Getting Started
Install Tesseract and start capturing your screen activity.
Download
Download the latest version from the Tesseract site and open the DMG.
- Drag Tesseract into Applications
- Launch it from Applications
First run
On first launch, the onboarding wizard walks you through:
- Welcome — What Tesseract does
- Permissions — Grant Screen Recording and Accessibility
- Preferences — Launch at login, menu bar visibility
- Ready — Capture starts
Granting permissions
Tesseract needs two permissions to work:
| Permission | Why | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Screen Recording | Capture what's on your screen | System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen Recording |
| Accessibility | Read window titles and browser URLs | System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility |
The onboarding wizard opens the right settings pane for each one. Toggle Tesseract on, then come back to the app.
Menu bar
Once running, the Tesseract icon appears in your menu bar:
- Capturing (N today) — How many captures so far
- Open Tesseract — Opens the main window
- Pause/Resume Capture — Stop capturing temporarily
- Settings — Configure LLM providers, preferences
- Check for Updates — Manual update check (auto-updates are on by default)
That's it. Tesseract runs in the background until you pause or quit it.
Next steps
Connect your AI to Tesseract so it can actually use your screen history: