Lost in a complex app? Ask your AI agent (Claude Code, Cursor…) "where do I click?": it looks at the app's window and circles the spot on your real screen, in any app.
▶ Full video with sound (25 s, 6 MB)
- Show me where: the agent brings the app to the front, looks at its window, and circles the spot on your screen in red.
Escor a click closes it. - Explain this screen: the agent frames each part of the app in its own color, numbered, with what it is for in a legend.
- Step by step: ask "how do I change…" and the agent walks you there. It circles each click on the live app, you click the real button, and the next step appears. A panel at the top right lists the steps;
Escor its ✕ leaves the guide.
Set it up once: install the app, tick ⚙ > MCP server in the Prompt Builder (Ctrl+Alt+G), and give your agent the line the window shows, e.g. for Claude Code:
claude mcp add --scope user --transport http ls-ocrlayout http://localhost:47821/mcp
The server only answers this computer and is off at every start: an agent can look at your windows only while the box is ticked.
Ctrl+F for your whole screen, plus ChatGPT one keystroke away.
- Ctrl+Alt+F — search any text visible on screen (OCR), click a match to copy it. 文A translates the whole screen in place, in any app.
- Ctrl+Alt+G — send the selected text to ChatGPT with one of your saved prompts.
Download ScreenSearchOverlay.exe from the latest release and run it. Portable, nothing to install. It updates itself: when a new version is out, click Version x.y.z available in the Prompt Builder.
To have it ready at every sign-in, tick Start with Windows in ⚙ or in the tray menu. Untick it before deleting the exe.
From version 1.6.3, the exe is signed by its author, Jon Lepage. Windows still says Unknown publisher: the certificate is self-issued, not bought from an authority. What proves a copy is genuine is its certificate's thumbprint, which must be:
7A95A361A4C5D1BE52E5500436E430F63F3E1988
Right-click the exe > Properties > Digital Signatures > Details > View Certificate > Details > Thumbprint, or in PowerShell:
(Get-AuthenticodeSignature .\ScreenSearchOverlay.exe).SignerCertificate.ThumbprintAnother thumbprint, or no signature on 1.6.3 or later: the file is not genuine, don't run it.
| Type | Highlight matches (.* for regex) |
| Click a match | Copy it |
文A |
Translate the screen (French by default, translateTarget in settings.json) |
| Mouse wheel | Scroll the app underneath |
↑ / ↓ |
Search history |
Esc / right-click |
Close |
The ☰ menu copies all text, and sets zen mode and sizes. OCR languages are in the tray menu.
Japanese or other Asian text? Windows needs that language's OCR pack. From an admin PowerShell:
Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name "Language.Basic~~~ja-JP~0.0.1.0"
Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name "Language.OCR~~~ja-JP~0.0.1.0"
Select text anywhere, press Ctrl+Alt+G, pick a prompt, Send. ChatGPT opens in its own window with your prompt and text (and the screenshot, if ticked).
Nothing selected: your last text is still there. Each prompt keeps its last 100 texts, as a terminal keeps its commands: ▲ ▼ above the text, or ↑ / ↓ in it.
Type, ↑ / ↓ |
Find and pick a prompt |
↑ / ↓ in the text |
Previous texts of this prompt (from its first / last line) |
Enter / Ctrl+Enter |
Send |
Ctrl+1…9 |
Pick the n-th prompt |
Ctrl+N / Ctrl+D |
New / duplicate |
Alt+↑ / Alt+↓ |
Reorder |
Del |
Delete (with undo) |
Click the screenshot thumbnail to capture a region of the screen instead (Windows' snipping tool): it is attached right away.
Prompts are edited in place and saved as you type. ⚙ holds the language (16 of them), the theme (dark / light / Night Dev / VS Code), start with Windows, temporary chat, automatic send (text / with an image), clipboard image first (use your Win+Shift+S capture instead of a new screenshot), text size and updates.
With the MCP server on (set up in Assistance overlay above), ask your agent "add a prompt that…": it appears in the Prompt Builder right away. The agent can list, add and edit prompts, never delete them.
Nothing leaves your machine while you search. 文A sends the screen's text to Google Translate; Send sends your message (and screenshot) to ChatGPT. While the MCP server is on, an agent asked to show you where to click sends a capture of that app's window (or of your screen) to its AI. Your ChatGPT login stays in ScreenSearchOverlay.WebView2/, next to the exe, and your recent texts in prompt-history.json.
See CHANGELOG.md.
Needs the .NET 10 SDK. The version comes from package.json.
dotnet publish ScreenSearchOverlay.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true -p:PublishSingleFile=true -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=trueThe exe lands in bin/Release/net10.0-windows10.0.19041.0/win-x64/publish/, unsigned: only the author's builds carry the signature above.