Local Snagit MCP Server

A local MCP server that lets GitHub Copilot record demo videos with the copy of TechSmith Snagit already installed on your machine. Copilot drives the recording while it drives everything else — a terminal walkthrough, a deployment, or a Playwright session against your deployed app — and gets back an MP4.

It talks to Snagit through Snagit's own SNAGIT.VideoCapture COM automation interface, so there are no hotkey simulations, no UI scripting, and no third-party screen recorder.

Requirements

• Windows
• Snagit 2023 or newer, installed and launched at least once (verified against Snagit 2025, 25.4.0.8498)
• Python 3.10+

Setup

py -3.12 -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -e .
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m snagit_mcp --selftest

--selftest should report "ready": true. If it does not, see Troubleshooting.

The repo ships .vscode/mcp.json, so VS Code offers to start the server as soon as you open the folder. To use it from any workspace, add the same block to your user-level mcp.json with absolute paths instead of ${workspaceFolder}.

Recordings land in SNAGIT_MCP_OUTPUT_DIR (the workspace recordings/ folder by default, or %USERPROFILE%\Videos\Snagit MCP when unset).

Environment variable	Default	Purpose
SNAGIT_MCP_OUTPUT_DIR	%USERPROFILE%\Videos\Snagit MCP	Where MP4s are written
SNAGIT_MCP_MAX_WAIT_SECONDS	600	Upper bound for the wait tool
SNAGIT_MCP_ENCODE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS	300	How long stop_recording waits for encoding

Tools

Tool	What it does
check_snagit_setup	Snagit version, COM reachability, output folder, display count
list_displays	Monitors and their pixel bounds
list_windows	Visible windows with handles and bounds — use it to find the browser
focus_window	Restore and foreground a window before recording it
start_recording	Record a display, a window, or a fixed region to MP4
recording_status	Whether a recording is running, and for how long
pause_recording / resume_recording	Skip dead air such as a deployment finishing
stop_recording	Stop, wait for encoding, return the MP4 path and duration
wait	Hold a beat so the last on-screen action is readable
list_recordings	Most recent MP4s in the output folder

There is also a record_app_demo prompt (a slash command in VS Code) that gives Copilot the full shot-list-first procedure.

Recording a demo of a deployed app

Snagit records real pixels, so the browser has to be visible — run Playwright headed, not headless. Combined with the Playwright MCP server, a session looks like this:

1. Playwright MCP opens your App Service URL in a headed browser and signs in.
2. list_windows with title_contains: "Edge" (or Chrome) returns the browser window handle.
3. start_recording with target: "window" and that handle. It returns after Snagit's countdown, so the next action is already on camera.
4. Playwright clicks through the scenario; wait between steps keeps it followable.
5. stop_recording returns the MP4 path.

For a repo walkthrough that moves between VS Code, a terminal, the Azure portal, and the browser, use target: "fullscreen" with the display_index from list_displays instead of a single window.

Ask for it in plain language, for example:

Record a demo of the deployment flow: show the prerequisites in the README, run the deploy script, then open the App Service URL and walk through creating a record. Use display 0.

How it drives Snagit

These behaviours were established by experiment and the timings in src/snagit_mcp/recorder.py depend on them:

• The sequence is Capture() to arm, a 3s settle, Start(), then Stop(). Calling Start() too soon after Capture() produces an empty 2 KB MP4.
• Snagit plays a ~3.4s countdown after Start(). start_recording absorbs it and only returns once real recording has begun.
• Snagit's recording toolbar must stay visible. Setting HideRecordingUI = True silently truncates recordings to a couple of seconds. The toolbar sits outside the captured region, so it does not show up in the video.
• Microphone and system audio are not settable over COM in this Snagit build — those setters throw, and a failed write can wedge the capture engine. Audio therefore follows whatever is configured in Snagit's own capture settings. Set it there before recording if you want narration.
• RecordingDuration, FrameCount and AverageFrameRate are only meaningful after Stop(); during a recording recording_status reports the server's own wall-clock instead.
• Output goes straight to a file. Snagit Editor does not pop up between takes.

Verifying after a Snagit upgrade

.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe tests\smoke_recording.py

Records a real 5-second clip through the MCP tools and checks the resulting MP4's duration. If a future Snagit release changes the countdown or arming behaviour, this is what will catch it.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
check_snagit_setup reports a COM error	Launch Snagit once so it registers its COM server, then retry
Recordings are empty or a couple of seconds long	The capture engine is wedged: Stop-Process -Name SnagitCapture -Force, then relaunch SnagitCapture.exe
Snagit did not arm the recorder	A capture is already open in Snagit — cancel it and retry
Region coordinates look shifted on a scaled display	The server sets per-monitor DPI awareness at startup; confirm dpi_awareness in check_snagit_setup

A note on what ends up on camera

Screen recording captures whatever is on screen, including terminal output, tokens, portal sessions, and notifications. Close or clear anything sensitive before recording, and review the MP4 before sharing it.