Cloche

An open-source desktop screenshot CLI that turns any window into a polished, share-ready card, prints stable JSON, and works the same from your shell, a hotkey, or an AI agent.

Website: cloche.escoffierlabs.dev

Cloche shot of Linux Settings, framed as a polished presentation card

Cloche shot of Linux Calculator, framed as a polished presentation card

Cloche is an open-source desktop capture CLI for people and AI agents. It captures the active app or window, frames the result as a polished presentation card, writes raw images plus metadata, and prints stable JSON so scripts, local tools, and coding agents can all drive the same command. The screenshots above are real Cloche output, not mockups: a raw capture dropped onto a gradient backdrop with a rounded window and a soft shadow.

What makes it different is that the capture, the polish, and the machine-readable output are one tool. Most screenshot apps are GUI-only and stop at a PNG; Cloche works headless from a shell, binds to a single hotkey, or runs as an MCP server, and every path emits the same JSON contract. The name comes from the glass dome used to present a dish cleanly: Cloche lifts what is on your screen, frames it, and makes it ready to share.

The first production mode is Shots: polished screenshots with raw files, metadata, optional text extraction, and gallery helpers. The roadmap adds Reels for short screen recordings, then GIF export for lightweight loops.

This repo started as appshots. The appshots binary remains as a compatibility alias while cloche becomes the primary command.

What it does

Cloche is a command-line screenshot and screen-capture tool that produces share-ready presentation cards and stable JSON on Linux and Windows. It does the whole capture pipeline in one binary: grab the pixels, polish them onto a gradient backdrop, write the metadata, and hand a clean JSON result to whatever called it.

Captures the active window, a selected window, the full screen, or an interactively selected region.
Writes shot.png, metadata.json, optional text.txt, and a polished shot-card.png.
Styles any existing image into the same presentation card with cloche polish.
Emits stable JSON on stdout for agents and automation.
Extracts best-effort visible or accessible app text when the OS exposes it.
Provides gallery, latest, and preview helpers for capture history.
Runs directly as a CLI, or as a small stdio MCP server through cloche mcp.
Keeps appshots as a compatibility command during the rename.

Install

Cloche needs Rust 1.88 or newer. Distro packages can lag (Ubuntu 24.04's
apt install cargo ships 1.75, which is too old); if cargo install cloche
fails with an MSRV error, install a current toolchain with
rustup first.

Install the latest release from crates.io:

cargo install cloche

Build and install from a local checkout:

cargo install --path . --bins

Or use the install script:

bash scripts/install.sh

On Windows:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/install.ps1

Quick Start

Capture the active app or window as a Shot:

cloche capture --target active --out-dir /tmp/cloche-shot-$(date +%s) --format json

Style an existing screenshot into a presentation card without recapturing:

cloche polish /tmp/diff.png --palette violet-haze --format json

Render an existing short recording through the experimental Remotion reel engine:

cd remotion && npm install && cd ..
cloche reels render \
  --input raw.mp4 \
  --out demo.mp4 \
  --cues cues.json \
  --title "Create a project"

The cue file follows the AppReels timeline shape:

{
  "titleCard": { "text": "Create a project", "ms": 900 },
  "captions": [{ "startMs": 1000, "endMs": 2600, "text": "Open the project menu" }],
  "zooms": [{ "startMs": 1200, "endMs": 2400, "scale": 1.08 }],
  "outroCard": { "text": "Done", "ms": 700 }
}

Preview the latest capture:

cloche preview

Create a self-contained HTML gallery of recent Shots:

cloche gallery --root /tmp --html /tmp/cloche.html --title "My Shots" --open

Generate a Codex turn/start payload from a Shot:

cloche codex-payload --thread-id "$THREAD_ID" /tmp/cloche-shot-123

Command Reference

cloche doctor --format json
cloche list-windows --format json
cloche capture --target active --presentation both --out-dir /tmp/cloche-shot --format json
cloche capture --target active --style-seed 12345 --out-dir /tmp/cloche-shot --format json
cloche capture --target screen --out-dir /tmp/cloche-shot --format json
cloche capture --target window --title Firefox --out-dir /tmp/cloche-shot --format json
cloche capture --target region --presentation both --clipboard --out-dir /tmp/cloche-shot --format json
cloche polish /tmp/diff.png --format json
cloche polish /tmp/diff.png --out /tmp/diff-card.png --palette ember-glow --style-seed 12345
cloche gallery --limit 10
cloche gallery --root /tmp --html /tmp/cloche.html --title "My Shots" --open
cloche latest
cloche preview
cloche open /tmp/cloche-shot
cloche schema
cloche schema --for polish
cloche codex-payload --thread-id THREAD_ID /tmp/cloche-shot
cloche mcp
cloche setup
cloche setup --print
cloche setup hotkey
cloche setup agent --client claude-code
cloche setup verify --format json

The old appshots command remains as an alias for the same code path.

Modes

Shots are available now. A Shot is a still capture with raw and presentation images, metadata, and optional extracted text.

Reels are planned next. A Reel will be a short desktop recording with the same Cloche presentation system, cursor emphasis, captions, and stable metadata. The existing Appreels prototype is the starting point for this mode.

GIF export is planned after Reels. GIFs will be generated from finished Reels as a delivery format, not recorded as the primary source format.

Why Cloche Exists

OpenAI documents Appshots as a macOS app feature for Codex. The Codex repository can already resume threads that contain local images through app-server v2 turn/start input:

{ "type": "localImage", "path": "/absolute/path/to/shot.png", "detail": "high" }

Linux and Windows users still need a reliable way to create those captures from a normal CLI. Cloche fills that capture side while staying independent of any one agent stack. Use it with Codex, OpenClaw, Claude Code, Hermes, a local MCP client, or a plain shell script.

Reference: https://developers.openai.com/codex/appshots

Output Files

Each successful Shot directory contains:

shot.png, the raw captured image.
shot-card.png, a presentation image: the screenshot with rounded corners and a soft shadow on a full-bleed gradient backdrop, fully opaque so it survives JPEG and pasting anywhere.
metadata.json, the same JSON object printed to stdout.
text.txt, optional best-effort accessible text from the focused app.

Capture exits with 0 only when a raw image was written. Text extraction and presentation-image failures are warnings because accessibility support and desktop compositing vary by toolkit, app, desktop environment, and OS. --target screen exists as a fallback and debugging mode. --target active is the default.

Use --presentation raw, --presentation card, or --presentation both to control output image generation. Use --style-seed <number> to reproduce a randomized card style exactly.

--target region opens an interactive selector (Flameshot when available, ImageMagick import drag-select on X11): drag a rectangle and the shot is taken the moment you release. Add --clipboard to copy the finished card straight to the clipboard (wl-copy on Wayland, xclip on X11). Region capture needs a human at the desk; it is not for headless agents. Not yet supported on Windows: use Win+Shift+S, save the file, then cloche polish <file>.

Hotkey Workflow

Bind one key to get a share-ready card on your clipboard: press it, drag a
region, paste the polished card anywhere. The capture, polish, and clipboard
copy all happen in cloche; only the key binding is set up per desktop.

The fastest path is one command:

cloche setup

It installs cloche-grab, binds it to Print on GNOME (and prints the exact
steps on KDE/sway/i3), registers the MCP server with any agent it detects, then
verifies that capture, the hotkey, and the MCP server actually work. Run
cloche setup --print to preview every change first, or cloche setup verify
any time to re-check. The manual steps below are what cloche setup automates,
and the fallback for unsupported desktops.

The repo ships scripts/cloche-grab.sh, which wraps the capture and adds a
desktop notification. Install it and bind it:

# 1. Put the script on your PATH (or point the binding at it in place).
install -Dm755 scripts/cloche-grab.sh ~/.local/bin/cloche-grab

# 2. Confirm it works (it opens the region selector):
cloche-grab

Then bind cloche-grab to a key:

GNOME: Settings -> Keyboard -> View and Customize Shortcuts -> Custom
Shortcuts -> +. Name it "Cloche Grab", command cloche-grab, and set the
shortcut (e.g. Print). To move the native screenshot UI off Print first:
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.keybindings show-screenshot-ui "['<Shift>Print']".
KDE: System Settings -> Shortcuts -> Custom Shortcuts -> Edit -> New ->
Global Shortcut -> Command/URL, command cloche-grab, then assign a key.
Anything else (sway, i3, ...): bind a key to cloche-grab in your WM
config.

Prefer no script? Bind this one-liner directly instead:

cloche capture --target region --presentation both --clipboard --out-dir ~/Pictures/ClocheShots/$(date +%s)

cloche polish writes a single card PNG instead of a Shot directory:
<input>-card.png next to the input by default, or the --out <path> you
pass (it must end in .png). Its stdout JSON reports input, card, and
presentationStyle.

Agent Use

Any shell-capable agent can call:

cloche capture --target active --out-dir /tmp/cloche-shot-$(date +%s) --format json

Then parse image.path from stdout or read the generated metadata.json.

Codex app-server clients can turn a capture into a ready turn/start payload:

cloche codex-payload --thread-id "$THREAD_ID" /tmp/cloche-shot-123

Other agents should treat Cloche as a normal subprocess tool. The core command has no MCP dependency, desktop-app dependency, or agent-specific runtime dependency.

MCP Server

cloche mcp runs a minimal stdio MCP server for clients that prefer the Model Context Protocol over direct subprocess calls. It speaks newline-delimited JSON-RPC 2.0 on stdin/stdout and exposes capture, polish, list_windows, doctor, latest, and gallery as tools. Each tool call shells out to the same binary, so the JSON contract is identical to the CLI.

cloche setup agent registers this server with Claude Code, OpenClaw, and Codex CLI automatically (backing up any config it edits, and skipping clients already configured). The manual config below is for other clients or if you prefer to wire it yourself.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cloche": { "command": "cloche", "args": ["mcp"] }
  }
}

Compatibility config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "appshots": { "command": "appshots", "args": ["mcp"] }
  }
}

Linux Backend Notes

X11 active/window capture uses xdotool/wmctrl for window metadata and ImageMagick import for PNG capture.
Wayland wlroots screen capture uses grim.
GNOME/KDE Wayland may block silent active-window capture by design. Use --target screen or run cloche doctor --format json for diagnostics.
Text extraction is best-effort through AT-SPI using Python GI when available.

If you are invoking Cloche from SSH, a TTY, or an agent process that did not inherit the desktop environment, Cloche will try to discover the live desktop variables from desktop processes. On GNOME X11 they usually look like:

export DISPLAY=:1
export XAUTHORITY=/run/user/$(id -u)/gdm/Xauthority
export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/$(id -u)/bus
export XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11

You can discover the active values from a desktop process:

tr '\0' '\n' </proc/$(pgrep -u "$(id -u)" -n gnome-shell)/environ | grep -E '^(DISPLAY|XAUTHORITY|DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS|XDG_SESSION_TYPE)='

Windows Backend Notes

Active/window capture uses Win32 foreground-window and top-level-window metadata, then captures the target window with PrintWindow so covered windows are not polluted by whatever is on top. It falls back to .NET CopyFromScreen if PrintWindow is unavailable for that window.
Screen capture uses the Windows virtual screen.
Text extraction is best-effort through UI Automation.
Capture must run in a logged-in interactive desktop session. Plain OpenSSH sessions can build and run doctor, but Windows blocks screen capture from the non-interactive SSH service session.

Gallery HTML Export

cloche gallery --html <path> writes a single self-contained HTML file with each capture's image embedded inline, so the result can be shared without any companion files. Combine with --root, --limit, --title, and --open. The JSON output gains an htmlPath field pointing at the written file.

Release Packaging

Build a local release archive:

bash scripts/package-release.sh