claude-plugins: add headless-screenshot skill to base

Captures a lesson from this session: "no browser in this container"
usually means no browser pre-installed, not unreachable. nixpkgs#chromium
is a `nix shell` away and one headless invocation renders a page +
writes a PNG, no puppeteer/playwright needed for a static screenshot.

Every agent hits "I have no browser" sooner or later when reviewing a
frontend change; this has been rediscovered independently across
several sessions rather than remembered. Belongs in base (every agent
needs it, not role-specific) alongside the sibling skills already
there.
This commit is contained in:
iris 2026-08-12 18:31:55 +02:00
commit 086f3f43d6

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---
name: headless-screenshot
description: Take a real screenshot of an HTML/CSS page from inside a container with no browser installed - `nix shell nixpkgs#chromium --command chromium --headless=new --disable-gpu --no-sandbox --screenshot=<out.png> --window-size=<w>,<h> "file://<path-or-url>"` renders the page and writes a PNG in one command, no puppeteer/playwright or pre-installed browser needed (only needed for scripted interaction like clicking, not a static render). Use this whenever you're about to claim a CSS/layout/frontend change looks right, whenever a PR reviewer or the operator asks to see a screenshot of a web UI change, or before asking a peer GUI-testing agent to screenshot something you could just render yourself - reasoning about a visual change from source or compiled CSS alone is not the same as actually seeing it rendered, and a real browser is one shell command away even when `which chromium` comes back empty.
---
# Headless Screenshot
"No browser in this container" usually means no browser is
*pre-installed*, not that one is unreachable. `nixpkgs#chromium` is a
`nix shell` away, and a single headless invocation renders a page and
writes a PNG without a running server, a display, or any scripted
interaction library.
## The command
```
nix shell nixpkgs#chromium --command chromium \
--headless=new --disable-gpu --no-sandbox \
--screenshot=/path/to/out.png \
--window-size=1200,900 \
"file:///path/to/page.html"
```
- `--no-sandbox` is required inside most agent containers (no user
namespaces for Chromium's sandbox); `--disable-gpu` sidesteps GPU
init failures in a headless environment. Both are safe defaults here
- this isn't a browser you're exposing to untrusted input.
- The target can be a local `file://` path or a real `http(s)://` URL
(a dev server, a served `dist/`, a deployed page) - same command
either way.
- `--window-size` sets the viewport; match it to what you actually want
to see (a narrow width to check a mobile layout, a wide one for a
dashboard row).
- Swap `--screenshot=` for `--dump-dom=` to get the rendered DOM as
text instead of an image - useful for confirming markup/attributes
landed correctly without needing to eyeball pixels.
Stray `dbus`/`UPower` errors on stderr are harmless container noise
(no session bus, no power daemon) - ignore them as long as the PNG
file actually gets written.
## When source-reading isn't enough
Grepping compiled CSS or tracing class names tells you the rules
exist and target the right selectors - it doesn't tell you what the
result actually looks like (wrong tier picked, two rules fighting,
a value that's technically correct but visually off). Before telling
someone a layout/CSS change "looks right," or before reaching for a
peer agent's GUI-testing capability, try rendering it yourself first:
- **Testing a real page**: serve the built `dist/` (or point at
wherever it's already deployed) and screenshot that - it's the
actual production bundle, not a reconstruction.
- **Testing an isolated CSS change** (e.g. a shared stylesheet used
by several pages): a small self-contained HTML file with the real
CSS inlined and a few representative markup samples is faster to
build than standing up a server, and just as honest about what the
CSS actually renders.
- **Attach it**: post the PNG as a PR/issue comment (or file
attachment) alongside a one-line note on what it's rendered from -
a reviewer with no browser either benefits from the same shortcut.
## What this doesn't replace
This is a static render, not a browser automation tool. Verifying an
interaction (a click, a hover state, a form submission) needs
puppeteer/playwright or similar - reach for those only when the
question is genuinely about *behavior*, not appearance. A missing
emoji/glyph rendering as a box in the screenshot is usually a font
availability artifact of the headless environment, not a real bug -
don't mistake one for the other when reporting results.