https://github.com/ddegner/cat-scratches
A Safari extension for creating a draft out of a safari tab. Now free on the App Store!
https://github.com/ddegner/cat-scratches
draftsapp safari-extension website
Last synced: 2 months ago
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A Safari extension for creating a draft out of a safari tab. Now free on the App Store!
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/ddegner/cat-scratches
- Owner: ddegner
- License: mit
- Created: 2025-06-19T02:00:30.000Z (12 months ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-04-10T02:28:22.000Z (2 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-04-10T04:24:06.702Z (2 months ago)
- Topics: draftsapp, safari-extension, website
- Language: JavaScript
- Homepage: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cat-scratches/id6749605278?mt=12 Cat Scratches
- Size: 66.3 MB
- Stars: 12
- Watchers: 0
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# Cat Scratches
The fastest and most elegant way to capture content from the web and send it directly to the Drafts app, perfectly formatted and ready for action.
**Author:** David Degner
**Website:** [daviddegner.com](https://www.daviddegner.com)
**Source Code, bugs, and feature requests:** [github.com/ddegner/cat-scratches](https://github.com/ddegner/cat-scratches)
## App Store Update (v2.2.1)
Cat Scratches v2.2.1 is available on the App Store for both iOS and macOS:
[Cat Scratches on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cat-scratches/id6749605278)
New in v2.2.x:
- **Localization**: Full UI translations for Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, and Vietnamese
- **Better content extraction**: Fixed HTML entity decoding that was silently destroying characters like em dashes, curly quotes, and accented letters
- **Reliability**: Prevented duplicate drafts from rapid double-clicks or repeated keyboard shortcut presses
Advanced settings include a Drafts URL Scheme toggle (`Create URL` or `Action URL`) plus a Drafts action field, so you can run post-processing actions from Drafts. If a page is not parsing correctly, use the Selector Finder under the Advanced tab to get AI-powered parsing suggestions.
GitHub release binaries are macOS-only: each release publishes one Developer ID-signed, notarized, stapled macOS zip. iOS binaries are distributed through TestFlight/App Store, not GitHub assets.
- David
## 🚀 Features
### Intelligent, Context-Aware Capture
- **Smart Selection**: Highlight any text on a page and capture only your selection
- **Full-Page Capture**: When nothing is selected, automatically captures the main content
- **Clean Content Detection**: Automatically finds article content, avoiding navigation and ads
- **Customizable Content Selection**: Configure the CSS selectors used to find content on pages
### Keyboard-First Workflow
- **One-Key Operation**: Press `⌘⇧D` (or your custom shortcut) to instantly capture and send to Drafts
- **Speed of Thought**: No menus, no clicks, just pure efficiency
- **Flow State Friendly**: Stays out of your way while you research and browse
- **Customizable Shortcuts**: Set your preferred keyboard shortcut combination
### Perfect Formatting
- **Automatic HTML-to-Markdown**: Clean, readable conversion that preserves structure
- **Smart Headers**: Web headings become proper Markdown headers
- **Preserved Links**: All links maintained in `[text](url)` format
- **Source Attribution**: Every draft includes the original URL for reference
- **Customizable Output**: Configure how drafts are formatted with custom templates
### Clean Output Structure
Every captured draft follows this elegant format:
```markdown
# Page Title
---
Your captured content here, perfectly formatted in Markdown...
```
## 🛠 Setup
1. **Install the Extension**: Build and install the Safari extension from Xcode
2. **Enable in Safari**: Go to Safari → Settings → Extensions → Enable Cat Scratches
3. **Configure Permissions**:
- Go to Safari → Settings → Extensions → Cat Scratches
- Choose "Allow on Every Website" for seamless operation
4. **Set Up Drafts Permission**:
- **First time users** will see a macOS dialog: "Do you want to allow this website to open 'Drafts'?"
- Click "Allow" and **check "Remember my choice"** to prevent future prompts
- Alternative: Safari → Settings → Websites → Pop-ups and Redirects → Set to "Allow"
5. **Customize Shortcut** (Optional): Change the keyboard shortcut in Safari → Settings → Extensions → Cat Scratches
6. **Configure Settings** (Optional): Click the Cat Scratches toolbar icon and select "⚙️ Settings" to customize content selection, filtering, and output format
7. **Install Drafts**: Make sure you have [Drafts](https://getdrafts.com) installed on your Mac
## ⚡ Usage
### The 2-Second Workflow
1. **Find & Highlight**: Browse the web, highlight interesting text (or don't, to save the whole page)
2. **Capture Content**:
- **Keyboard shortcut**: Press `⌘⇧D` (or your custom shortcut)
- **Toolbar button**: Click the Cat Scratches button in Safari's toolbar
3. **Done**: Drafts opens with your content, perfectly formatted and ready to use
### Pro Tips
- **Select Before Capturing**: Highlight specific quotes, paragraphs, or sections for precision capture
- **Full Articles**: Don't select anything to capture the entire article with smart content detection
- **Research Workflow**: Use this for collecting research, saving quotes, or building reading lists
- **Writer's Tool**: Perfect for gathering inspiration, quotes, and reference material
### Customization Options
- **Content Selection**: Choose from preset content selection strategies or define custom CSS selectors
- **Content Filtering**: Control what elements are removed (images, ads, navigation, comments)
- **Output Format**: Customize how drafts are formatted with templates and formatting options
- **Keyboard Shortcuts**: Set your preferred key combination for capturing content
## 🔧 Technical Details
- Built with Safari Web Extensions API for maximum compatibility and performance
- Uses Turndown.js for reliable HTML-to-Markdown conversion
- Direct integration with Drafts via x-callback-url for instant workflow
- Secure sandbox execution for privacy and stability
- Comprehensive settings interface for complete customization
## 📝 Perfect For
- **Researchers**: Quickly save academic articles, papers, and references
- **Writers**: Collect inspiration, quotes, and source material
- **Students**: Build research collections and study materials
- **Knowledge Workers**: Create a personal knowledge base from web content
---
*Built for speed, designed for elegance, optimized for your workflow.*
## 🔧 Troubleshooting
**"Do you want to allow this website to open 'Drafts'?" dialog appears:**
- This is normal for first-time use
- Click "Allow" and check "Remember my choice"
- Future uses won't show this dialog
**Extension doesn't work on some sites:**
- Check Safari → Settings → Extensions → Cat Scratches
- Ensure "Allow on Every Website" is selected
**Drafts doesn't open:**
- Make sure Drafts app is installed
- Check that you clicked "Allow" in the permission dialog
## 📞 Support
For bug reports, feature requests, or contributions, please visit our [GitHub repository](https://github.com/ddegner/cat-scratches).
**Author:** David Degner
**Website:** https://www.daviddegner.com