Mouse Tracker Overlay

This project opens a translucent overlay that highlights your mouse cursor, draws color-coded markers for clicks, paints drag trails that fade out after a few seconds, and (optionally) shows the keys you currently have pressed. It is handy for demos, tutorials, or tracking your own activity.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9 or newer
• pip (typically bundled with Python)

Setup

# Clone or download this project, then from the repo directory:
python -m venv .venv
.\\.venv\\Scripts\\Activate.ps1
pip install -r requirements.txt

Running the overlay

python mouse_overlay.py

This launches the always-on-top overlay and a minimal control panel where you can toggle individual effects or edit config.json live. Pass --nogui if you want to run only the overlay without the control panel.

Keyboard shortcuts (customize them in config.json):

• Ctrl+Shift+Q — quit the overlay
• Ctrl+Shift+A — toggle freehand drawing
• Ctrl+Shift+S — toggle cursor ring + comet tail
• Ctrl+Shift+D — toggle all click effects
• Ctrl+Shift+F — hold to spotlight the cursor

You can also click the control panel's quit button to exit. Adjust any other values in the same file to tweak colors, sizes, timings, or behavior; changes apply immediately when saved from the panel or on the next launch. Press Ctrl+Shift+Q to exit the overlay (customize exit_hotkey in config.json). Adjust any other values in the same file to tweak colors, sizes, timings, or behavior; changes apply the next time you launch the script.

Keyboard display

The key overlay is enabled by default and presents held keys along the bottom edge of the screen with a quick pop-in animation. Tweak the key_display_* settings in config.json to change sizing, spacing, colors, corner radius, or animation timings, or set key_display_enabled to false to turn it off.