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. When upstream Niri rejects the custom WindowGeometries request, Latchshot reconstructs visible window positions from standard Niri IPC layout metadata and the frozen output pixels. If an output cannot be resolved unambiguously, window snapping is disabled for that output rather than guessing.

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.