flash

Flash and Neru

Neru describes itself as “Hints, grids and vim keys for your whole desktop. Free, open source, one binary, one TOML file.” It is MIT-licensed Go, stable on macOS 14+, with Linux and Windows builds in daily beta, and it ships roughly weekly (v1.58.0 on 2026-10-12, about 810 stars). It is the closest open-source relative of Flash and the better choice for several people.

	Neru	Flash
License, price	MIT, free	MIT, free
Platforms	macOS 14+ stable; Linux (X11, Wayland) and Windows 10+ beta	macOS 14+ only
Permissions	Accessibility; Screen Recording for the `vision`, `contour` and `segment` strategies	Accessibility; Automation per browser when tabs are listed; Screen Recording only for `:screenshot`, which runs Apple’s `screencapture`
Hints from	`axtree` (default), `vision` (on-device OCR), `contour`, `segment`	Accessibility tree; tmux control mode for terminal panes; a per-app enhancer for VS Code
Pointer modes	Hints, grid, recursive grid, bisect, scroll, monitor select, user-defined modes	Hints, keyboard-shaped grid, bisect, pointer mode, screens, warp, saved positions, scroll target
Beyond pointing	Hooks, `neru watch` event stream	Persistent NORMAL mode with per-app actions, flashlight search, status bar, widgets, popups, window placement, plugins
Configuration	One TOML; CLI; IPC socket with JSON schemas and a Go client	One TOML, live reload, `flash config_check`; `flash <verb>` over an AppleEvent; no socket
Maintenance	Weekly releases since 2025-11; 11 open issues	1.0.0 in October 2026; nightly from `main`; one maintainer

Where Neru is stronger

It works where Accessibility does not. OCR, contour and segmentation label canvases, games, remote desktops and Electron apps with thin trees. Flash offers only the grid there, by design.
Three platforms. The same config follows you to Linux and Windows, with the caveat that those builds are beta.
A real IPC surface. A versioned socket protocol, JSON schemas, a Go client and an event stream make it easy to build on from skhd, Hammerspoon or a shell script. Flash’s CLI is an AppleEvent with a JSON reply; there is no socket and no event stream outside the browser help.
Custom modes are first class. A mode is a name, an indicator and a key table, for example a window layer that calls yabai.
Monitor select and screen-share hiding ship as modes and options.
A longer public track record of weekly releases and user reports.

Where Flash is stronger

Accessibility only. No Screen Recording prompt ever, and nothing in the process reads pixels. The privacy page lists every prompt and file.
A persistent modal layer. NORMAL stays on across apps; ]t resolves to the next tab in a browser, Finder or tmux because actions come from plugin bindings, not raw chords. Neru’s modes are transient layers.
Terminal hints on tmux panes, URLs, file paths and status-bar tabs, kept warm from tmux’s control mode.
Everything after the click. flashlight (apps, tabs, windows, emoji, math, currency), the status bar, widgets and PTY popups share one plugin set. Neru deliberately stops at pointing.
Window placement and directional focus are built in; Neru moved that into a separate tool.
Sandboxed plugins with declared capabilities and a Rust SDK.

Flash features you might like

mouse_target --search types visible text to pick a target, next to the labels you already know from / in Neru.
--words, --path, --sticky and --multi for text selection and batch clicks (commands).
:help opens a browser page that checks permissions, mappings and plugins for this Mac (browser help).
Latency is logged per activation, with a benchmark script (performance).

Moving from Neru

Neru	Flash
Hints (`Primary+Shift+Space`)	`["flash", "mouse_target"]`
Grid, recursive grid	`["flash", "mouse_grid"]`; each key zooms into its cell
Bisect	`["flash", "mouse_grid", "--bisect"]`
Scroll mode	NORMAL’s `ctrl+d`/`ctrl+u`, `ctrl+e`/`ctrl+y`, `gg`/`G`; `scroll_target` picks the area
Monitor select	`["flash", "mouse_screens"]`
`/` filter in hints	`["flash", "mouse_target", "--search"]`
`capture_scope = "screen"`	`["flash", "mouse_target", "--scope=screen"]`
Menu bar, Dock hints	`mouse_menubar`, `mouse_dock`, `mouse_notifications`
`[[hints.app_configs]]` per bundle	`[mode.apps."<bundle id>".normal.mappings]`
`neru config reload`	Saving the file; `flash config_check` validates it
`neru watch`, hooks	`flash status --json`; no event stream
OCR strategies	Nothing. Use the grid.

[mode.all.mappings]
"cmd+shift+space" = ["flash", "mouse_target"]
"cmd+shift+alt+space" = ["flash", "mouse_grid"]
"cmd+shift+c" = ["flash", "mouse_grid", "--bisect"]

[mode.apps."com.apple.Safari".all.mappings]
"cmd+shift+f" = ["flash", "mouse_target", "--search"]

Running both is possible but pointless: both take a hotkey and draw an overlay. Pick one for pointing; Flash can still provide the bar and widgets.

Checked 2026-10-14 against the Neru README, getting started and configuration.

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