screenshot

crabbox screenshot captures a PNG from a desktop lease without opening a VNC client.

crabbox warmup --desktop
crabbox screenshot --id blue-lobster
crabbox screenshot --id blue-lobster --network tailscale
crabbox screenshot --id blue-lobster --output desktop.png

The command resolves and touches the lease like crabbox ssh, verifies that the lease has desktop=true, waits for the loopback desktop/VNC service, then streams a PNG over SSH. Linux captures DISPLAY=:99. Windows creates a one-shot scheduled task inside the logged-in crabbox console session, because non-interactive SSH sessions cannot capture the visible desktop. macOS uses screencapture.

For Windows, the screenshot reflects the active console session in the Crabbox-created instance. Managed AWS Windows desktop leases enable auto-logon for the generated crabbox user, store that password under C:\ProgramData\crabbox, and use it only on the instance to run the scheduled capture task.

If --output is omitted, Crabbox writes:

crabbox-<slug-or-id>-screenshot.png

Static macOS and Windows targets are existing host machines, not Crabbox-created desktops, so screenshot rejects those targets instead of capturing your local or home-host desktop by accident. Managed AWS Windows and AWS macOS desktop leases are Crabbox-created boxes and can be captured by lease id or slug.

Flags:

--id <lease-id-or-slug>
--provider hetzner|aws|ssh
--target linux|macos|windows
--windows-mode normal|wsl2
--static-host <host>
--static-user <user>
--static-port <port>
--static-work-root <path>
--network auto|tailscale|public
--output <path>
--reclaim

Related docs: