Capture and Desktop

Focalet has two independently built apps in one repository. Choose by where you want to work; installing both is optional.

Focalet Capture: bring context to your existing tool

Use Capture when you already have a preferred editor, terminal or chat app and only need to give it what you see on screen. Examples:

  • Select a UI defect and an error message, annotate them, and paste into your coding agent's existing input.
  • Select several product details or document fragments and ask your existing chat app to compare them.
  • Capture a chart and its labels, then paste into the conversation where you are already investigating the issue.

Shift+Alt+A (Shift+Option+A on Mac) opens selection and annotation. Select up to eight regions, finish, then click the destination input and press Alt+A. Each image is followed by that region's text and available DOM/accessibility metadata. The images remain separate, and unsupported image inputs still receive the text. The batch can be pasted again; successful pastes finish silently.

Capture does not connect to agent runtimes, choose models, manage chats or send a message. It needs no agent sign-in and does not require Desktop. The receiving app controls image support, attachment placement and upload completion. See Capture setup, controls and limitations.

Capture has independent installers for Windows x64, macOS Apple Silicon/Intel and Ubuntu 24.04 GNOME Wayland x64. Both products use the same Focalet icon. Capture lives in the system tray, menu bar or GNOME panel. Desktop installers do not install it. On Windows and Mac, quit Desktop or change its capture shortcut before starting Capture. Ubuntu routes Alt+A to Capture while it is running.

Focalet Desktop: a dedicated workspace for agent chats

Use Desktop when you want the conversation itself in Focalet. Examples:

  • Keep separate agent sessions for different projects and switch between their drafts and attachments.
  • Choose among installed agents and the models each runtime advertises.
  • Capture and annotate material, review attachments in the composer, then send a question and respond to the agent's approvals in the same window.

Desktop supports Windows, macOS and Ubuntu GNOME Wayland. It uses an existing supported agent runtime and account. The selected agent owns authentication, canonical history, tools and permissions. Desktop does not require the Capture tray app; its capture UI is included in its own package. See Desktop installation and runtime support.

Shared code, separate products

The apps share selected pixels, annotations, browser/accessibility extraction and context models where their platforms overlap. On Windows they both depend on Focalet.Capture.Windows, a library with no tray, paste loop or agent broker.

Capture owns its hotkeys, clipboard output and ordered paste flow. Desktop owns chat/session UI and uses the Rust broker for agent connections. The Rust focalet-core is the agent runtime core; it is not a dependency of Capture.

Each app has a separate entrypoint, build and package. Capture-only changes run native Capture CI without building Flutter. Shared or unknown source changes run both products' applicable native checks. One release publishes separate installers for both products, built from the same version and source revision. See the component map and contributor checks.

Naming and upgrades

Both apps, source packages, environment variables and OS identities use Focalet. Capture launches Focalet.Capture.exe on Windows, focalet-capture on Ubuntu and Focalet Capture.app on Mac; Desktop launches Focalet.exe on Windows, focalet on Linux and Focalet.app on macOS. Desktop's Windows capture helper is Focalet.CaptureHost.exe, distinct from the standalone app.

See upgrade notes for prior installations. Recorded demos and Git tags retain source provenance. Obsolete release downloads may be removed after their replacement is published and verified.