scitex-capture

Session-based screen capture — single screenshots, multi-frame sessions → animated GIFs, grid overlays, monitor + cursor info. Optimised for WSL→Windows host and for AI agents that need a "what does my screen look like right now" tool.

Full Documentation · uv pip install scitex-capture[all]

Architecture

scitex-capture/
├── src/scitex_capture/
│   ├── __init__.py              # snap, start, stop, gif, get_info
│   ├── _snap.py                 # one-shot screenshot (mss + Pillow)
│   ├── _session.py              # interval capture session manager
│   ├── _gif.py                  # multi-frame -> animated GIF / grid
│   ├── _info.py                 # monitor + cursor introspection
│   ├── _wsl.py                  # WSL -> Windows host bridge
│   ├── _cli/                    # scitex-capture entrypoint
│   ├── _mcp_tools/              # MCP server (opt-in)
│   └── playwright/              # browser-side capture (opt-in)
└── tests/                       # 146/146 pass

Installation

pip install scitex-capture
pip install "scitex-capture[mcp]"          # + MCP server
pip install "scitex-capture[playwright]"   # + browser capture
pip install "scitex-capture[all]"          # everything

2 Interfaces

import scitex_capture as cap

# One-shot screenshot
path = cap.snap("debug message")
path = cap.snap(capture_all=True)

# Inspect monitors / windows
info = cap.get_info()

# Continuous session capture
session_id = cap.start(interval=2)
# ... do work ...
cap.stop(session_id)
gif_path = cap.gif(session_id)

# Latest session
gif = cap.create_gif_from_latest_session()

scitex-capture --help
scitex-capture snap "debug message"
scitex-capture start --interval 2
scitex-capture stop <session-id>
scitex-capture gif <session-id>

Demo

sequenceDiagram
    participant U as user / agent
    participant C as scitex_capture
    participant M as mss + Pillow
    participant F as filesystem
    U->>C: cap.start(interval=2)
    loop every 2s
        C->>M: grab frame
        M-->>C: PNG bytes
        C->>F: write frame_NNN.png
    end
    U->>C: cap.stop(session_id)
    U->>C: cap.gif(session_id)
    C-->>F: session.gif (animated)

Status

Standalone fork of scitex.capture. Only deps are Pillow + mss (with playwright + mcp as opt-ins). The umbrella package's scitex.capture import path is preserved via a sys.modules-alias bridge. 146/146 tests pass.

Part of SciTeX

scitex-capture is part of SciTeX. Install via the umbrella with pip install scitex[capture] to use as scitex.capture (Python) or scitex capture ... (CLI).

Four Freedoms for Research

0. The freedom to run your research anywhere — your machine, your terms.
1. The freedom to study how every step works — from raw data to final manuscript.
2. The freedom to redistribute your workflows, not just your papers.
3. The freedom to modify any module and share improvements with the community.

AGPL-3.0 — because we believe research infrastructure deserves the same freedoms as the software it runs on.

License

AGPL-3.0-only (see LICENSE).