CueTray compared with screenshot tools, todo apps and AI queues
Screenshot tools capture and mark up an image, but the instruction and the hand-off are up to you. Todo apps keep the instruction, but you capture and attach the image yourself, and the task lives in their cloud. The queues built into Claude Code, Codex and Cursor send your next message as soon as the agent is free. CueTray sits between them: it keeps each screenshot and its instruction together as a numbered cue inside the project, and the cue waits until you hand it over with /next-cue.
Every price and behavior below comes from each product's own pages, checked on October 20, 2026 and linked so you can check again.
| Tool | Screenshot and instruction together | Waits until you're ready | Gets to your AI tool | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CueTray | Yes, as one numbered cue per project | Yes, on your disk, in the order you choose | /next-cue in Claude Code and Gemini CLI, $next-cue in Codex; Copy for the rest | $14.99 once, after a 14-day trial |
| Snipping Tool | You can draw on the image; no separate note | Saved to your Screenshots folder | You paste it by hand | Free, part of Windows |
| Snagit | Markup on the image | Kept in its Library | You paste it by hand | $39 a year per user |
| ShareX | Markup on the image | Saved or uploaded | You paste it by hand | Free, open source |
| Microsoft To Do | You attach an image to a task | Yes, in Microsoft's cloud | No built-in hand-off | Free with a personal Microsoft account |
| Todoist | You attach an image to a task | Yes, in Todoist's cloud | Claude Code can read your tasks through Todoist's own connection | Pro: $7 a month or $60 a year |
| Claude Code's queue | You can paste images into a message | No: sent as soon as Claude's current step finishes | Built in | Part of Claude Code |
| Codex's queue | You can paste images into the message box | No: sent at the next turn | Built in | Part of Codex |
| Cursor's queue | Not stated in its docs | No: runs as soon as the agent is free, one at a time | Built in | Part of Cursor |
| Pinpoint (Mac) | Yes: numbered markers with notes | Keeps your 10 most recent hand-offs | Copies to the clipboard; also has a command-line tool and an MCP server | Free, open source |
Screenshot tools: Snipping Tool, Snagit and ShareX
Snipping Tool comes with Windows and costs nothing. It captures a rectangle, a window, the full screen, a freeform shape or a video, gives you a pen, highlighter and shapes, and saves every snip to your Screenshots folder on its own. Its Text actions copy the text out of a snip, processed on your computer.
Snagit runs on Windows and Mac and has a far larger editor. It's a subscription, $39 a year per user, with a 15-day trial, and its Library can sit in OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive.
ShareX is free and open source, Windows only. It adds scrolling and GIF capture, text recognition, and uploads to a long list of destinations.
All three are better screenshot tools than CueTray, whose markup is a box, an arrow, a pen and a highlighter. What none of them does is the part after the snip: keeping the instruction with the screenshot, under the right project, until your AI tool is ready for it. You don't have to choose, either. CueTray takes pasted and dropped images, so a Snagit or ShareX capture can go straight into a cue.
Todo apps: Microsoft To Do and Todoist
Microsoft To Do is free with a personal Microsoft account (work and school accounts need a Microsoft 365 plan with Exchange Online). Tasks are stored in Microsoft's cloud, and a task can hold files up to 25 MB. It doesn't capture screenshots, and there's no built-in way for an AI tool to pick a task up.
Todoist needs an account and keeps tasks in its cloud. Pro costs $7 a month or $60 a year. It has an official Claude Code connection, so Claude can work with your tasks. Todoist's help pages don't say whether that connection hands Claude the images attached to a task.
Todo apps do things CueTray doesn't try to: sync across devices, share with a team, due dates and reminders. CueTray exists because a notepad or a todo app kept my words but not my screenshots.
The queues in Claude Code, Codex and Cursor
In Claude Code, you type a message and press Enter while Claude is working. Claude Code holds it and passes it to Claude as soon as the current tool calls finish, within the same turn; anything still queued when the turn ends goes out in the order you typed it. Ctrl+Enter sends it right away, Up takes it back to edit, and Alt+V on Windows pastes an image into the message.
In Codex, Tab queues a follow-up for the next turn and Enter adds it to the current one. Its codex queue command queues a text message for a session, without images. In Cursor, Enter while the agent works adds a message to a queue that runs one at a time, in order, and you can drag queued messages into a new order.
These queues need nothing installed and no extra step, so when you know what you want next and want it done next, use them. They're built to deliver soon: the message goes as soon as the agent can take it. CueTray is for what you're not ready to send. A cue waits on disk with its screenshots, stays put when you /clear or close VS Code, can go on hold, and goes only when you run /next-cue.
Screenshot-to-AI tools
Pinpoint is the closest in spirit: you place numbered markers with notes on a screenshot, and it copies the marked-up image plus the text to the clipboard. It keeps your 10 most recent hand-offs and comes with a command-line tool and an MCP server, so an agent can fetch the last capture. It's free and open source, for macOS 15 and later. Its hand-offs aren't kept in your project or put in a line you control.
Agentation is a toolbar you add to your own React app while you develop it: click an element, write a note, and your agent reads the notes through MCP, each marked pending, acknowledged, resolved or dismissed. It's free for individuals and for companies' internal use, and it only works inside a web app you're building. AInotate works the other way round: the agent takes the screenshot and marks it up for you.
Where CueTray loses
- It runs on Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit) only. On a Mac, look at Pinpoint.
- It isn't a screenshot editor: no video, no scrolling capture, no text recognition.
- There's no sync, no team sharing, no due dates and no reminders.
- The command is for Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI. Other tools work through Copy and paste: you paste each cue yourself and mark it done afterwards.
- After the trial it costs $14.99, where Snipping Tool, ShareX and the built-in queues cost nothing.
Which one to use
- You want your next message sent as soon as the agent is free: your AI tool's own queue.
- You need a polished screenshot or video for docs or a bug report: Snagit, ShareX or Snipping Tool.
- The task needs a due date, a reminder or a teammate: a todo app.
- You're on a Mac: Pinpoint.
- You keep spotting the next fix while the agent is busy, and you're not ready to send it: CueTray. The screenshot and the instruction wait together in the right project, in the order you choose, until you run
/next-cue.
Every feature is free for 14 days, with no card or account. Download CueTray for Windows, or read the guide first.