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Capture Screen (macOS)

Find, control, and screenshot specific macOS application windows programmatically using Swift, AppleScript, and screencapture.

AutomationIntermediate★ 1,348⑂ 215AI score 9/10Last updated: Aug 24, 2026

What it does

  • Locates a numeric Window ID by app or title keyword using Swift + CGWindowListCopyWindowInfo (the only reliable route on macOS).
  • Prepares the view before capture via AppleScript: activate an app, set Excel zoom, scroll to a row/column, switch sheets, select cell ranges.
  • Captures just that window with screencapture -x -l <WID>, supports PNG/JPEG/delay/region, and downsizes Retina 2x output with sips.
  • Documents a "failed approaches" table (System Events window id, PyObjC Quartz) so you avoid dead ends.
  • Includes a Screen Recording permission triage checklist plus one-liners to open the right System Settings pane.

Who it's for

  • macOS users who repeatedly produce screenshots for docs, guides, or release notes.
  • Analysts capturing several consistent views of the same Excel workbook or dashboard.
  • Developers and technical writers automating demo imagery or visual checks.

Examples

  1. "Open model.xlsx, set zoom to 130%, and capture the Summary sheet at rows 1 and 45" → opens the file, sets the view, re-fetches the WID, writes two PNGs.
  2. "Grab only the Chrome window" → swift scripts/get_window_id.swift Chrome, then capture by that WID.
  3. When capture fails with ERROR: Failed to enumerate windows, it opens the Privacy & Security → Screen Recording pane and walks the permission checklist.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/daymade/claude-code-skills/HEAD/capture-screen/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart.
Copy the capture-screen folder from the GitHub repo daymade/claude-code-skills into my ~/.claude/skills/capture-screen/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/daymade/claude-code-skills.git /tmp/claude-code-skills && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r /tmp/claude-code-skills/capture-screen ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities → Terminal).
  2. Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/daymade/claude-code-skills.git
  3. Create the skills folder: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
  4. Copy this skill only: cp -r claude-code-skills/capture-screen ~/.claude/skills/
  5. Make sure Swift is available: xcode-select --install (skip if Xcode Command Line Tools are installed).
  6. Grant Screen Recording permission to your terminal (or the app running Claude Code) in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording, then restart that app.
  7. Restart Claude Code and ask something like "capture the Excel window" to trigger the skill.
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT