Welcome on Board

Opening VAS for the first time

After downloading from the App Store and opening VAS, you'll see a fresh floating toolbar on your desktop. It stays where you place it—drag it freely.

If the toolbar takes up too much space and you want it smaller—the breathing light mode is off by default. Turn it on manually in the toolbar's "Keyboard Shortcuts".

VAS also lives in your macOS menu bar, shaped like a bottle in the top-right corner of your screen.

Permissions & privacy

When VAS takes its first screenshot, macOS will request screen recording permission—this is required of all screenshot tools on macOS. If you declined, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording, enable VAS, then reopen it.

Tauri onlyUpgrading from the Electron version? macOS treats Tauri as a brand-new app — your previous screen recording permission won't carry over. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording, remove the old VAS entry, then take a screenshot with the Tauri version. macOS will prompt you to grant permission again.

Every screenshot, every OCR-recognized word, every QR code—processed entirely on your machine. Nothing uploaded, analyzed, or learned from. VAS has no server.

Taking your first screenshot

Press the VAS icon in the Dock or click the bottle in your menu bar—wherever VAS is, it appears before you, toolbar fully extended.

Choose a screenshot mode (full screen ⌘^1, window ⌘^2, rectangle ⌘^X), frame what you need—VAS brings it into the editor so you can continue weaving what words alone cannot hold.

Done editing? Drag it out to any window or document.

Three seconds. That's all.

The bottle in your menu bar

That bottle in the top-right corner of your menu bar is VAS's system menu gateway. Two ways to use it:

• Left-click—toggle the desktop toolbar on and off instantly. For those who can't stand clutter: the option to keep your desktop completely clean.
• Right-click—open the full system menu. Everything the toolbar can do, without summoning the toolbar itself.

Want VAS to vanish from your desktop entirely? Left-click to hide the toolbar. Right-click still gives you everything.

One breathing light. One keystroke away.

When you're not using VAS but want it small and ready, turn on breathing light mode.

The toolbar collapses into a single 120×6px glimmer. Quiet. Unobtrusive. Waiting.

When you need it:

• AllDrag an image near—the toolbar opens like a Venus flytrap, catches what you're dragging. Release, and the image goes straight into the editor. If you were editing something else, it tucks that away and continues.
• Tauri onlyDrag an image out—the editor collapses like a black hole, freeing your full desktop and view to save or hand off. One-click drag to any window / dialog / folder. Release, and the editor unfolds to continue.
• Tauri onlyCopy a URL nearby—the light unfolds, toast appears: "Found ⟨URL⟩—click to capture." One click. Screenshot begins.
• Tauri onlyCopy an image from your browser—toast asks "paste image?" You confirm. Straight to the editor.

Capture Toolbar

The floating toolbar that lives on your desktop

Editor Interface

The second main space after a screenshot. The editor is divided into four operational zones:

• Main Tool Menu——The vertical toolbar on the left. Select a tool to switch the canvas interaction mode. The active tool is highlighted in blue.
• Property Options Panel——The top toolbar. Updates dynamically based on the selected tool — adjust colour, stroke width, opacity, line style, and more.
• Floating Export Button——The floating button in the bottom-right corner. Drag it to reposition for left- or right-handed use. When finished, drag it to any target app to export. Tauri also offers a dedicated Sharesheet.
• Status Bar & Smart Guides Toggle——The status bar in the bottom-left corner. Displays current zoom level and canvas size, with a toggle to enable or disable smart magnetic snapping.

All annotation tools at a glance — keyboard shortcut in parentheses

Export

When you're done editing, VAS gives you four exits:

• Drag out—pull the image straight from the editor to your desktop, Finder, Slack, anywhere that accepts images. No saving, no dialogs. Drag and it's gone.
• Copy to clipboard—press the Copy button, the image goes to your clipboard, then ⌘V it anywhere.
• Tauri onlyShareSheet—macOS native share panel. AirDrop, Messages, Mail, social media.
• Save—JPG / PNG / WebP / GIF / BMP / TIFF / PDF.

Recipes

VAS keeps each tool small. One job each — but properties stack.

• Text × Fill → Highlighter
• Text × Transparent + Outline → Transparent text
• Border × Dashed + Weight → Review marker
• Line × Right-angle + Dashed → Flow connector
• Shape × Gradient + Low opacity → Fade mask
• Bubble × Mosaic → Comic-style meme

The combinations you invent are your own vocabulary.

→ Your Inside Language with VAS

✦ Request new element

OCR & QR Code

A screenshot doesn't always mean you're editing.

OCR · Text recognition

Recognized text goes straight to your clipboard by default. After the screenshot, ⌘V and paste anywhere.

Tauri onlyFor supported language markets, OCR applies localized privacy masking—

It recognizes local ID numbers, credit card numbers, and phone formats, applying appropriate handling during recognition.

QR Code · Scan

VAS decides what to do based on how much of the QR Code your frame contains:

• Fully framed—treated as intentional scanning. Opens the link directly.
• Loosely framed (partial)—asks you first: "Open this link?"
• Background element—no action. Screenshot goes straight to the editor.

Keyboard shortcuts

Built-in editor shortcuts, organized in four groups:

Custom settings

VAS intentionally offers few settings because we believe good tools get defaults right. What you can adjust:

• Show / hide desktop toolbar—left-click the bottle in the menu bar.
• Breathing light toggle—off by default. Enable it manually via "Keyboard Shortcuts" in the toolbar.
• Tauri onlyCustom keyboard shortcuts—the paid version lets you remap full-screen capture, window capture, rectangle capture, and paste image to whatever combinations feel native to you.

Troubleshooting & edge cases