Take a screenshot of the plugin UI using the standalone app CLI for debugging and documentation
Installation
Details
Usage
After installing, this skill will be available to your AI coding assistant.
Verify installation:
skills listSkill Instructions
name: screenshot description: Take a screenshot of the plugin UI using the standalone app CLI for debugging and documentation
Screenshot Plugin UI
Use this skill to capture screenshots of the plugin UI. This is useful for:
- Debugging UI design - Quickly verify control layouts, colors, and positioning without launching a DAW
- Documentation - Generate consistent screenshots for README files and wikis
- CI/CD pipelines - Automated visual regression testing or asset generation
Prerequisites
Build the standalone app (APP target) first:
cd [ProjectFolder]
xcodebuild -project "./projects/[ProjectName]-macOS.xcodeproj" -target APP -configuration Debug
The app will be built to ~/Applications/[PluginName].app
Take Screenshot
macOS
~/Applications/[PluginName].app/Contents/MacOS/[PluginName] --screenshot /path/to/output.png
Example
# Take screenshot of IPlugEffect
~/Applications/IPlugEffect.app/Contents/MacOS/IPlugEffect --screenshot ./screenshot.png
The app will:
- Launch and display the UI (audio/MIDI I/O is automatically disabled)
- Wait ~500ms for the UI to fully render
- Capture the window to a PNG file
- Exit automatically
Options
--screenshot <path>- Path to save the PNG screenshot (required)--no-io- Explicitly disable audio/MIDI (implicit when using --screenshot)
Tips
- Screenshots are high-DPI (Retina) resolution on supported displays
- The screenshot captures the plugin content area
- For iterative UI debugging, rebuild the APP target and re-run the screenshot command
- Combine with the
buildskill: build first, then screenshot
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