Help & FAQ

Setup, first-launch permissions, and troubleshooting.

🔐 First launch & permissions (read this)

macOS asks for a few permissions the first time. Granting them takes 1 minute and is the #1 cause of "the hotkey doesn't work". Here's exactly what to do.

1. Install

  1. Open the downloaded Stashot-x.x.x.dmg and drag Stashot.app onto the Applications folder.
  2. Launch Stashot. It lives in the menu bar (top-right 📷 icon) — there is no Dock icon.
If macOS says it "can't be opened": Stashot is Apple-notarized, so this is rare. If it happens, right-click (or Control-click) the app → OpenOpen.

2. Input Monitoring — for the hotkey (most important)

The screenshot hotkey (default: Right Shift) uses a low-level key listener that needs Input Monitoring. Until you grant it, the hotkey does nothing (menu-bar capture still works).

System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring
  1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring.
  2. Turn Stashot ON (add it with + if it's not listed → choose Stashot in Applications).
  3. If asked, quit & reopen Stashot.
Hotkey still not working? Also allow Stashot under Accessibility (same Privacy & Security screen). Input Monitoring is the key one, but some macOS versions also want Accessibility.

3. Screen Recording — for scrolling capture

Full-page / scrolling capture needs Screen Recording (macOS requirement for stitching the scroll). You'll be asked the first time you use it.

System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording → turn Stashot ON → reopen the app.

📸 Basic usage

✏️ Pro & license

The Annotation editor (crop, arrows, boxes, text, blur, rotate) is Pro — $5 one-time, up to 5 Macs. Capture, OCR and search are free forever.

Activating Pro

🤖 For developers — CLI & MCP

Stashot ships a CLI (sss) and an MCP server so Claude Code, Codex, Claude Desktop or Cursor can capture and search for you. Requires Node 22.5+.

Enable the command-line tools (one time)

The CLI (sss) and MCP server are bundled inside the app. Link them into your PATH once:

# one time — link the bundled tools into your PATH
D="$(mdfind "kMDItemFSName == 'Stashot.app'" | head -1)/Contents/Resources/cli"
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
sudo ln -sf "$D/cli.js" /usr/local/bin/sss
sudo ln -sf "$D/mcp-server.js" /usr/local/bin/stashot-mcp

CLI commands (sss)

sss                   # latest screenshot path (hand to AI)
sss cap               # capture a region → box + clipboard
sss web <url>         # full-page capture of a web page
sss scroll            # scrolling full-page capture
sss search <word>     # full-text OCR search
sss list              # list recent shots (alias: ssli)
sss latest --out P    # save the latest shot to path P
sss get <id> --out P  # save shot #id to path P
sss open <id>         # open shot #id in a viewer
sss config            # show / change settings

MCP server (for AI agents)

Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop / Cursor). In Claude Code: run claude mcp add stashot stashot-mcp.

{ "mcpServers": { "stashot": { "command": "stashot-mcp" } } }

MCP tools: capture_screen · search_screenshots · get_latest · get_screenshot_text — ask your AI "take a screenshot" or "find the screenshot with that error".

💻 Requirements

Still stuck? Contact us via the DOGGO Company contact form.