Documentation

Install

Get the package for your distribution from the download page:

• Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Pop!_OS: sudo apt install ./QuickDesk_<version>_amd64.deb
• Fedora, openSUSE: sudo dnf install ./QuickDesk-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm
• Anything else: make the AppImage executable and run it. It needs FUSE 2 (libfuse2, on Ubuntu 24.04 libfuse2t64).

QuickDesk needs an x86_64 system from the last few years (glibc 2.34 or newer). It works best on GNOME, on both Wayland and X11.

On first start a welcome screen lists the shortcuts and offers two options: start when you log in (needed for clipboard history and the AI ring to work all the time) and instant paste (see Auto-paste). After that QuickDesk lives in the top bar.

Shortcuts

Pressing a shortcut again while its window is open closes it. Change any of them in Settings → Hotkeys; QuickDesk warns when a combination is already taken.

On GNOME the shortcuts are added to Settings → Keyboard → Custom Shortcuts and removed when QuickDesk quits, so they work on Wayland too. On other desktops, bind quickdesk toggle notes, quickdesk toggle clipboard, quickdesk toggle ports or quickdesk toggle quick-note to keys in your desktop's keyboard settings.

Why Super + Alt? Vietnamese input methods such as Unikey and Bamboo swallow Super + Shift + letter while you type in a text field; combinations with Alt keep working.

Notes

Notes are Markdown with a rich editor: headings, bold and italic, lists, checklists, quotes and code blocks. Ctrl N writes a new note, Ctrl S saves, Ctrl F searches. Search ignores accents, so tieng viet finds “tiếng Việt”.

Pin a note with the star to keep it on top. Deleting asks first and can be undone for a few seconds.

Sync notes between computers

There is no QuickDesk account or server. Notes sync through a storage bucket you own: Cloudflare R2 (its free tier is plenty), AWS S3 or MinIO.

1. Create a bucket and an API token limited to that bucket (R2: R2 → Manage R2 API Tokens → Object Read & Write).
2. In Settings → Sync, enter the endpoint (R2: https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com), bucket, region (auto for R2), access key and secret.
3. On the first computer, choose a passphrase. QuickDesk shows a recovery key: store it somewhere safe.
4. On every other computer, connect to the same bucket and enter the same passphrase (or the recovery key).

Notes are encrypted on your computer before upload (XChaCha20-Poly1305, key from your passphrase via Argon2id); the bucket only ever holds ciphertext. The bucket's secret key stays in your system keyring. Edits made offline sync when you are back online; if a note changed on two computers at once, both versions are kept.

Clipboard history

Everything you copy is saved: text, images (screenshots) and files copied in your file manager. Open the popup with Super Alt V, type to search, filter by Text, Images or Files, and press Enter to paste into the app you were using. Ctrl Enter only copies, Ctrl P pins, Del deletes.

• History stays on this computer and never syncs.
• Copies that password managers mark as secret are skipped. Before copying something sensitive, pause saving for 15 minutes, an hour or until you turn it back on (in the Clipboard tab or the tray menu).
• QuickDesk keeps the latest 1,000 entries; pinned ones are kept forever. Text up to 1 MB, images up to 10 MB each and 200 MB in total.
• Clear… in the Clipboard tab removes everything except pinned entries.

Auto-paste

When you pick an entry, QuickDesk returns to the app you were using and presses Shift Insert, which also works in terminals. Choose how in Settings → Auto-paste:

• Desktop portal (default): GNOME asks for permission once and shows a remote-control indicator while pasting.
• Instant (virtual keyboard): no prompts or indicator. Enabling it asks for your administrator password once to allow programs running as you to create a virtual keyboard (the same permission Steam uses for controllers).

Turn auto-paste off in the Clipboard tab to only copy, then press Ctrl V yourself.

Ports

Super Alt P lists every listening TCP port (IPv4 and IPv6) with the process, its full command line and user, refreshed every 2 seconds. Filter by port, PID, process or container name.

• Open opens http://localhost:<port> in your browser; Copy PID and Copy cmd copy them.
• Kill asks first, then stops the process politely and offers a force kill only if it does not quit.
• Ports published by Docker show the container and image, and Stop stops the container instead of killing docker-proxy.
• Processes owned by other users (system services) show as hidden; inspecting them needs root.

AI usage

A ring in the top bar shows how much of your AI limits you have used, coloured green, amber or red. Its menu lists every limit and when it resets; the AI tab shows the details.

• Claude Code: QuickDesk reads the login Claude Code already saved on this computer and asks Anthropic for your usage, at most every 5 minutes. The token is only read: never stored, refreshed or sent anywhere except Anthropic.
• Codex: read from the session logs Codex keeps in ~/.codex.
• Gemini (Antigravity): it reports no percentage, so QuickDesk shows when you last ran out of quota, from its logs.

Choose which limit the ring follows under Ring Shows, or hide the ring in the AI tab.

Updates

QuickDesk checks for a new version 30 seconds after it starts and then every 6 hours. When one is out, a banner in the main window and an entry at the top of the tray menu say so, with What’s New. Nothing is installed until you click Update Now.

Every update is verified against QuickDesk's signing key before it is installed. A .deb or .rpm asks for your administrator password; an AppImage replaces itself. QuickDesk then restarts and shows what changed. Turn automatic checks off, or check by hand, in Settings → Updates.

Uninstall

1. Turn off Start QuickDesk when I log in in Settings, and quit from the tray.
2. Remove the package: sudo apt remove quick-desk (Debian/Ubuntu) or sudo dnf remove QuickDesk (Fedora), or delete the AppImage.
3. Your data stays in ~/.local/share/click.quickdesk until you delete that folder.

Removing the package also removes the instant-paste permission if you enabled it.

Troubleshooting

• A shortcut does nothing: check Settings → Keyboard → Custom Shortcuts for a clash, or pick another combination in Settings → Hotkeys.
• Auto-paste types nothing: make sure the app you were in still has focus; switch the method in Settings → Auto-paste. The entry is always copied, so Ctrl V works.
• Logs: ~/.local/share/click.quickdesk/logs/. Attach them when you report an issue.