Support

Something not working, or an idea for OnDraw? Email hello@altstead.com and we'll get back to you, usually within two business days. Telling us your macOS version and what you were doing helps a lot.

Getting started

OnDraw lives in the menu bar at the top right of your screen (the pencil-in-a-circle icon). It has no Dock icon, so it stays out of your recordings. Open it from Launchpad or the Applications folder any time to see the welcome window again.

Click Draw on Screen in its menu, or press ⌃⌥D, and the toolbar appears. Click a tool and draw. Click Close on the toolbar or press Esc when you're done.

Hotkeys

Tap a hotkey to switch something on until you tap it again or press Esc. Hold it to use it only while you hold it. You can change all of them in OnDraw → Settings → Shortcuts.

Hotkey	Does
`⌃⌥D`	Draw on screen
`⌃⌥W`	Whiteboard
`⌃⌥B`	Blackboard
`⌃⌥H`	Cursor highlight on or off
`⌃⌥S`	Spotlight
`⌃⌥L`	Laser pointer
`⌃⌥K`	Show keystrokes
`⌃⌥T`	Break timer

While drawing, press ? for every shortcut, or / to hide and show the toolbar.

My keystrokes don't show up

The keystroke display needs Input Monitoring permission. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring and turn on OnDraw. If macOS asks, choose Quit & Reopen. OnDraw → Settings → Keystrokes shows whether the permission is on.

"Shortcuts only" mode shows key combinations like ⌘S, but never plain typing, so passwords never appear on screen.

Connecting an AI assistant

OnDraw includes an MCP server, so AI apps can draw arrows, boxes, labels and step numbers, dim the screen around an area, and show captions while you record. Turn it on or off in OnDraw → Settings → AI, which also has these commands with Copy buttons.

Claude Code: run this once in Terminal, then start a new session.

claude mcp add --scope user ondraw -- /Applications/OnDraw.app/Contents/MacOS/OnDraw --mcp

Claude Desktop and other MCP apps: add OnDraw to the app's MCP servers. For Claude Desktop that's Settings → Developer → Edit Config, inside "mcpServers":

"ondraw": { "command": "/Applications/OnDraw.app/Contents/MacOS/OnDraw", "args": ["--mcp"] }

The AI can only control OnDraw's drawings. It can't see your screen, read your keystrokes, or click or type in other apps.

Refunds

OnDraw is sold by Apple on the Mac App Store, so refunds go through Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.

Uninstalling

Quit OnDraw from its menu, then drag it from Applications to the Trash.