PR Screenshots

Screenshots in a PR are QA evidence. Each one shows what the real product renders at one location, framed so a reviewer who has never opened the page can tell what changed.

Step 1: List the Locations

List every place in the product that the diff reaches: each page, drawer, modal, or widget that renders a changed component, found by tracing its callers and consumers. Then add the states the change affects at each of them, such as loading, error, empty, hover, selected, menu open, expanded, scrolled, narrow viewport, and light or dark theme.

Never group surfaces into one row: for example, “GridEditable, as in Discover, dashboards and insights” is three rows.

Step 2: Capture From the Real Product

Step 3: Redact and Audit

1. Blur only private values: emails, usernames, customer or organization names and slugs, IDs, and internal hostnames. Keep keys, labels, and non-sensitive values readable, such as browser.name → chrome.
2. Paint over each region before blurring it so the blur can’t be reversed. Never use solid black or dark boxes, and never blur whole tables or rows.
3. Read every image before uploading it and check for credentials: tokens, auth headers, cookies, signed URLs, secret keys, and webhook endpoints. Remove real leaks. Do not treat a public client DSN as a leak.

Step 4: Choose the Table Shape

Pixel-diff every before/after pair. Move a pair with no visible difference, including anti-aliasing noise, to Unchanged with one image. Leave out a table that would be empty.

**Changed**

| Location | Before | After |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Explore › Logs | ![Explore › Logs before](./shots/logs-before.png) | ![Explore › Logs after](./shots/logs-after.png) |
| Explore › Logs, loading | ![Explore › Logs, loading before](./shots/logs-loading-before.png) | ![Explore › Logs, loading after](./shots/logs-loading-after.png) |

**Unchanged**

| Location | Before & After |
| --- | --- |
| Trace view › Logs | ![Trace view › Logs](./shots/trace-logs.png) |

Formatting rules:

• Name the first column Location, or Treatment for alternatives. Never leave its header empty.
• Write each location as a › breadcrumb of what the reader clicks through, then a comma and the state: Monitors › cron monitor details › Check-Ins, loading.
• Use only the columns shown above. Never add a “What changed” or notes column; the screenshots show the change.
• Give each image alt text naming its row and side, such as Explore › Logs before.
• Label the tables with bold **Changed** and **Unchanged** lines. Do not add an intro sentence describing where or how the screenshots were taken.
• Use Markdown tables by default, because gh --attach rewrites only Markdown image references. Switch to an HTML table only when cells must span rows, such as a light and dark row under one location (Location | Theme | Before | After with rowspan="2" on the location cell). Do not add align attributes.

Step 5: Upload With gh

gh pr create, gh pr edit, gh pr comment, and the matching gh issue commands accept --attach '<path>#<alt text>' (gh 2.99.0+). If gh rejects the flag, ask the user to upgrade it. Do not push asset branches, commit images, or upload through the browser’s comment box.

Write the body file with relative Markdown image references, then pass the same paths to --attach. gh uploads each file and rewrites the matching reference to the uploaded URL in place:

gh pr edit 123 --body-file pr-body.md \
  --attach './shots/logs-before.png' --attach './shots/logs-after.png'

Before writing a body the user may have edited, fetch it again and compare it with the version you last read. Keep the user’s wording and table edits, swap in only your rows and URLs, and keep the body’s line endings. Removing an image from the body does not delete the uploaded file.

Step 6: Keep Screenshots Current

When a later commit changes what a screenshot shows, retake the affected pairs, re-check which pairs belong in Changed and Unchanged, and update the body without waiting to be asked.