Introducing Tiny Tentacle
My goodness is it fun to build something that actually solves a problem 🥳
Tiny Tentacle is a simple Mac menu bar utility that eliminates two steps when repeatedly sharing screenshots with a desktop LLM application:
- Switching back to the LLM application
- Using a keyboard shortcut to paste the screenshot
That might seem like nothing, but I frequently copy/paste dozens of screenshots a day into LLMs, and that little friction adds up and is suuuuper annoying.
Using Tiny Tentacle, I now hit ⌘⇧T, select the area to screenshot, and it automatically pastes the screenshot into the conversation I have open in my pre-selected destination (Claude or ChatGPT).
Capture happens locally, it doesn't allow annotations right now, and Tiny Tentacle itself doesn’t press Send.
That's it! And it's awesome.
Who it’s for
Tiny Tentacle is for people who repeatedly use screenshots as context in conversations with AI:
- “Which option should I choose?”
- “Does this look right?”
- “Why did this happen?”
- “What would you change?”
- "What does this mean?"
If that’s an occasional interaction, the native screenshot function is more than ok.
If taking screenshots and sharing them back to an LLM is woven throughout your day, a small reduction in friction is truly useful.
An accidental name
The name came from dictation error, whoops.
ChatGPT said, "tiny technical prototype," and I accidentally dictated "tiny tentacle prototype."
ChatGPT treated it as a deliberate name, I accidentally re-used it, and we decided to keep it after justifying it with the fact that it's a tiny utility reaching into another app and fits.
Human < > LLM collaboration at it's best I'd say.
What's Next
For now, it’s a small project built around a real annoyance, and one I’m already using all the time.
Next, I'm working toward something I can install on another laptop and share with other people.
Onwards!
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