search

name	search
description	Search past appshots by app name, window title, URL, or captured text

Search AppShots

Use when you need to find a specific earlier capture by searching app name, window title, browser URL, or on-screen text content.

When to use

• User asks to "find the screenshot of [thing]" or "where did we capture that"
• You need to revisit a past capture from minutes or hours ago
• Searching by window title: "find the Settings window"
• Searching by app: "show me all Chrome captures"
• Searching by URL: "find the GitHub issue we were looking at"
• Searching by text: "find the capture with 'error 404'"

What it does

Invokes the search_appshots MCP tool, which searches the indexed appshot history (~/.appshots/index.json):

1. Queries app executable name, window title, page URL, and accessibility tree text
2. Returns up to 20 matches (configurable limit) sorted by recency
3. Each result includes capture metadata: app, title, URL, timestamp, capture directory path
4. Lets you load a specific capture without a fresh screenshot

Parameters

• query (required): search term(s) — app name, window title, URL fragment, or on-screen text
• limit (optional): number of results to return, default 20, min 1, max 100

Output

Returns a JSON array of serialized capture records; the key fields:

• id: unique capture identifier
• appName / bundleID: the captured application
• windowTitle: window title
• pageURL: page URL if a browser was captured
• createdAt: capture time (ISO 8601)
• directoryPath: directory path to access the full capture

Related

• get_latest_appshot — fetch the most recent capture directly
• take_appshot — capture the current window right now
• list_appshots — browse recent captures without searching