Installation

This page covers everything you need to get Snipdeck running: the system requirements, downloading for Windows and Linux, what happens on first launch, the GNOME extension, building from source, and launch at login.

System requirements

Neither platform needs a network connection for capture or indexing. There is no macOS build yet.

Windows

Download

1. Open the Releases page.
2. Download snipdeck-windows-x64.exe.
3. Put it anywhere you like: your Downloads folder, a tools directory, or a USB drive. There is no installer and nothing is written to Program Files.

Because it is portable, you run the file directly. To remove it, delete the .exe (and, if you want to remove your data too, the folders under Where your data lives).

First launch

Double-click the .exe to start it. On first run, Snipdeck creates its settings and data folders, picks the UI language from your OS locale, and adds an icon to the system tray (the notification area near the clock).

To capture right away, hold Win and drag a region.

Linux

Download and install

From the Releases page, download the package for your distribution and install it:

sudo apt install ./snipdeck_*_amd64.deb      # Debian, Ubuntu, Mint
sudo dnf install ./snipdeck-*.x86_64.rpm     # Fedora, RHEL, Rocky
sudo zypper install ./snipdeck-*.x86_64.rpm  # openSUSE

On any other distribution, or without root, use the tarball:

tar xzf snipdeck-linux-x64.tar.gz
cd snipdeck-linux-x64
./install.sh

install.sh installs everything into your home directory:

To remove it, run ./install.sh --uninstall from the same folder, or remove the package with your package manager. Your snips in ~/.local/share/Snipdeck are left alone.

Beta: Snipdeck 0.3.0 on Linux is a beta. It was tested on GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce, sway and Hyprland; see the release notes for what was tested where.

First launch

Start Snipdeck from your applications menu. On Wayland, global shortcuts are bound through the desktop portal, which knows Snipdeck by its menu entry. Started from a terminal, Snipdeck registers that name itself, which needs xdg-desktop-portal 1.19 or later.

On first launch your desktop shows a system dialog asking you to approve the shortcuts; approve it once. On Wayland the screen is read through the ScreenCast portal, which you also grant once.

The GNOME Shell extension

Snipdeck comes with a GNOME Shell extension, [email protected]. install.sh installs and enables it in a GNOME session; the packages install it for every user, and Snipdeck enables it at its first start. On Wayland, GNOME Shell cannot reload itself in place, so log out and back in once for the extension to load.

The extension:

• Places snips where they were captured and keeps them above other windows.
• Keeps snips out of Alt+Tab, the overview, and the dock.
• Enables the Super+Alt + drag capture gesture (only while Snipdeck is running). On GNOME, Super + drag already moves windows, so the gesture uses Super+Alt. See Capture shortcuts for the details.

If you turn the extension off, Snipdeck leaves it off.

KDE Plasma

On KDE Plasma, a KWin script does the same job: it keeps snips above other windows, places them where they were captured, puts them on every desktop and keeps them out of the taskbar. Snipdeck enables it at its first start, and it works at once, with no new login.

X11 desktops

On X11 (Xfce, MATE, Cinnamon, GNOME on Xorg) the window manager keeps snips on top and out of the taskbar; nothing extra is needed.

sway, Hyprland and other wlroots compositors

Capture, OCR and the tray work. A snip floats above tiled windows, but opens where the compositor puts it rather than over the captured region.

Global shortcuts are bound in the compositor’s own configuration:

• sway has no global-shortcut portal. Bind a key to snipdeck --action snip; the other actions are snip-to-clipboard, clipboard-only, toggle-visibility and gallery.
• Hyprland lists Snipdeck’s shortcuts in hyprctl globalshortcuts; bind one with, for example, bind = CTRL ALT SHIFT, A, global, com.revisetouch.Snipdeck:snip.

There is no modifier + drag gesture outside GNOME: it needs a global pointer hook, which Linux grants only by reading /dev/input, in effect a system-wide keylogger; Snipdeck will not ask you to enable that.

After first launch: the tray

Snipdeck lives in the tray: closing the main window leaves it running and ready to capture. Right-click the tray icon for the menu:

Snipdeck runs as a single instance: starting it again (on Linux, opening it again from the applications menu) brings the existing window forward instead of starting a second copy.

To continue, see Quick start and Capture shortcuts.

Where your data lives

Snipdeck keeps its settings and snip data in standard per-user folders, created on first run.

For the settings keys you can edit, see Settings.

Build from source

Snipdeck compiles with stable Rust. Requirements: Rust and Git.

git clone https://github.com/ReviseTouch/snipdeck.git
cd snipdeck
cargo build --release

Windows (10 or 11): the binary lands at target\release\snipdeck.exe. It is the same portable executable as on the Releases page; copy it anywhere and run it.

Linux: the build needs the GTK, X11/Wayland, tray, D-Bus, and GL development headers. On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install libgtk-3-dev libxcb1-dev libxcb-render0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev \
  libxcb-xfixes0-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxrandr-dev libxkbcommon-dev \
  libwayland-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev libfontconfig-dev libdbus-1-dev \
  libgl1-mesa-dev libegl1-mesa-dev

PipeWire is not needed at build time; it is loaded at run time for Wayland capture. To install your build the way a release installs (with the menu entry, the icon, and the GNOME extension):

packaging/linux/install-from-source.sh

The script builds, stages the files afresh every time, and runs install.sh. It passes --uninstall on to install.sh.

Launch at login

Snipdeck can start automatically when you sign in. Turn it on from the tray menu or from ⋯ → Launch at Login in the gallery. Started this way, Snipdeck opens no window and waits in the tray; the tray, the hotkeys, or opening the app again bring the window up.

How it works

On both platforms the start is a plain file, and Snipdeck is launched with the --autostart argument:

On Windows, Snipdeck does not write a value under HKCU\…\CurrentVersion\Run. The registry Run key is the autostart vector antivirus and EDR tools most often flag; a normal shortcut in the Startup folder is the visible mechanism that Windows Settings itself manages. Turning the option off simply deletes that file.

The shortcut points at the program’s current location. If you later move the .exe to another folder, turn the option off and on again.

For more on Snipdeck’s privacy-related defaults, see Privacy and security.

Next steps

• Quick start: take your first snip.
• Capture shortcuts: the modifier matrix and the hotkeys for capturing.
• Settings: the keys in settings.json and what they control.
• Privacy and security: how launch at login works and why uploads ask first.