Drop in a screenshot, a set of screens, a URL, a description or a screen recording. shot2code generates a working page, then you refine it by saying what to change.
Installer .exe recommended. Bring a GitHub Copilot sign-in or one API key.
Generated code is model output: review it before running it outside the sandboxed preview. The published Windows binaries are not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen will warn on first run — verify the SHA-256 checksum instead.
Your screenshots, the generated code and your API keys stay on the machine you installed it on.
One screenshot, several related screens, a URL, a plain-text description, or a screen recording. With multiple screenshots you choose how they relate: separate pages, responsive views, UI states, or supporting references.
The Code tab is a multi-file project tree with an editor, file tabs, Entry, Preview, Read-only and Generated badges, and a whitespace-only Format action. Select an element in the preview and describe the change.
On wide windows, drag the divider between Chat and the preview, or between the file tree and the editor. Both are keyboard-operable separators, both remember your width across restarts, and both are clamped so neither side becomes unusable. A pane width is a view preference — resizing never creates or changes a version.
Projects, versions and prompts live in a local SQLite database under %LOCALAPPDATA%\shot2code\. History steps back through every version, Recent projects picks up where you left off, and deleting a project removes it and its versions from the device.
Export a self-contained single HTML file, or a Vite project folder for the stack you chose. Multi-file source projects are exported as they are rather than wrapped in an invented scaffold.
You still need a model provider. shot2code does not ship a model. A GitHub Copilot sign-in (no API key needed) or a Gemini, Anthropic or OpenAI key makes generation work; without one, the app tells you so instead of pretending to be connected.
The workspace in both themes and at three window sizes. Select any screenshot to open it at full resolution.
An agent loop with real tools, running from your machine against the provider you configured.
Upload screenshots, paste a URL, describe the screen, or record it. Pick the output stack, and optionally tick the models you want to try — from GitHub Copilot, OpenAI, Anthropic or Google Gemini.
The model calls tools — create a file, edit a file, extract assets, render a screenshot preview — and shot2code executes them locally and feeds the results back.
One option is generated per selected model, in parallel, so you pick the closest one. Then say what to change, or select an element in the preview and describe the edit.
Every version is saved locally and reachable from History or Recent projects. Export a single HTML file or a Vite project folder when you are happy.
Generation streams over a local WebSocket from a bundled FastAPI backend; the desktop shell starts it on a free port. The only outbound traffic is to the model provider you chose, the update check, and anything you explicitly share.
What the app does today — and which capabilities need an extra key.
backend/.env.Ctrl+/ opens the Help centre, which carries the full shortcut reference. Ctrl+1–4 switch Preview, Code, Chat and History; Ctrl+3 again collapses the chat panel on wide windows. Project actions use Ctrl+Alt combinations — N new, I import, U upload, S settings, E export. Pane dividers take arrow keys, Shift for larger steps, Home/End and Enter to reset. In the desktop app, Ctrl+= and Ctrl+- zoom in fixed steps between 50% and 300%, and Ctrl+0 resets.
CodePen is offered only when the selected stack can honestly run in a browser-only Pen, and it always asks before code leaves the device. For build-dependent projects, download the project folder instead.
When export cannot find a valid root build command, it keeps every source file and adds a Safe fallback note rather than inventing a scaffold that looks plausible and breaks later.
Each one has an explicit single-HTML and project-folder export strategy, so what you download actually builds.
HTML and CDN projects export as a Vite project with a deterministic static copy, so inline modules and import maps are not silently reordered. React and Preact use Vite's framework build path when the generated source is safely transformable, and a documented Vite HTML fallback when it is not.
One provider is enough — and whichever you bring, you choose which of its models actually run. Keys are stored on your device and sent only to the provider they belong to.
The easiest option, because there is no API key to manage: run gh auth login (or copilot) once and shot2code picks the sign-in up. Needs an active Copilot subscription, and reaches Claude, GPT, Gemini and Grok models through it. The model list is discovered live from the signed-in account, so it is your plan's real entitlement.
Paste an API key into Settings. It is kept on this device and sent with the generation request to that provider only. Each of these providers has a maintained, validated model list, so picking models for them contacts nobody. Gemini additionally powers video input and asset extraction.
Key setupImage generation, image editing and background removal. This one has no Settings field by design — it must be set as REPLICATE_API_KEY in backend/.env, which means it is only available when you run from source.
Choosing models is part of Settings, not a Copilot-only extra. Settings → Models — and the compact picker beside the composer — group every model you can currently use under GitHub Copilot, OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Gemini. Tick as many as you like, across providers, and each run produces one option per selected model, up to 4 for a first generation and 2 for an update or a video; tick nothing and the choice stays automatic. Models that cannot read the input you gave — video in particular — are filtered out rather than offered and failed, deprecated models stay hidden unless you ask for them or already picked one, and a saved model that can no longer run is reported and skipped instead of silently deleted. A provider only appears once the app can actually see a credential for it.
The most recent work went into starting fast, letting you set how the workspace splits its width, and putting the guides and the log you need inside the app.
Only the core routes have to be ready before the window opens — generation, evaluation and project tooling load on first use, and the Chromium and Copilot checks run in the background. The shell demands a real health response rather than any reply, gives up after 90 seconds instead of hanging, and logs how long readiness took.
Drag the divider between Chat and the preview, or between the file tree and the editor. Arrow keys move it, Shift moves it further, Home and End jump to the limits, Enter resets and Escape cancels a drag. Widths persist, clamp to the window, and never touch a project's versions.
Ctrl+/ now opens a Help centre — Get started, Guides, Support and the full shortcut reference — linking the published guides rather than a private copy. In the desktop app it also opens the backend log folder, which is the first thing to attach to a bug report. Zoom is explicit too: Ctrl+=, Ctrl+- and Ctrl+0, in fixed steps between 50% and 300%.
Every version, its notes and all its files are on the releases page. The full history lives in the changelog.
Windows 10/11 x64. Each build carries its own Python backend and a headless Chromium, so there is nothing else to install. latest is the current published build; every version this hub has published — with the files it actually carries — is on the releases page.
Per-user NSIS install with shortcuts — and the only format that updates itself from GitHub Releases.
Download .exePer-machine deployment. Self-update is disabled by design; upgrades stay with the administrator.
Download .msiUnzip anywhere and run shot2code.exe — nothing to install, and easy to remove.
SHA-256 hashes for every file in this release. The binaries are unsigned, so this is how you check what you downloaded.
SHA256SUMSCompare the hash of the file you downloaded against the published list:
Get-FileHash .\shot2code-<version>-x64.exe -Algorithm SHA256Only the per-user .exe updates itself: Settings shows the running version, the update state and Restart & install once a download is ready. Before anything is replaced, the installed backend is stopped and that shutdown is verified — by the app, and again by the installer itself, so an update that starts from an older build is protected too. The installer now stops the installed backend itself before replacing anything, matching processes by path under resources\backend, never by name, and if it cannot confirm they are gone the install stops rather than overwriting a running app. MSI upgrades stay with the administrator and portable builds do not update.
Three things, all of them yours to control.
Screenshots, generated code and project history stay on the device. The generation request goes to the provider you configured — and nowhere else. Keys are stored locally and are not sent anywhere but their own provider.
There is no analytics SDK in the app; nothing about your usage is collected. The remaining background call is the update check on per-user installs, and CodePen sharing only ever happens when you confirm it.
Imported projects are parsed, never executed. Previews run in an opaque origin with a restrictive CSP, a no-referrer policy, and camera, microphone, geolocation and display capture denied.
Everything needed to install it, use it, work out what went wrong, and see what ships inside it.