A Windows desktop scratchpad designed for AI-assisted programming
Download Latest · Features · Quick Start · Development
Collect text, screenshots, and files with Ctrl+V. Copy content or paths in one click. Keep your desktop and Git repo clean.
When working with AI coding assistants like Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or ChatGPT, you may run into these problems:
- Error screenshots dumped into the project directory get committed to Git by AI agents
- Long prompt texts need editing, but chat boxes truncate them — you copy out, edit, paste back, repeat
- Temporary code snippets, logs, links, and file paths scatter across the desktop and clipboard
- You want to share an image or file with an AI without polluting your working directory
Soma Scratchpad is a floating, always-on-top staging area on your desktop. Drop things in, use them, let them go.
Paste text and it gets an auto-generated summary title. Rename it to whatever makes sense — even collapsed, you can tell what each entry contains at a glance. Expand to edit inline, then one-click copy. No window switching needed.
Take a screenshot and Ctrl+V to import it. Images are stored in the scratchpad's own directory. Two copy modes:
- Copy image content — paste directly into chat, docs, etc.
- Copy image path — paste the local path for AI tools to read
Images never land in your project directory and won't end up in Git commits.
Ctrl+C a file in Explorer, then Ctrl+V in the scratchpad to import. You can also drag and drop files directly. Both content copy and path copy are supported.
| View | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Dock | Temporary staging area — unpinned entries are cleared on each launch |
| Favorites | Click the star button to keep entries permanently, even across restarts |
| All | Browse all entries by time, with filters for text / images / files |
- Pin mode — toggle always-on-top with one click; unpin when you don't need it
- Minimize — collapses to a small cat icon on the screen edge; one click to restore
- Global hotkey —
Alt+Shift+Vto toggle window visibility - System tray — runs quietly in the background
- Three themes — Dark Glass / Light Matte / Light Frosted, plus auto-detect system preference
- Fonts — configure Chinese and English fonts separately
- Bilingual UI — switch between Chinese and English instantly
- Proxy update — configure HTTP / SOCKS5 proxy for version checks and downloads
- Auto-start — optionally launch on system startup
- Auto-cleanup — configure how many days to keep unstarred entries (default: clean on every launch)
Text editing | Images & files
All entries with filters | Settings
Minimized state | Desktop cat
Grab the latest release from GitHub Releases:
| File | Description |
|---|---|
Soma_Scratchpad_x.x.x_Windows.exe |
NSIS installer — recommended for most users |
Soma_Scratchpad_x.x.x_Windows.msi |
MSI installer |
Soma_Scratchpad_x.x.x_Windows_Portable.zip |
Portable version — unzip and run |
Note: When running the installer for the first time, Windows SmartScreen may show a warning because the application is not yet Authenticode-signed. Click More info → Run anyway to continue.
The app checks for updates automatically. If you're behind a proxy, configure it in Settings.
- Paste — copy text, a screenshot, or a file, then
Ctrl+Vin the scratchpad - Edit — expand a text entry to edit inline
- Rename — click the title to rename, so you can identify entries when collapsed
- Copy — click the copy button; text copies content, images and files support content or path copy
- Favorite — click the star button to keep entries permanently in Favorites
- Minimize — collapse to the desktop cat icon; click to restore
- All data is stored in a
data/directory next to the application executable — nothing in system directories - SQLite local database — nothing is uploaded to the cloud
- Images and file attachments are organized under
data/assets/YYYY-MM-DD/ - To reset, simply delete the
data/directory
| Layer | Tech |
|---|---|
| Framework | Tauri 2 |
| Backend | Rust |
| Frontend | Svelte 5 + TypeScript + Vite |
| Storage | SQLite (rusqlite) |
| Platform | Windows 10+ |
# Install frontend dependencies
pnpm install
# Start dev mode (frontend + Rust backend with hot reload)
pnpm tauri devFrontend type check:
pnpm checkRust tests:
cd src-tauri && cargo testpnpm tauri buildOutput goes to src-tauri/target/release/bundle/. See package.json scripts for all available commands.
- Richer entry types (link previews, code syntax highlighting)
- Keyboard-driven workflow improvements
- Cross-platform exploration (macOS / Linux)