TechSmith Desktop Automation CI

Overview

This skill separates portable checks from workstation-only product execution. Pull requests can validate scripts, enum contracts, manifests, and fixtures without installing licensed desktop software; a protected Windows lane may run a bounded smoke test only when the organization supplies an approved license and interactive session.

Prerequisites

• A repository containing the PowerShell, C#, deployment, or packaging assets
• A CI runner matrix that distinguishes ordinary hosted runners from approved TechSmith workstations
• Sanitized fixtures for COM success, missing registration, timeout, and file-output failure
• A named owner for any licensed smoke-runner credential and cleanup

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Keep the default pull-request lane secretless and independent of Snagit or Camtasia installation.
• Validate official Snagit enum values: window 1, region 4, file output 2, clipboard output 4.
• Do not make CamtasiaProducer.exe or a legacy exporter a CI prerequisite for current releases.
• Treat the licensed Windows smoke lane as optional, protected, serialized, and manually dispatchable.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Inventory scripts, manifests, expected output paths, and all places that instantiate a COM object or product executable.
2. Add parser, lint, and unit checks for argument construction, bounded polling, exit handling, redaction, and cleanup.
3. Use fakes for IsCaptureDone, LastCaptureSucceeded, and LastFileWritten; cover timeout and wrong-path cases.
4. Pin a Windows runner label for the product smoke job and require a protected environment with no fork-secret exposure.
5. Run one non-destructive COM creation probe or recorder version probe; never create an unattended recording in pull requests.
6. Publish JUnit-style results and a redacted environment manifest, then remove temporary artifacts.

Approval Boundaries

Do not place a software key in repository secrets available to forked workflows. Do not install, activate, record, capture, or upload user content on an unapproved hosted runner.

Ou…

TechSmith Automation Error Triage

Overview

This skill diagnoses the layer that failed before suggesting a change. It distinguishes COM registration, executable/version drift, interactive-session limits, local-storage violations, missing media, licensing, and removed legacy exporter assumptions.

Prerequisites

• Product name, exact installed version, operating system, and architecture
• A redacted command, exit code, error text, and relevant local paths
• Confirmation whether the job ran interactively, remotely, or as a service
• Permission to inspect logs without collecting captures, project media, or license material

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Snagit COM creation failures are registration or Windows-environment problems, not API authentication failures.
• Camtasia 2022+ recorder automation uses CamtasiaRecorder.exe; old executables and short switches are historical.
• The legacy exporter is absent from Camtasia 2024.1.3+.
• Active Camtasia projects on network, cloud, external, or actively synced paths are unsupported.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Capture the exact product/version, executable or ProgID, working directory, session type, and first failing operation.
2. Classify the failure as install/registration, activation, command contract, interactive desktop, project/media, export/codec, permissions, or capacity.
3. Compare only the implicated surface with current official documentation and the installed type library or executable help.
4. Reproduce with the smallest safe probe: COM instantiation, executable discovery, local sample project, or output-directory write.
5. Apply one reversible fix at a time and rerun the same probe.
6. Record the confirmed cause, evidence, remediation, rollback, and residual risk.

Approval Boundaries

Never request a software key, raw capture, customer video, or full project archive as routine diagnostic evidence. Do not recommend disabling endpoint security as a generic fix.

Output

Return the failure layer, safe evidence, confirmed cause or ranked hypotheses, one reversible action, verification result, and escalation package.

Error Handling

Snagit Controlled COM Capture

Overview

This skill implements the supported Snagit COM path without inventing a web API. It resolves the installed type library, creates Snagit.ImageCapture.1, sets an approved input/output, waits for asynchronous completion, and accepts a file only after success and path validation.

Prerequisites

• Windows with a licensed, approved Snagit installation and interactive desktop
• A capture subject and output directory approved for the data classification
• The official 2025 COM guide or documentation matching the installed version
• A timeout, cancellation path, and artifact-retention policy

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Use ProgID Snagit.ImageCapture.1 or the official sample's compatible SNAGIT.ImageCapture alias.
• Use exact inputs desktop 0, window 1, region 4; use outputs file 2, clipboard 4.
• Set OutputImageFile options before invoking Capture() when file output is selected.
• Treat Capture() as asynchronous; wait for IsCaptureDone, then check success and LastFileWritten.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Confirm the installed Snagit version, COM registration, interactive session, capture scope, and approved destination.
2. Load enum definitions from the installed type library or a pinned copy of TechSmith's official enum sample.
3. Create the image-capture object and set input, output, preview behavior, cursor inclusion, file type, and destination explicitly.
4. Invoke one capture and wait with a bounded deadline rather than an unbounded tight loop.
5. Check LastCaptureSucceeded, canonicalize LastFileWritten, and reject paths outside the approved directory.
6. Validate file existence, nonzero size, expected format, and retention metadata before downstream use.

Approval Boundaries

Interactive capture can expose sensitive screen content. Require a named subject and operator approval; never default to the full desktop, clipboard, or an unrestricted destination.

Output

Return product version, ProgID, input/output enums,…

Camtasia Modern Batch Export

Overview

This skill builds a reproducible export manifest while respecting Camtasia's desktop boundaries. It stages standalone projects on a local non-synced drive, validates media and version compatibility, and uses the modern Batch Export experience or a command contract explicitly verified for the installed release.

Prerequisites

• Licensed Camtasia Editor on an approved workstation
• Projects saved as standalone or exported/zipped with all referenced media
• Local non-synced scratch and output directories with capacity headroom
• An approved export preset and acceptance checks for the produced media

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Camtasia projects are not backward-compatible; pin the producing workstation version.
• Keep active projects, media, scratch, and export targets on local storage while Camtasia is open.
• The legacy exporter was removed in 2024.1.3; never assume CamtasiaProducer.exe exists.
• Prefer the current Batch Export UI; automate export only from documentation or help output matching the installed version.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Build a manifest of project path, project version, media completeness, preset, destination, and expected output.
2. Copy approved standalone projects to local scratch only after verifying checksums and free space.
3. Open a canary project in the pinned Camtasia version and resolve missing-media or font/codec warnings.
4. Queue projects in the modern Batch Export workflow with one approved preset per output class.
5. Monitor completion, failure state, output growth, and workstation capacity without launching duplicate exporters.
6. Validate each output's existence, duration, streams, dimensions, and checksum before promotion or archival.

Approval Boundaries

Do not rewrite TSCPROJ internals, run active projects from synchronized storage, or silently substitute an export preset. A failed project must not block evidence for completed items.

Output

Return the pinned Camtasia version, manifest digest, local scratch path, per-project result, preset, media validation, promotion state, and cleanup.

Error Handling

TechSmith License and Workstation Cost Control

Overview

This skill treats cost as a desktop fleet and media-lifecycle problem. TechSmith's supported Snagit/Camtasia automation is not a metered public API, so optimization focuses on approved license models, active seats, workstation time, local scratch, retained artifacts, and support burden.

Prerequisites

• A redacted inventory of product, version, license model, assigned user, and workstation
• Measured queue duration, failure/rework rate, storage growth, and retention
• Current commercial terms from TechSmith or the organization's agreement
• Business owners for license reassignment, archive policy, and service levels

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Do not invent per-request pricing or API quotas for desktop COM and recorder workflows.
• Individual subscriptions activate by user sign-in; business licenses use managed keys and can support offline activation.
• Commercial prices and discounts are contract facts to recheck, not constants to embed in code.
• Camtasia project/export work remains workstation-bound; concurrency adds hardware and license implications.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Reconcile installed products and versions with assigned entitlements without collecting raw keys.
2. Measure successful workstation-minutes per output, queue delay, retries, storage churn, and operator intervention.
3. Separate mandatory production capacity from burst, development, and disaster-recovery capacity.
4. Reduce rework through version pinning, standalone projects, local scratch, approved presets, and canary exports.
5. Apply retention tiers to source projects, intermediate files, and validated deliverables; archive only after applications close.
6. Model license or hardware changes with current vendor quotes and document the assumptions and rollback.

Approval Boundaries

Do not share a single-user credential across workers, deactivate users automatically, or treat an observed install as proof of entitlement.

Output

Return entitlement counts, measured utilization, unit-cost assumptions, capacity risks, retention savings, recommended action, owner, and review date.

Error Handling

TechSmith Redacted Debug Bundle

Overview

This skill gathers configuration and failure metadata without copying screen captures, videos, project media, user identities, or license keys. The bundle has an explicit schema, redaction pass, size limit, checksum, retention owner, and human review before sharing.

Prerequisites

• Incident identifier, product/version, affected workstation, and failure timestamp window
• An approved local output directory outside active project storage
• Permission to read product logs and command results at the required classification
• A recipient, retention deadline, and redaction reviewer

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Collect versions, executable paths, COM-registration results, redacted commands, exit codes, and bounded log excerpts.
• For project failures, record paths and hashes rather than copying TSCPROJ, TREC, captures, or media by default.
• Never include a software key, activation request/response, account token, email address, or full environment dump.
• A bundle is not complete until a second redaction scan and manifest/file-count check pass.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Create an incident-specific directory with restrictive permissions and a maximum bundle size.
2. Record OS, architecture, session type, product version, executable discovery, and safe COM creation result.
3. Capture the exact failing operation, UTC timestamps, exit code, and allowlisted log lines around the failure.
4. Add local-storage status, free space, project-version metadata, media-presence counts, and output validation where relevant.
5. Use pattern and entropy scanning to redact keys, tokens, emails, usernames, and sensitive path components.
6. Write a manifest with hashes, review every file, archive the bundle, and set deletion ownership.

Approval Boundaries

Do not add screenshots, clipboard data, recordings, project archives, browser state, registry exports, or unrestricted logs without case-specific written approval.

Output

Return bundle path, manifest hash, file count, byte size, redaction result, omitted sensitive categories, reviewer, recipient, and deletion date.

Error Handling

TechSmith Managed Desktop Rollout

Overview

This skill turns a vendor installer into a reviewed deployment artifact: on Windows, TechSmith's preparation tool consumes the MSI and produces an MST plus command assets for endpoint management. macOS uses the documented package and managed preferences for the selected release.

Prerequisites

• A vendor-origin installer matching the purchased product/version and verified checksum
• Current TechSmith deployment guide and preparation tool for that version
• A business-license decision, approved key-handling channel, and connectivity policy
• Test, pilot, and production endpoint rings with rollback ownership

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• The TechSmith deployment tool prepares MSI/MST assets; it is not itself the fleet deployment system.
• Business keys can be packaged or provisioned through approved controls; individual subscriptions require user sign-in.
• Subscription applications require activation connectivity and periodic license verification unless an approved business offline path applies.
• Feature, sharing, update, and cloud-experience restrictions must be deliberate and documented.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Verify installer origin, checksum, product/version, architecture, license model, and endpoint requirements.
2. Create the MST or macOS configuration from reviewed settings; never expose a key in a public command line or log.
3. Generate an immutable package manifest containing input hashes, tool version, selected controls, and output hashes.
4. Deploy to a disposable test endpoint, then a small pilot ring with product launch and activation checks.
5. Validate Snagit COM registration or Camtasia recorder discovery only on platforms where those surfaces apply.
6. Promote by ring with error thresholds, help-desk readiness, rollback package, and version inventory reconciliation.

Approval Boundaries

Do not overwrite an existing activation, delete a Snagit library, remove prior versions, or disable security/connected features without an explicit policy decision and rollback.

Output

Return package hashes, selected deployment settings, license-handling mode, ring results, activation/launch chec…

Snagit Verified COM Probe

Overview

This skill separates installation proof from screen capture: the default hello world creates the supported COM object and verifies its expected members without calling Capture(). An optional second phase captures one operator-selected window only after scope and destination approval.

Prerequisites

• Windows with Snagit installed and licensed for the current user
• An interactive desktop session; COM capture is not a headless web API
• Approval to instantiate the local COM server
• Separate approval and an approved destination for any optional capture

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Use the current ProgID Snagit.ImageCapture.1; official samples also demonstrate SNAGIT.ImageCapture.
• The safe default stops after object creation and member inspection.
• If capture is approved, use window input 1 and file output 2, not historical values from this pack.
• Wait for asynchronous completion and validate the returned file before declaring success.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Confirm workstation alias, Windows session, installed Snagit version, license status, and no-capture default.
2. Create the COM object and inspect the availability of Capture, IsCaptureDone, LastCaptureSucceeded, and LastFileWritten.
3. Dispose of the object and report success if only an installation probe was authorized.
4. For optional capture, confirm the exact target window, output directory, preview mode, timeout, and retention.
5. Run one interactive window capture, wait with a deadline, and verify success plus canonical output path.
6. Delete or retain the test artifact according to the approval and record the decision.

Approval Boundaries

Do not capture the full desktop or clipboard as a connectivity test. Never infer consent from the presence of an interactive session.

Output

Return workstation alias, product version, ProgID creation result, inspected members, capture authorization, optional artifact validation, and cleanup.

Error Handling

TechSmith Installation and Activation Decision

Overview

This skill treats activation as a product and entitlement decision, not API authentication. Individual subscriptions activate by account sign-in, while business licenses use a software key and support managed deployment and, where documented, offline activation.

Prerequisites

• Product, operating system, target version, architecture, and system requirements
• Authoritative entitlement owner and license model: individual, business, or legacy
• Approved installer source and endpoint-management channel
• Connectivity, proxy, offline-use, update, and connected-feature policy

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Individual subscriptions require the purchasing account to sign in and do not use a software key.
• Business subscriptions use software keys; approved offline activation is a business-license path.
• Subscription software normally needs initial activation connectivity and periodic verification within the vendor's current interval.
• Snagit COM should register during Windows installation; SnagitCapture.exe /register is an elevated recovery, not a default step.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Resolve product/version and confirm the entitlement before downloading or installing anything.
2. Choose standard interactive installation, managed Windows MSI/MST, documented macOS deployment, or approved offline activation.
3. Verify installer origin and checksum, then install through the approved endpoint channel.
4. Activate by individual sign-in, managed business key, or the documented offline exchange without logging secret material.
5. Confirm product launch, displayed version/license state, and required connectivity.
6. For Windows Snagit automation, create the COM object; use vendor registration recovery only if creation fails and approval is recorded.

Approval Boundaries

Never paste a license key into chat, source control, a public CI variable, or diagnostic output. Do not convert an individual subscription into an unattended shared-worker credential.

Output

Return product/version, installer hash, deployment mode, redacted license model, activation result, connectivity disposition, CO…

Snagit COM Local Development Loop

Overview

This skill keeps most development deterministic and screen-safe. Logic is tested against a fake capture adapter; the smallest live probe uses a licensed interactive workstation and one operator-selected window only when necessary.

Prerequisites

• A repository with a narrow capture adapter and tests
• TechSmith's official Snagit COM samples and guide pinned for reference
• Optional licensed Windows workstation with an interactive session
• Disposable local output directory, deadline, and artifact cleanup policy

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Keep COM creation behind one adapter so unit tests do not require Snagit.
• Load official enum definitions rather than scattering unexplained integers.
• Model Capture() as asynchronous and cover success, false result, timeout, and invalid output path.
• A live loop captures only an explicitly selected test window and never runs continuously.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Inspect repository conventions, existing adapter boundaries, test runner, fixtures, and output policy.
2. Copy or translate only the needed contracts from TechSmith's official sample; retain source attribution.
3. Write fake-adapter tests for enum mapping, configuration order, timeout, success checks, path containment, and cleanup.
4. Run lint and unit tests on every change without starting Snagit.
5. When a live probe is justified, confirm operator/window/destination, run once, and compare evidence with the fake contract.
6. Edit the adapter or tests from the observed mismatch, rerun, and remove disposable output.

Approval Boundaries

Do not turn the development loop into a background screen recorder, poll the desktop indefinitely, or commit captured images and videos as fixtures.

Output

Return changed files, offline test results, live-probe authorization/result, contract differences, artifact cleanup, and the next bounded experiment.

Error Handling

TechSmith Workstation Performance Tuning

Overview

This skill improves throughput without assuming server-style horizontal scale. It measures one representative workload, separates capture from export bottlenecks, keeps active Camtasia data local, and changes one resource or concurrency control at a time.

Prerequisites

• A representative, non-sensitive capture or project workload and acceptance criteria
• Baseline wall time, CPU, GPU, memory, disk, output size, and failure rate
• Product/version, hardware, local scratch path, and export preset
• A rollback point and permission for any preference or driver change

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Serialize interactive Snagit captures per desktop unless validated isolation proves otherwise.
• Keep Camtasia project media, scratch, and export output on a fast local non-synced drive while active.
• Bound parallel exports by measured CPU/GPU/memory/disk headroom and licensed workstation capacity.
• Do not trade correctness, media validation, or workstation stability for raw queue throughput.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Capture a cold and warm baseline for one fixed workload with product/version and preset pinned.
2. Identify the dominant constraint: interactive desktop, source media decode, CPU, GPU, memory, local disk, codec, or operator wait.
3. Set a conservative worker limit and queue backpressure from measured peak headroom.
4. Apply one reversible change such as local scratch, proxy behavior, preset correction, or worker count.
5. Repeat the identical workload and compare duration, utilization, output properties, and failure rate.
6. Keep only changes that improve the declared service objective without a quality or stability regression.

Approval Boundaries

Do not edit projects on cloud/network storage, disable security software, force undocumented command flags, or launch duplicate exporters to manufacture concurrency.

Output

Return baseline and candidate metrics, bottleneck, change, before/after delta, quality checks, safe worker limit, rollback, and monitoring threshold.

Error Handling

TechSmith Production Go-No-Go

Overview

This skill produces a fail-closed production decision with evidence owners. It covers desktop constraints that ordinary web-service checklists miss: interactive sessions, licensed endpoints, installed type libraries, project version compatibility, local scratch, capture privacy, and artifact promotion.

Prerequisites

• Release manifest with scripts, packages, product versions, configurations, and hashes
• Approved endpoints, license assignments, service owner, privacy classification, and retention policy
• Representative canary capture/export plus expected validation results
• Rollback package, incident contacts, and maintenance window

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Every production worker maps to an approved endpoint, user/license model, product version, and data boundary.
• Snagit COM jobs declare capture scope and interactive-session behavior.
• Camtasia jobs use local active storage and the modern exporter supported by the pinned release.
• Promotion requires validated output, cleanup, monitoring, and tested rollback—not merely process exit zero.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Verify immutable release inputs, vendor-origin installers, checksums, code review, and test evidence.
2. Reconcile endpoint versions, entitlement ownership, activation health, connectivity, and update policy.
3. Test COM registration or recorder discovery and confirm interactive-session scheduling where required.
4. Run a canary with synthetic content; validate file properties, path boundary, and cleanup.
5. Exercise rollback without deleting libraries, projects, or user data; confirm support escalation artifacts.
6. Issue GO only when every blocking control has evidence; otherwise name the blocker, owner, and next check.

Approval Boundaries

No checklist item may be waived silently. Capture privacy, entitlement, destructive uninstall, data migration, and rollback failures are hard blockers.

Output

Return GO/NO-GO, release and product versions, evidence per control, blockers, owners, canary result, rollback result, and review timestamp.

Error Handling

TechSmith Desktop Capacity Guardrails

Overview

TechSmith desktop automation does not expose a documented request-rate quota like a SaaS API. This skill therefore defines local capacity limits from interactive-session exclusivity, licensed workers, CPU/GPU/memory/disk headroom, artifact growth, deadlines, and operator impact.

Prerequisites

• Inventory of approved workers, versions, license assignments, and interactive-session constraints
• Measured capture/export duration and peak resource use for representative workloads
• Queue service objective, maximum artifact size, free-space floor, and cancellation policy
• A durable job identity and idempotency key

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Allow at most one interactive capture or recorder controller per desktop session by default.
• Set export concurrency from observed workstation headroom; do not infer it from CPU count alone.
• Reject new work below the disk free-space floor or above the queue-age deadline.
• Retry only transient worker failures with bounded exponential backoff and a fresh health check.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Classify jobs as interactive capture, recorder control, project export, validation, or archival.
2. Assign separate semaphores and timeouts per job class and workstation capability.
3. Before admission, check product/version, session availability, license health, local disk, queue age, and cancellation state.
4. Lease one durable job identity to one worker; heartbeat and reclaim only after a defined expiry.
5. On completion, validate output and release capacity; on failure, classify before any retry.
6. Graph queue depth, oldest age, active leases, resource saturation, retries, failures, and rejected work.

Approval Boundaries

Do not call workstation capacity a vendor API rate limit. Never bypass a busy interactive user, license restriction, disk floor, or cancellation signal to drain a queue.

Output

Return admission decision, selected worker, lease, concurrency class, resource headroom, deadline, retry disposition, and capacity metrics.

Error Handling

TechSmith Desktop Media Automation Architecture

Overview

This skill separates orchestration from licensed desktop execution. A control plane stores only job intent and redacted state; approved Windows or macOS workers perform version-pinned product operations on local storage; validators promote immutable outputs to archive or publishing systems after the application closes.

Prerequisites

• Workload classes, data classifications, service objectives, and expected volume
• Endpoint and entitlement inventory with product/version/platform capabilities
• Storage, network, identity, logging, retention, and incident constraints
• Approval owners for capture scope, deployment, activation, and publication

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Snagit COM jobs run only on licensed Windows workers with an interactive desktop.
• Camtasia active projects and media remain local and non-synced; promoted outputs are immutable artifacts.
• Job manifests carry product version, operation, input hashes, output policy, deadline, and idempotency key.
• Workers expose redacted state transitions, not remote arbitrary-shell access or license secrets.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Discover existing scripts, workers, endpoints, storage paths, product versions, licenses, and downstream consumers.
2. Define job classes and state transitions from accepted through staged, running, validating, promoted, failed, or quarantined.
3. Partition workers by platform, product/version, interactive capability, and data classification.
4. Design local scratch, durable manifests, checksums, output validation, post-close archival, and retention cleanup.
5. Add admission control, per-session capture locks, bounded export workers, health probes, and dead-letter handling.
6. Document trust boundaries, failure modes, rollback, recovery-time objectives, and migration from current scripts.

Approval Boundaries

Do not centralize raw license keys, captures, or project media in the control plane. Do not treat desktop workers as generic remote execution hosts.

Output

Return current and target topology, job/state model, trust boundaries, worker capability matrix, data flow, failure handling, migration stages, a…

Snagit Typed COM Adapter

Overview

This skill isolates vendor COM details from business workflow code. The adapter owns object creation, enum translation, configuration order, completion deadlines, event or polling behavior, normalized errors, result validation, disposal, and a fake implementation for tests.

Prerequisites

• Windows and a language/runtime capable of COM interop
• The installed Snagit type library plus TechSmith's current guide and official samples
• A repository boundary for adapter, domain request/result, and fakes
• Approved capture inputs, destinations, timeout, and retention policy

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Resolve Snagit.ImageCapture.1 through one factory and report registration errors distinctly.
• Represent inputs with typed values desktop 0, window 1, region 4; outputs file 2, clipboard 4.
• Configure file type, naming, directory, preview, and cursor before Capture().
• Normalize asynchronous completion to a deadline-bound result containing success, state, and canonical file path.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Read repository conventions and locate every direct COM creation or raw enum use.
2. Define CaptureRequest, CaptureResult, typed enums, normalized error categories, and cancellation behavior.
3. Implement a factory and adapter around the smallest official COM interface needed by the workflow.
4. Add bounded event or polling completion, success checks, canonical path containment, file validation, and disposal.
5. Write a fake adapter and tests for configuration order, timeout, failure, path escape, and cleanup.
6. Migrate one caller at a time and compare results with one approved live capture.

Approval Boundaries

Do not expose the raw COM object to application layers, accept arbitrary ProgIDs or output paths, or make unbounded capture calls from request handlers.

Output

Return adapter interface, enum source, migrated callers, test matrix, live verification, compatibility notes, and remaining raw-COM sites.

Error Handling

TechSmith Desktop Automation Security Boundary

Overview

Desktop capture and media production cross sensitive screen, microphone, camera, filesystem, cloud-sharing, and licensing boundaries. This skill makes those boundaries explicit and keeps automation narrower than an interactive user's full capabilities.

Prerequisites

• Workflow, users, endpoints, product versions, and data classification
• Approved capture subjects, devices, destinations, retention, and sharing policy
• License model and secret owner
• Deployment controls, endpoint protection, audit logging, and incident response

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Software keys and offline activation artifacts are secrets; keep them out of code, chat, logs, and unrestricted process arguments.
• Require explicit scope and consent for screen, microphone, camera, and clipboard operations.
• Use allowlisted local input/output roots and promote only validated artifacts.
• Use TechSmith deployment controls to disable unapproved share destinations or connected features rather than relying on operator memory.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Map actors, endpoint privileges, capture devices, project/media paths, share outputs, activation flow, and downstream publishers.
2. Classify threats: unintended capture, secret leakage, path traversal, malicious project/media, unauthorized upload, and persistence.
3. Constrain worker identity, session access, COM/recorder operations, input/output roots, and network destinations.
4. Configure approved deployment restrictions for sharing, updates, analytics, assets, or cloud features according to policy.
5. Add redacted audit events for authorization, job identity, product/version, output hash, validation, promotion, and deletion.
6. Exercise denial, cancellation, wrong-path, secret-scan, and incident-containment scenarios before approval.

Approval Boundaries

Do not disable endpoint security, broaden share outputs, record hidden devices, retain clipboard data, or upload artifacts merely to prove connectivity.

Output

Return assets, threats, controls, residual risks, data-flow boundaries, deployment restrictions, audit events, test evidence, and accountable owners.

TechSmith Versioned Upgrade and Media Migration

Overview

This skill treats application upgrade and content conversion as separate transactions. It preserves original libraries/projects, pins the tools needed for legacy formats, validates copies on a canary, and never assumes backward compatibility.

Prerequisites

• Source and target product/version, platform, license eligibility, and installer hashes
• Immutable backup of Snagit library or standalone/zipped Camtasia projects plus checksums
• Representative canary assets and acceptance criteria
• Rollback endpoint/package and owners for content conversion

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Camtasia projects are not backward-compatible; collaborators must align on the same version.
• Camtasia 2020+ does not open CAMPROJ or CAMREC directly; CAMPROJ requires an intermediate 9/2018/2019 save to TSCPROJ, while CAMREC must be produced in an older version.
• Snagit 2022 introduced SNAGX; export to standard formats while a usable Snagit entitlement is available when long-term portability is required.
• Never overwrite originals during canary conversion or uninstall user data as part of application rollback.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Inventory endpoints, entitlements, integrations, COM clients, project/library formats, share outputs, and collaborators.
2. Back up original content immutably, record hashes, and verify restore before installing the target version.
3. Read target release and deployment guidance; identify removed exporter, executable, codec, project, and policy changes.
4. Upgrade one canary endpoint and test launch, activation, COM creation, recorder discovery, representative open/edit/export, and rollback.
5. Convert copies through the documented intermediate versions or batch-export path; retain original-to-result mapping and validation.
6. Promote by endpoint ring, monitor failures, and retire legacy tooling only after recovery and audit windows expire.

Approval Boundaries

Do not bulk-convert the only copy, open a project in a newer version before preserving a rollback copy, or assume a subscription unlocks every historical version.

Output

Return source/target matrix, entitlement result, back…

TechSmith Local Capture and File Events

Overview

Snagit COM offers capture event callbacks or completion polling, while local files can be observed with an operating-system watcher; these are local signals, not authenticated vendor webhooks. This skill converts noisy callbacks into durable artifact-ready events only after the file is stable and valid.

Prerequisites

• Approved local directory, artifact types, data classification, and retention
• One durable event store with job identity, source path hash, and processing state
• A bounded watcher lifetime, reconciliation interval, and shutdown behavior
• Downstream consumer contract and quarantine destination

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Prefer Snagit COM completion events where the client runtime supports them; otherwise use bounded IsCaptureDone polling.
• Filesystem watcher notifications are hints and may duplicate, reorder, or omit events.
• Do not emit artifact-ready until size and modification time stabilize and format validation passes.
• Deduplicate by durable job/output identity and reconcile the directory periodically.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Define allowed directory roots, extensions, stable-file interval, event schema, idempotency key, and lifecycle states.
2. Subscribe to the narrow COM event or local filesystem create/change signal required by the workflow.
3. Canonicalize the path, reject escapes and disallowed types, and correlate it with an authorized job.
4. Wait for stable size/time across bounded observations, then validate format, nonzero content, and checksum.
5. Insert or update the durable event idempotently before invoking downstream work.
6. Reconcile missed files, dead-letter repeated failures, emit metrics, and stop the watcher cleanly on shutdown.

Approval Boundaries

Do not expose the watch directory over a public endpoint, call local events webhooks, process actively written project files, or upload an artifact before authorization and validation.

Output

Return watcher scope, event counts, deduplicated identities, stability/validation results, downstream acknowledgements, reconciled misses, dead letters, and shutdown state.

Error Handling