Napkin is a simple scratchpad to hold text and images to copy later or until you don't need them anymore, or when you don't want to organize temporary files.
Clipboard does a similar kind of job, but it is essentially meant for copy and paste, it is volatile. Normally, you can't access the image or text you copied 10 days ago on clipboard. And that's fine—that's what clipboards are meant for.
Napkin lets you create napkins on which you can add or paste pieces of text, URLs, and images. You can edit the text, insert images from your desktop, and copy any item at any time for further use somewhere else. Keep the app running in background, and reuse the items you pasted.
Nothing is organized. You don't have to give anything a title or add tags. This is where all your mess gets dumped until you decide it's no longer useful and delete it. Just like a scratchpad!
Deleted napkins go into the trash and are kept there for N days (30 by default), which you can change in the settings.
Napkins older than X days (30 by default) will be flagged for deletion. You can change this period in the settings as well.
You can also empty the trash, after which the files will be permanently deleted from your desktop.
AI disclosure: This is a vibe-coded project. I spent most of my time testing it on Linux. Windows testing wasn't done properly, although it did run on Windows with some issues. If you try it, please test it on your system as well, and if you find any problems, feel free to submit an issue.
Some notes you may need to know:
- Linux builds are tested on Arch/KDE/Wayland. Windows builds and passes the full suite in CI, I ran older versions on real hardware and they worked. It is an unsigned build, so SmartScreen will warn you.
- There is no global capture hotkey yet, which is the thing I most want. It needs the XDG GlobalShortcuts portal, and the session handshake. I cannot develop it headless.
- There is no at-rest encryption. A scratch surface ends up holding tokens and passwords. The data directory is 0700 and excluded from desktop search, but that is retention, not encryption.
Clipboard does a similar kind of job, but it is essentially meant for copy and paste, it is volatile. Normally, you can't access the image or text you copied 10 days ago on clipboard. And that's fine—that's what clipboards are meant for.
Napkin lets you create napkins on which you can add or paste pieces of text, URLs, and images. You can edit the text, insert images from your desktop, and copy any item at any time for further use somewhere else. Keep the app running in background, and reuse the items you pasted.
Nothing is organized. You don't have to give anything a title or add tags. This is where all your mess gets dumped until you decide it's no longer useful and delete it. Just like a scratchpad!
Deleted napkins go into the trash and are kept there for N days (30 by default), which you can change in the settings.
Napkins older than X days (30 by default) will be flagged for deletion. You can change this period in the settings as well.
You can also empty the trash, after which the files will be permanently deleted from your desktop.
AI disclosure: This is a vibe-coded project. I spent most of my time testing it on Linux. Windows testing wasn't done properly, although it did run on Windows with some issues. If you try it, please test it on your system as well, and if you find any problems, feel free to submit an issue.
Some notes you may need to know: - Linux builds are tested on Arch/KDE/Wayland. Windows builds and passes the full suite in CI, I ran older versions on real hardware and they worked. It is an unsigned build, so SmartScreen will warn you.
- There is no global capture hotkey yet, which is the thing I most want. It needs the XDG GlobalShortcuts portal, and the session handshake. I cannot develop it headless.
- There is no at-rest encryption. A scratch surface ends up holding tokens and passwords. The data directory is 0700 and excluded from desktop search, but that is retention, not encryption.
Github URL : https://github.com/sudomonas/napkin
Cool idea. I tried the Memos app for this idea for a while. My problem is I never get around to organizing things /shrug