One hotkey. Screenshot to clipboard. Paste into any AI.
PromptPixel is a tiny Windows tool that captures your screen with a single keystroke and drops the image straight onto your clipboard — ready to paste into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Antigravity, VS Code's Claude Code panel, or any app that accepts images.
No Claude Desktop required. No browser extension. No two-step "snip then paste" workflow. Just press the hotkey and paste.
Every AI chat tool wants screenshots, but Windows makes it a chore:
- Win+Shift+S → snip → switch window → Ctrl+V (4 steps)
- Claude Desktop's screenshot feature → only works if you run Claude Desktop
- VS Code Claude Code panel → image paste on Windows is famously broken
- LazyScreenshots → Mac only
PromptPixel fills the gap: Windows + AI-focused + works with any app + free + open source.
- Single-hotkey capture (default
Ctrl+Alt+S, fully rebindable) - Captures the monitor your mouse is on — multi-monitor friendly
- Auto-focuses your target app before pasting (VS Code, any active window, or a custom app)
- Optional auto-typed label after pasting (e.g. "See Image")
- Tray icon with Settings, Pause, and Capture Now
- Settings GUI — no editing config files required
- Tiny single .exe — no Python, no installer, no dependencies
- Open source — MIT licensed, hack it freely
- Download
PromptPixel.exefrom the latest release - Double-click to run — a tray icon appears
- Press Ctrl+Alt+S anywhere to capture your screen
- Switch to your AI tool of choice and press Ctrl+V to paste
To change the hotkey or target app, right-click the tray icon → Settings.
To launch on Windows startup, drop a shortcut to PromptPixel.exe into your Startup folder (Win+R → shell:startup → Enter).
PromptPixel is written in AutoHotkey v2. To build the .exe yourself:
- Install AutoHotkey v2
- Clone this repo
- Run
build.bat— producesPromptPixel.exenext to the script
The build script uses Ahk2Exe.exe from the AutoHotkey install directory.
PromptPixel uses GDI+ (via the bundled Gdip_All.ahk library) to capture the monitor under the mouse cursor, places the bitmap directly on the Windows clipboard, focuses the target window, and sends Ctrl+V. That's it. ~250 lines of AutoHotkey.
- Windows v1 — single hotkey, multi-monitor, configurable target
- Region select mode (drag a box)
- Recent screenshots history (re-paste last N)
- Mac port (contributions welcome — see issues)
- Linux port (Wayland/X11 — likely community-driven)
PRs welcome. Especially:
- Mac port (no Mac in the dev environment)
- Linux port
- Bug reports with reproducible steps
- New target-app integrations
Open an issue before large changes.
MIT — do whatever you want, just keep the copyright notice. No warranty.
PromptPixel scans clean on VirusTotal: 0 / 72 engines flagged.
Some antivirus tools occasionally flag AutoHotkey-compiled .exe files as a precaution because the same compilation technique is used by certain malware families. PromptPixel is open source — every line of source code is in this repository, and you can build the .exe yourself with the included build.bat to verify it byte-for-byte.
If your AV ever does flag PromptPixel:
- View the live VirusTotal scan to confirm the current state
- Read the source:
PromptPixel.ahk— about 300 lines, no obfuscation - Build it yourself from source if you want a binary you compiled with your own toolchain
- Built by Russell Sailors / Makologics
- GDI+ wrapper: Gdip_All.ahk (LGPL)
- Built with AutoHotkey v2