Capture any region with one shortcut.
One shortcut, one display, any window. A terminal, a PDF, a video paused on a slide.
macOS menu bar · no account
Draw a box. Keep the words.
capkiku is a free macOS menu-bar tool that turns any screen region into a Markdown file using Apple Vision OCR — entirely on-device, with no account and no upload.
macOS 14 · Apple Silicon · signed and notarized · v1.0.10
Markdown saved · screenshot discarded
the review window
Edit the text before you save the file.
One window, three panes, no menus to learn. Quit halfway through and capkiku offers you the unfinished capture back.
Preview
What you selected, so you can check you got the right box. It is never written into the Markdown.
Captured text
What Apple Vision read, in an editable field. Delete anything you don't want in the file.
Destination
The filename it will use and the folder it lands in. Change either one before you save.
capture · review · save
Screen to Markdown in three steps.
Every capture opens for review first. The file lands in your folder only after you press save.
Review and edit before you save.
Apple Vision reads it on this Mac. You edit the text, add a note or tags, and nothing is saved until you say so.
Keep the Markdown, lose the image.
A Markdown file with frontmatter, in the folder you picked. The screenshot is deleted, not archived.
record audio
Record a meeting without leaving your Mac.
Capture the other app's audio, your microphone, or the two on separate tracks. Speech recognition runs on-device — you get a Markdown file and the .m4a next to it. No video.
Two speakers, two blocks, one file you can search later.
what you keep
Plain Markdown in a folder you own.
- Plain Markdown with frontmatter — when, which app, whether you reviewed it. Grep it, sync it, open it in anything.
- No database and no proprietary format. Move the folder and the library moves with it.
- The only network request capkiku ever makes is checking for its own updates.
2026-08-17T22-20-50_friday-decision_7bff3ddc.md
--- captured: 2026-08-17T22:20:50 application: Brave Browser reviewed: true tags: [work, research] folder: ~/Documents --- # Friday decision Keep the folder as the library. One Markdown file per capture. No account. No upload.
permissions
No account, no upload, no tracking.
macOS is the referee. Here is the whole list, both columns.
Asks for
Only at the moment you first use that feature.
- Screen Recording to read a region
- System Audio only for Others
- Microphone only for You
Never asks for
Not optional, not buried in settings. Not requested at all.
- Accessibility
- Camera
- Contacts
- Location
No account, no capture server, no telemetry. Revoke anything in System Settings and capkiku keeps working for everything else.