What It Does
Take a screenshot the way you always do, with shiftcommand4 or any of the others. A few seconds after macOS saves it, Nomen renames it to say what is in it.
A few names it gave real screenshots: wine-cellar-barrels.png, toll-booth-barrier-stand.png, clock-two-faces-building.png, star-raiders-cover.png. A folder of those is a folder you can search.
The work happens on your Mac, using the on-device model that comes with Apple Intelligence. There is no account, no upload, no subscription and no limit.
How It Names a Screenshot
- Nomen notices the new screenshot. macOS marks every screenshot it saves, so Nomen recognises one whatever it is called and whichever folder it lands in.
- It works out which app the screenshot came from, from the window under the area you captured.
- It reads the text in the screenshot with Vision.
- The on-device model looks at the screenshot and its text, and describes it in one sentence.
- The model turns that description into a short name, and Nomen renames the file.
Describing first matters. Asked for a name straight away, the model leaned on the text and ignored the picture, and an aerial photo of the Pentagon came back as main-image. Asked to describe it first, it said it was an aerial view of the Pentagon, and the name followed from that.
The app is used as context, not as part of the name, unless the screenshot is about the app itself, such as its error message or its settings. A web browser never is: a screenshot taken in Safari or Chrome is of the page, so Nomen leaves the browser’s name out of the name.
Undo
A small model sometimes picks the wrong words, so a rename can be put back. The menu lists the last 20 renames, each with Show in Finder and Undo, and the list survives a restart.
Two screenshots of the same thing get -2, -3 and so on, so one never replaces the other.
The Menu
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Recently Renamed | The last 20 renames, each with Show in Finder and Undo |
| Pause Naming | Stops renaming until you choose it again. The menu-bar tag gets a line through it |
| Open Screenshot Folder | Opens the folder Nomen is watching |
| Check for Updates… | Checks for a new version now |
Settings
Click the tag in the menu bar and choose Settings….
- Names come from: shows whether names come from Apple Intelligence or from simple rules, and why.
- Keep the date in the name: adds the time you took the screenshot, the way macOS writes it:
stripe-dashboard 2026-10-01 at 14.04.21.png. Off by default. - Folder: the folder Nomen is watching. Nomen follows the folder macOS saves screenshots to; change it in the Screenshot app, with shiftcommand5 and then Options.
- Launch at Login, menu-bar icon visibility and the optional menu-bar icon background.
Only screenshots taken while Nomen is running are renamed. It never touches the ones already in your folder.
Updates are handled by Sparkle. Nomen checks once a day in the background, and Check for Updates… checks on demand.
Privacy
Screenshots are some of the most private files on a Mac. They catch conversations, documents and error messages from work, often by accident. So Nomen keeps everything on your Mac:
- The text is read by Vision, on your Mac.
- The description and the name come from the on-device model. Nomen never uses Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, the server-side model the same framework offers.
- No analytics, no telemetry. The only network connection is the daily update check.
Permissions
None, in the usual setup. Nomen works out which app a screenshot came from without Screen Recording permission, and does not ask for it.
If your screenshots are saved to the Desktop, Documents or Downloads, macOS asks once whether Nomen may see that folder.
Without Apple Intelligence
The model needs an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 26 or later and Apple Intelligence turned on. On macOS 27 it looks at the screenshot itself; on macOS 26 it reads the text in it.
Without it, Nomen still works. It names screenshots from the app they came from and the first substantial words in them, which is plainer but never makes anything up.
Installation
Download the installer, or:
- Download Nomen.zip from the link above
- Unzip and drag
Nomen.appto your Applications folder - Double-click to launch. A tag appears in the menu bar
Or install it with Homebrew: brew install --cask perpetualbeta/jorvik/nomen
Building from Source
Nomen uses Swift Package Manager. No Xcode project is required.
- Clone the repo:
git clone https://github.com/PerpetualBeta/Nomen.git - Run
gmake build - Launch with
open .build/Nomen.app
Requirements
macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later. Universal binary (Apple silicon and Intel). For names from Apple Intelligence: Apple silicon, macOS 26 or later, and Apple Intelligence turned on.