SelfSnap Win11

SelfSnap Win11 is a Windows 11-only, local-first screenshot tray app for personal use. It captures all connected monitors on manual or scheduled runs, stores images locally, and records honest SQLite metadata about what happened.

Current version: v1.3.2. Technical release history lives in CHANGELOG.md.

This repository currently tracks the stable public release line on main.

SelfSnap is offline by default. The only user-triggered network actions are opening a browser for Report Issue and using Check for Updates, which queries the GitHub Releases API and optionally fetches the new release tag. There is no telemetry or silent upload in normal runtime.

Start here by need

Use this table as the main jump surface. Every linked README below links back to the others, so you can move between product overview, active docs, and archive material without losing your place.

If you want to...	Start here
understand the product quickly	README.md
browse the full documentation map	docs/README.md
install, update, reinstall, or uninstall	docs/user/INSTALL_AND_UPDATE.md
browse all current user docs	docs/user/README.md
troubleshoot a problem	docs/user/TROUBLESHOOTING.md
review commands and CLI behavior	docs/user/CLI_REFERENCE.md
review common UI and tray flows	docs/user/WORKFLOWS.md
change or validate product behavior	docs/developer/README.md
inspect archived or historical material	docs/archive/README.md

Current state

• Public stable v1.3.2 Windows 11 utility with Fluent-style UI, responsive design, hardened setup and install flows, and downloadable Windows packages
• Current main is the stable public GitHub face of the app
• Hybrid tray plus Windows Task Scheduler model for recurring capture
• Source-based install with a checkout-local .venv is the primary supported path
• Successful main builds publish downloadable Windows artifacts through GitHub Actions
• Technical release history lives in CHANGELOG.md

What SelfSnap covers

• Windows 11 only
• Logged-in desktop session only
• Manual capture and recurring schedules
• Local image output with configurable png, jpeg, or webp formats
• Local SQLite metadata and rotating text logs
• No cloud sync, telemetry, or stealth behavior

Privacy and storage

SelfSnap stores screenshots locally. Screenshots may contain sensitive information such as messages, credentials, finance pages, or work material. v1 does not encrypt captures at rest. Use only on a machine and storage location you control.

Default app data lives under %LOCALAPPDATA%\SelfSnap\. Default image storage lives under %USERPROFILE%\Pictures\SelfSnap\. The OneDrive preset uses %OneDrive%\Pictures\SelfSnap\ when available. For the full storage preset mapping, config fields, schedule schema, and runtime paths, use docs/user/CONFIG_REFERENCE.md and docs/user/WORKFLOWS.md.

Quick start

Important: Always use the .venv created by scripts/user/setup.ps1. The Windows Store Python stub (default python on many Windows 11 machines) is Python 3.11 and is not used by SelfSnap. User-facing lifecycle scripts live under scripts/user/, and developer-only automation lives under scripts/developer/. All user scripts auto-detect .venv\Scripts\python.exe — no explicit -PythonExe flag needed.

First install

# 1. Create the virtual environment
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\user\setup.ps1

# 2. Install the app, wrapper, and startup shortcut
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\user\install.ps1

Common commands after install

SelfSnap tray
SelfSnap capture --trigger manual
SelfSnap diag
SelfSnap reinstall

If SelfSnap is already installed, SelfSnap reinstall is the fastest refresh path. Or from the tray menu: Reinstall.

Common commands from source

.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
python -m selfsnap tray
python -m selfsnap capture --trigger manual
python -m selfsnap diag

For the full lifecycle and command surface, use docs/user/INSTALL_AND_UPDATE.md, docs/user/CLI_REFERENCE.md, and docs/user/README.md.

Where detailed guidance lives

The top-level README stays compact on purpose. The detailed operational and reference material lives here:

• docs/README.md: full documentation map and cross-hub routing
• docs/user/README.md: current user-facing setup, config, workflow, and troubleshooting guides
• docs/user/INSTALL_AND_UPDATE.md: setup, install, update, reinstall, and uninstall guidance
• docs/user/CLI_REFERENCE.md: full selfsnap command surface
• docs/user/CONFIG_REFERENCE.md: config keys, storage behavior, and schedule schema
• docs/user/WORKFLOWS.md: schedules, tray flows, Settings behavior, and day-to-day usage
• docs/user/TROUBLESHOOTING.md: diagnostics-first recovery steps and safe issue reporting
• docs/developer/README.md: active product, architecture, and validation contract
• docs/archive/README.md: archived historical and release material
• scripts/README.md, scripts/user/README.md, and scripts/developer/README.md: script entrypoint indexes

How to add scheduled captures

Use docs/user/WORKFLOWS.md for the full step-by-step flow. The compact summary here keeps the top-level README aligned with the current scheduling contract.

• Supported formats are Every N seconds/minutes/hours/days/weeks/months/years.
• New schedules start from Every 1 day, start date = today, and start time = now in local time.
• You can type the date and time by hand if you want a custom anchor.
• Multi-select is for deleting several schedules at once.
• High-frequency schedules such as seconds and minutes are tray-managed while the tray is running.
• Coarser schedules such as hours, days, weeks, months, and years are Windows Task Scheduler-backed.

Development, validation, and cleanup

pytest

Full pytest runs enforce the repo coverage gate at 90%. Pytest temp directories are intentionally kept out of the repo under %LOCALAPPDATA%\SelfSnap\pytest\tmp, the pytest cache provider is disabled, and the pytest config explicitly ignores repo-local temp and cache folders such as .pytest_cache, .pytest_tmp, .pytest-work, and pytest-cache-files-*.

Use scripts/developer/cleanup_repo_artifacts.ps1 to remove local artifacts such as cov_annotate/, .coverage, coverage.xml, .pytest_cache/, .pytest_tmp/, .pytest-work/, pytest-cache-files-*, build/, dist/, and *.egg-info/. Use -ListOnly to preview and -RepairAcl when ACL ownership blocks removal.

Packaging and GitHub automation

• scripts/developer/build.ps1 builds the raw SelfSnapTray.exe and SelfSnapWorker.exe binaries.
• scripts/developer/package_windows.ps1 builds the portable ZIP, per-user MSI, and setup EXE under artifacts/windows/.
• .github/workflows/ci.yml keeps the repo healthy on pushes and pull requests with Windows-based compile smoke checks and pytest.
• .github/workflows/package-main.yml runs after a successful CI push to main and uploads downloadable Windows artifacts (portable.zip, .msi, -setup.exe) to the workflow run.
• .github/workflows/release.yml creates GitHub releases automatically for future version tags and attaches the Windows artifacts to the tagged release.
• .github/workflows/issue-intake.yml preprocesses new issues, applies managed labels, and posts a planning starter comment for maintainer triage.
• Report Issue always opens a browser-based GitHub issue flow. SELFSNAP_GITHUB_REPO can override the default issue destination if you are working from a fork.

Documentation sync points

When a doc or user-visible behavior changes, these are the default go-to companions to review in the same pass:

• Setup, install, update, reinstall, or uninstall changes: README.md, docs/user/README.md, docs/user/INSTALL_AND_UPDATE.md, docs/user/TROUBLESHOOTING.md, and scripts/user/README.md
• CLI commands, tray actions, or common user flows: README.md, docs/user/CLI_REFERENCE.md, docs/user/WORKFLOWS.md, and docs/user/README.md
• Product, runtime, or validation contract changes: docs/developer/README.md, docs/developer/product-requirements-document-v1.md, docs/developer/software-requirements-specification-and-architecture-v1.md, and docs/developer/validation-checklist.md
• Archive additions, removals, or reclassification: docs/README.md, docs/archive/README.md, and the affected archive-folder README

License

This repository is public for visibility and issue tracking, but the code remains under the proprietary personal-use terms in LICENSE.