flash

Flash and Scoot

Scoot is “a tiny utility app that provides fast, keyboard-driven control over the mouse pointer”: element mode over the Accessibility tree, a grid over all screens, and a freestyle mode. It is BSD-3 Swift by Michael Russo, about 530 stars, with v1.3 in March 2026 after v1.2 in December 2022. It asks for Accessibility only and makes no network requests.

	Scoot	Flash
License, price	BSD-3, free	MIT, free
Platforms	macOS (README still names 11 and 12)	macOS 14+
Permissions	Accessibility	Accessibility; Automation per browser for tab lists; Screen Recording only for `:screenshot`
Hints from	Accessibility tree of the focused window	Accessibility tree; tmux panes; VS Code enhancer
Pointer modes	Element, grid over all screens, freestyle; left/right/middle/double click, drag, scroll; System, Emacs and vi key sets	Hints, search, keyboard-shaped grid, bisect, pointer mode, screens, drag, select, words, path, sticky
Beyond pointing	Menu bar icon	NORMAL mode, flashlight, status bar, widgets, popups, window placement, plugins
Configuration	Preferences window	One TOML file, live reload, CLI
Maintenance	v1.3, March 2026; slow	1.0.0, October 2026

Where Scoot is stronger

Tiny. One small app with one job, and a preferences window for keys, fonts, colours and opacity.
Emacs key set for cursor movement, next to vi and system sets.
Older macOS versions still run it.
A single grid across every connected screen in one view.

Where Flash is stronger

Search, bisect, words and paths on top of labels and grid.
Per-app configuration and a persistent NORMAL mode.
Context menus. Scoot cannot take the cursor while a context menu is open (its README says so); Flash labels menus and menu-bar extras.
Terminal hints, flashlight, bar, widgets, popups, plugins.
Scoot turns on AXEnhancedUserInterface for every app to repair thin trees (issue #11), which can change how other apps behave; Flash scopes enhancements per app through its VS Code enhancer.

Flash features you might like

mouse_pointer is the freestyle mode: layout hjkl, m , . click, v drag (commands).
mouse_grid --bisect halves the screen instead of a fixed grid.
mouse_warp --area=window --edge=center jumps to a window or screen edge.
mouse_position --action=save remembers positions and labels them later.

Moving from Scoot

Scoot	Flash
Element mode	`["flash", "mouse_target"]`
Grid mode	`["flash", "mouse_grid"]`
Freestyle mode	`["flash", "mouse_pointer"]`
Drag	`mouse_target --drag`, `mouse_grid --drag`
Right, middle click	`cf` in NORMAL for right-click; `mouse_button --state=toggle --middle`
Scroll	NORMAL mode scroll keys
vi / Emacs key sets	NORMAL mode keys are vi-like and remappable; no Emacs preset

[mode.all.mappings]
"cmd+shift+space" = ["flash", "mouse_target"]
"cmd+shift+alt+space" = ["flash", "mouse_grid"]
"cmd+shift+ctrl+space" = ["flash", "mouse_pointer"]

Checked 2026-10-14 against the Scoot README and release list.

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