keys = [
    "so1ve.cachix.org-1:51jcW4FkJhiLcqPsiUx3nglRP469les8F9zjFxio1nw="
  ];
};

Usage

Run Latchshot with no destination to copy the selected screenshot to the clipboard:

latchshot

During selection:

• Move the pointer to highlight the window underneath it.
• Left-click a highlighted window to capture it.
• Left-drag to select an arbitrary region.
• Press F to capture the output under the pointer.
• Press Esc or right-click to cancel.

Save directly to a file:

latchshot --output ~/Pictures/screenshot.png

Write PNG data to standard output:

latchshot --stdout > screenshot.png

To disable animation:

latchshot --no-animation

Print the discovered scene as JSON for diagnostics:

latchshot --windows

Run latchshot --help for all options. Set RUST_LOG=latchshot=debug for additional diagnostics.

Library Usage

Latchshot can also be used as a Rust library. See the API documentation on docs.rs for details.

License

MIT. Made with ♥️ by Ray.