react-grab

# React Grab The user selects UI elements in their browser and copies them with React Grab. `npx react-grab@latest pull` waits for new grabs and prints each as one line of JSON (usually one, sometimes a few if several were copied), starting the background watcher automatically the first time. Run it in a loop. ## The loop Repeat until the user says stop: 1. Wait for the next grab: ```bash npx react-grab@latest pull --max-age 0 ``` It blocks until the user grabs something, then prints the new grab(s) — one JSON object per line. `--max-age 0` is important: it delivers every grab regardless of age, so a comment the user added while you were busy on the previous task isn't silently dropped (the default skips grabs older than ~5 min as stale). Act on every line. If your shell cancels the command before a grab arrives, just run it again — nothing is lost; the watcher keeps capturing in the background and `pull` resumes where it left off. 2. Act on the grab (below). 3. Go back to step 1. ## A new grab while you're working wins The watcher never stops capturing — including while you're mid-task. A grab the user makes before you finish is them redirecting you, so it supersedes whatever you're doing. Don't make them wait for the old task to finish. While acting on a grab: - Run anything slow (dev servers, builds, installs, test runs) as a background process, never a blocking foreground call, so you stay free to notice new grabs. - Between steps, peek without blocking: ```bash npx react-grab@latest pull --max-age 0 --wait 0 ``` Empty output means nothing new — keep going. If it prints a grab, the user has moved on: stop the current task, cancel any background processes you started for it, and act on the newest grab instead. ## Acting on a grab Each grab JSON has `content` (the element's source references) and, in prompt mode, `prompt` (the user's typed instruction): - **`prompt` present** → that comment IS the task. Execute it against the grabbed source; `content` holds the references (`// path:line`, `in Component (at …)`), so jump straight to that file. - **No `prompt`** → apply the standing instruction the user set when starting the loop, or, if there is none, triage it (summarize component + `file:line`) and wait for direction. ## Stopping When the user says stop, run this and don't pull again: ```bash npx react-grab@latest stop ``` ## Notes - The watcher reads the clipboard on the machine it runs on — run it on the same machine as the browser, not over SSH or in a remote container.