y3owk1n/neru v1.61.0 on GitHub

1.61.0 (2026-11-02)

This release adds neru action snap, which puts the cursor on the exact center of the nearest element. It is built to finish a grid selection. Zoom close with a grid, then one key lands on the element instead of zooming further. Hints also get faster on every platform, and Windows can now hide the overlay from screen shares.

Migration Guide

Note

List items are hinted by default on Windows and Linux. The default hints.clickable_roles gains "list_item", so the sidebars in Microsoft Store, Settings and Task Manager, and File Explorer's files and folders, now get hints. macOS is unchanged. A config that sets its own clickable_roles keeps its own list, so add "list_item" there to get the new behaviour.

Note

The select event also fires for a snap. on_select hooks and neru watch now see a select with the action snap and the mode it ran in, which can be idle. Nothing changes until you bind snap.

Snap to the nearest element

neru action snap moves the cursor onto the nearest element hints would label, without drawing labels or entering a mode
Inside recursive grid, grid or bisect it searches only the region you narrowed to and keeps the mode open, so the next click aims at the element exactly
When it finds nothing, the cursor stays put and a click in the same binding still lands on the grid's selection
--direction steps to the next element that way, and --role, --text and --strategy narrow the search as they do for hints
Windows and Linux: vision, contour and segment now work inside a grid mode, since Neru's overlay is left out of its own screen captures

[recursive_grid.hotkeys]
"Tab"       = "action snap"
"Shift+Tab" = ["action snap", "action left_click"]

Hints

refresh_hints rescans hints mode with the flags it was opened with, keeping the strategy, filters, action and --on-exit steps. Running hints again moves a --strategy cycle on, or exits with --toggle
Labels redraw as soon as you type. A keystroke that narrowed the matches used to wait 50 ms
contour finds elements about three times faster, and segment about 18% faster, with the same hints as before
macOS: hints appear sooner, since Neru asks the focused app fewer questions per element
Windows and Linux: a hints refresh with vision, contour or segment no longer takes the labels off for the whole scan

[hints.hotkeys]
"Ctrl+R" = "action refresh_hints"

Screen sharing on Windows

general.hide_overlay_in_screen_share and neru toggle-screen-share now work on Windows. Screen shares, screenshots and recordings all leave the overlay out, while your monitor still shows it
Needs Windows 10 version 2004 or later. On an older build Neru logs a warning and leaves the overlay in the share

Lighter on macOS

Every keystroke passes through Neru once, however many global hotkeys you bind. Each binding used to add its own event tap, so every key you typed in any app went through Neru once per binding
An open mode with the cursor still uses under 2% of one core, down from about 20%, since unchanged mode indicators are no longer redrawn 60 times a second

Fixes

Re-running hints with no flags keeps the --role and --text filters, as it already did for strategy and capture scope
macOS: vision, contour and segment no longer put a label on the mouse pointer
Linux: each desktop keeps its own screen-sharing grant, so switching between KDE Plasma and GNOME no longer prompts again. Upgrading does not prompt
Linux: a wlroots capture (Sway, Hyprland, niri) gives up when the caller's deadline does, instead of holding overlay draws for up to two seconds
Windows: the previous mode's overlay no longer flashes when you switch modes quickly

Features

add action snap to move the cursor onto the nearest element (#1898) (02c96d6)
hints: add refresh_hints action to rescan with the same flags (#1886) (f1a7a89)
linux: leave Neru's overlay out of screen captures (#1901) (a28594f)
windows: hide the overlay from screen shares (#1900) (141f0f4)
windows: leave Neru's own windows out of screen captures (#1899) (0596ea3)

Bug Fixes

hints: hint list items by default on windows and linux (#1897) (4e51bc0)
hints: keep filters when hints is re-run (#1888) (9f49fdd)
linux: give up a wlroots capture when the caller's deadline does (#1902) (e4e444e)
linux: keep each desktop's screen-sharing grant apart (#1903) (0e1daa6)
windows: stop the previous mode's overlay flashing on a quick mode switch (#1909) (6d0576c)

Performance Improvements

darwin: serve every global hotkey from one event tap (#1890) (367b78d)
darwin: stop redrawing unchanged mode indicators (#1894) (c9df0fb)
hints: find segment hints faster (#1896) (21bbf6f)
hints: process contour hints screen images faster (#1893) (72b875d)
hints: read only the role when checking a button for a menu (#1892) (ce0d5ce)
hints: redraw narrowed labels without delay (#1889) (6b79477)
hints: remove unnecessary accessibility calls (#1891) (0e3ea97)