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Capture modes
One key, two gestures. Tap to grab a window, hold to draw a region. Full screen and video round it out, and the same grammar works one-handed on Right Option.
Noru has one capture action with a few shapes. You learn one key and a hold, and everything else is a variation on it. This page is the full grammar: the global hotkeys, the on-screen selector, and how a video clip records. If you just want to take your first shot, start with getting started.
Tap versus hold
The trick worth knowing first: how long you hold the key changes what you capture. A quick tap grabs the one thing under your cursor. A hold opens the aiming selector so you can draw exactly the region you want.
The line between a tap and a hold is the hold threshold, 250 milliseconds by default. You can lengthen or shorten it in Settings, Capture gesture if a tap keeps opening the selector or the other way around. Both chord hotkeys are editable too, under Settings, Hotkeys.
The one-handed trigger
The right Option key runs the exact same grammar with one hand: tap it for the window under your cursor, hold it to draw a region. It's there for when your other hand is on the trackpad. It needs the optional Accessibility permission, and you can turn it off entirely in Settings, Capture gesture if you'd rather keep Right Option doing its normal job.
The selector overlay
Holding a hotkey, or choosing Region or Window from the bar, dims the screen and hands you the selector. It carries one small legend pinned at the bottom so you never have to remember the keys. The legend is click-through, so a press right over it still lands as a capture.
The capture bar
After your first capture a small bar appears, and that bar is home. It holds everything you've captured, a note field, and a rail of the four modes so you never need the hotkeys if you'd rather click.
Drag the bar anywhere, or nudge it with the arrow keys. The menu-bar icon can snap it to any corner, capture all displays at once, or clear everything you've taken. The whole bar lives on your Mac, and so does every capture in it.
Recording a video
Video on the bar opens the same dim and draw surface, but in
record intent: the cursor carries a red ● REC tag,
and committing a source starts recording instead of taking a still. You can
record a region, a window, or a full screen, the same three ways you capture.
Once it's rolling, the rail turns into a ● Recording
m:ss readout with Stop and Cancel. While it records, Noru samples
keyframes along the way, so your agent can read what happened across the clip
without watching the whole thing. Stop when you're done and the clip joins the
bar like any other capture.
Tune it in Settings, Video
Record your microphone alongside the screen, show clicks, keep or hide the cursor, set a countdown before it starts, and cap the maximum duration. Microphone audio health is readable by your agent on the free tier; transcription arrives with Pro.
Handing it to your AI
Captured something? You don't export or save it. If your agent is connected over MCP, it pulls the capture on its own the moment you ask about your screen, covered in connect your agent. Not on an MCP client? Use Copy bundle for your AI on the bar, or press Enter in the note field, and paste the whole thing into any chat.