Important

Fast, lightweight screenshot capture and annotation tool built with Rust. Region selection, window capture, delay timer, 14 annotation tools, clipboard and file export, pin-to-screen, Imgur upload, OCR text extraction, and recent captures history. Catppuccin Mocha themed with customizable shortcuts and toolbar.

No Electron, no browser engine — just winit for windowing and tiny-skia for 2D drawing. Felt fitting for a tool that should appear, capture, and disappear without bringing a browser along.

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§1 / Premise

HydroShot is a native screenshot tool in pure Rust. Region capture by drag, window capture by click, timed capture with 3/5/10-second countdown, multi-monitor coverage with a fullscreen overlay that dims inactive areas. Captured shots flow into an annotation surface with 14 tools backed by command-pattern undo/redo. Pin captures as always-on-top reference windows; copy to clipboard, save to file, upload anonymously to Imgur, or extract text via the Windows OCR API.

Configuration lives in TOML. Tray-resident with a global hotkey (Ctrl+Shift+S by default).

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§2 / Specs

KEY	VALUE
BINARY	Pure Rust · winit (windowing) · tiny-skia (2D) · resvg (icons)
CAPTURE	Region · window · delay (3/5/10 s) · multi-monitor
BACKENDS	Windows · X11 · Wayland (window capture: X11 only)
TOOLS	14 annotation tools · select · arrow · rect · circle · rounded rect · line · pencil · highlight · spotlight · text · pixelate · step markers · eyedropper · measurement
EXPORT	Clipboard · file · pin-to-screen · anonymous Imgur upload · OCR (Windows)
THEME	Catppuccin Mocha · 5 palette presets · native color picker · Lucide icons
CONFIG	TOML · %APPDATA%\hydroshot\config.toml · ~/.config/hydroshot/config.toml
HOTKEY	Global · Ctrl+Shift+S default · customizable
STACK	Rust 1.80+ · Cargo · MIT licensed

Architecture in §5 below.

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§3 / Quickstart

Pre-built binaries

Download the latest release from the Releases page:

Platform	Format
Windows	.exe portable · .msi installer
Linux	hydroshot-linux binary

Build from source

Prerequisites: Rust 1.80+.

git clone https://github.com/Real-Fruit-Snacks/HydroShot.git
cd HydroShot
cargo build --release
# → target/release/hydroshot(.exe)

cargo test                    # run tests
cargo clippy                  # lint
cargo fmt --check             # format check

CLI usage:

hydroshot capture --clipboard           # capture and copy
hydroshot capture --save output.png     # capture and save
hydroshot capture --delay 3             # 3-second countdown
hydroshot capture --delay 5 --clipboard

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§4 / Reference

ANNOTATION TOOLS

  V   Select / Move        A   Arrow              R   Rectangle
  C   Circle               O   Rounded Rect       L   Line
  P   Pencil               H   Highlight          F   Spotlight
  T   Text                 B   Pixelate           N   Step Markers
  I   Eyedropper           M   Measurement

KEYBOARD

  Ctrl+Shift+S            Start capture (global hotkey)
  Enter                   Crop selection
  Ctrl+C                  Copy to clipboard
  Ctrl+S                  Save to file
  Ctrl+Z                  Undo annotation
  Ctrl+Shift+Z            Redo annotation
  Escape                  Cancel capture
  Scroll wheel            Adjust tool size

CONFIG (TOML)

  [general]
  default_color = "blue"
  default_thickness = 3.0
  save_directory = ""

  [hotkey]
  capture = "Ctrl+Shift+S"

  [shortcuts]
  arrow = "a"     rectangle = "r"     circle = "c"
  text  = "t"     pixelate  = "b"

EXPORT PATHS

  Ctrl+C     Copy to clipboard
  Ctrl+S     Save to file
  Pin        Always-on-top floating window
  Upload     Anonymous Imgur upload
  OCR        Extract text (Windows OCR API)
  History    Recent captures with thumbnails

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§5 / Architecture

src/
  main.rs             Entry point · event loop
  cli.rs              CLI argument parsing (clap)
  tray.rs             System tray integration
  hotkey.rs           Global hotkey registration
  config.rs           TOML configuration
  renderer.rs         Core rendering pipeline
  export.rs           Clipboard and file export
  upload.rs           Imgur anonymous upload
  ocr.rs              OCR text extraction (Windows)
  capture/
    windows.rs        Windows capture
    x11.rs            X11 capture
    wayland.rs        Wayland capture
  overlay/            Overlay window and selection
  tools/              14 annotation tool implementations

Layer	Implementation
Window	winit · cross-platform native windowing
Render	tiny-skia · 2D vector + bitmap rendering
Icons	Lucide SVG rendered with resvg
Capture	Per-platform backend (Windows / X11 / Wayland)
Overlay	Fullscreen dimming overlay · click-and-drag selection
Tools	Command-pattern undo/redo · scroll-wheel sizing
Tray	Native system tray · auto-start on login (Registry / XDG)

Key patterns: No browser engine, no Electron, no JavaScript runtime. The annotation surface is a tiny-skia canvas; every tool emits commands that the undo/redo stack composes. Capture backends are split per-platform so the rest of the codebase stays platform-agnostic.

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§6 / Platform support

Capability	Windows	Linux
Region Capture	Full	Full (X11 + Wayland)
Window Capture	Full	X11 only
Delay Capture	Full	Full
Multi-Monitor	Full	Full
14 Annotation Tools	Full	Full
Clipboard Copy	Full	Full
System Tray	Full	Full
Global Hotkey	Full	Full
OCR	Windows OCR API	Not supported
Imgur Upload	Full	Full
Auto-Start	Registry	XDG autostart

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License: MIT · Part of Real-Fruit-Snacks — building offensive security tools, one wave at a time.