[FEATURE] Claude in Chrome: allow screenshots to be saved to local filesystem during a session

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

I use Claude in Chrome for structured exploratory QA traversal of web applications. The extension navigates flows, identifies bugs, and flags them with descriptions. It takes screenshots throughout the session so it can see the page - but those screenshots exist only as in-memory imageIds and are lost when the session ends.

For professional bug reporting in tools like Jira or Xray, each bug requires a named screenshot attached as evidence. Without any way to persist screenshots to disk, the evidence trail is destroyed at the end of every session. This means either manually interrupting the session to save screenshots at each bug (defeating the purpose of autonomous traversal), or re-navigating to every bug location afterwards just to capture evidence.

This is the single gap preventing Claude in Chrome from being genuinely useful in a professional QA context. Everything else works.

Proposed Solution

Add a filePath parameter to the screenshot tool. When provided, save the captured PNG to that path on the local filesystem. When omitted, existing in-memory behaviour is preserved - no breaking change.

Example behaviour: Claude in Chrome flags a bug, immediately saves a screenshot to:
C:\BugEvidence\Screenshots\BUG-024-revival-grandstand-missing-saturday.png

An alternative framing: allow Claude in Chrome to pass its screenshots to the Filesystem connector (already available in Claude Desktop). The screenshots already exist as imageIds during the session - the missing piece is a write path to disk.

Either approach closes the gap. The filePath parameter is simpler to implement and would solve the use case entirely.

Alternative Solutions

Attempted workarounds:

AutoHotkey trigger file approach: AutoHotkey watches a text file for changes, fires a PowerShell screenshot on each change. Fails because Claude in Chrome has no Filesystem tool in its toolset and cannot write the trigger file in the first place.

GIF recorder: Claude in Chrome has a GIF recording capability but the format, overlays, and lack of named output make it unsuitable for bug evidence attachments.

Manual screenshots: Interrupts the autonomous session flow and requires the tester to be present at each bug discovery moment - removes the key benefit of AI-assisted traversal.

Third-party tools (BugHerd, FSB): BugHerd requires manual trigger per bug. FSB (via Claude Code MCP) is a viable architectural alternative but requires significantly more setup and moves away from Claude in Chrome entirely.

This feature has been raised twice before in this repo - issues #14773 and #35184 - but both were auto-closed after seven days without activity before gathering meaningful engagement.

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

File operations

Use Case Example

Use Case Example

1. QA tester opens Claude in Chrome on a pre-production e-commerce site
2. Pastes a structured traversal prompt listing 22 known bugs to verify
3. Claude in Chrome navigates directly to each bug location, confirms status, and flags findings
4. At each bug confirmation, Claude in Chrome saves a screenshot to a local folder named after the bug ID - e.g. BUG-029-three-furlong-park-validation-error.png
5. At the end of the session, the tester has a folder of named PNGs ready to attach directly to Jira or Xray tickets

Currently step 4 is impossible. The session produces a text summary of findings but no visual evidence. The tester must either interrupt the session manually at each bug or re-navigate to every location afterwards.

A single run covering 22 bugs across 14 events on a complex ticketing site took approximately 90 minutes. Manually re-navigating for screenshots would add significant time and introduce the risk of the site state having changed between the traversal and the evidence capture.

Additional Context

Community validation: two Reddit threads (r/QualityAssurance and r/ClaudeAI) independently confirmed this is a shared pain point among QA practitioners using AI browser automation tools. A practitioner building a separate browser automation tool (FSB) responded directly to confirm evidence gathering is the main bottleneck in this space.

Prior issues: #14773 and #35184 both requested a filePath parameter on the screenshot tool. Both were closed after seven days of inactivity under the auto-lock policy. This submission includes a concrete end-to-end use case and community evidence to support prioritisation.