w00ing/seer-skill/seer

Seer

Use the unified CLI for visual evidence. Keep specialist scripts for recording, annotation, wireframing, and typing. Seer requires macOS with Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions. Semantic queries are optional; a first query may compile a Swift helper and requires swiftc from Xcode Command Line Tools.

Core workflow

1. Run python3 scripts/seer doctor --json to inspect platform, visible-window Accessibility readiness, and dependencies. Read frontmost_process separately from capabilities.window_query.authorized; a frontmost app does not prove accessible window enumeration. Screen Recording permission is checked during capture.
2. Run python3 scripts/seer windows --json and select the exact window's window_id.
3. When the UI is still animating or settling, run python3 scripts/seer wait --stable --window-id 12345 --timeout 10 --interval 0.25 --stable-for 1 --max-diff-percent 0 --out .seer/capture/current.png --json. This samples the same exact window and publishes the output only after at least two frames meet the pixel threshold for the stable interval. Timeout returns fail (exit 1) with reason timeout; capture or input errors return error (exit 2). A stable result establishes a pixel condition, not semantic UI correctness. For an immediate capture, use capture --window-id 12345 --out .seer/capture/current.png --json.
4. Load the returned artifacts.current path with view_image. Inspect the fresh image before making claims. Capture writes a hash-bound .seer.json sidecar with available capture time, window ID, PNG dimensions, and DPI metadata; its path is artifacts.metadata. Unknown, missing, or stale metadata is not inferred.
5. Run python3 scripts/seer verify .seer/capture/current.png <baseline-name> --json. Add repeated --ignore-rect X,Y,WIDTH,HEIGHT options only for known dynamic regions. Rectangles use nonnegative integer baseline PNG coordinates, positive dimensions, half-open edges, and must be fully in bounds. Overlapping areas count once; excluded pixels leave both the changed-pixel numerator and denominator. Invalid rectangles and a full-image exclusion are errors.
6. Inspect the returned diff when status is fail, then iterate and capture again. A valid comparison or baseline creation stores a per-run bundle under runs/<unique>/ with baseline/current snapshots, report, manifest, and a diff when pixel comparison succeeds. The manifest records relative artifact paths, checksums, capture metadata, and comparison options. Dimension or scale mismatch attempts preserve the snapshots, report, and manifest but have no diff. A missing baseline or invalid input that stops before comparison setup leaves the loop directory untouched. The snapshot preserves the baseline used for that comparison, including when --update-baseline is approved.

Never create or replace a baseline without explicit user approval. A missing baseline returns needs_baseline (exit 3); after approval, rerun with --create-baseline. Treat --update-baseline as a destructive approval action.

Optional MCP interface

When Seer's local MCP server is configured, use seer_run with {"arguments":["capture","--window-id","12345","--json"]} or another core CLI operation. Use seer_help with {"command":"verify"} for exact option spelling. Pass each argument as a separate string; shell quoting, expansion, pipes, and abbreviated flags are not supported. The server runs from its configured project root, so relative output paths belong to that project.

seer_run returns the CLI JSON unchanged as structured content and text. Read status even when MCP isError is false: fail and needs_baseline are completed domain results. error sets isError. Follow recovery.next_action for errors and missing baselines; retryable does not authorize state changes or automatic baseline approval. Set a CLI --timeout below the server command timeout and the host tool timeout above both.

MCP rejects both baseline-write options. After explicit user approval, perform creation or replacement through the CLI. Recording and typing remain separate scripts; they are not MCP tools. Install the optional dependencies from scripts/requirements-mcp.txt into a Python 3.10+ environment, then launch scripts/seer_mcp.py --project-root /absolute/project. See MCP integration for host examples.

Semantic inspection

Use inspect, assert, or a semantic wait when the question concerns exposed labels, values, roles, or enabled state. Accessibility is the default source; select --source ocr explicitly to inspect text in the window pixels.

python3 scripts/seer inspect --window-id 12345 --source ax --json
python3 scripts/seer assert --window-id 12345 --text "Saved" --match exact --json
python3 scripts/seer assert --window-id 12345 --enabled "Save" --role AXButton --json
python3 scripts/seer assert --window-id 12345 --source ocr --text "Saved" \
  --min-confidence 0.8 --timeout 60 --json
python3 scripts/seer wait --text "Ready" --window-id 12345 \
  --timeout 10 --interval 0.25 --json

inspect and assert allow 30 seconds by default; semantic wait allows 10. The query budget includes helper compilation, capture, and OCR work. Use a longer timeout such as --timeout 60 for OCR or a cold helper build.

inspect returns Accessibility role, name, value, bounds, and enabled state; its OCR source returns recognized text with confidence and bounds. assert supports --text, --text-absent, --enabled, and --disabled. Text checks compare case-sensitively against individual Accessibility name/value fields. --match defaults to contains and also accepts exact; control names match exactly. Use --role to restrict an enabled/disabled query to that exact Accessibility role. Semantic wait accepts one of those conditions or the existing --stable pixel condition.

Queries never fall back between Accessibility and OCR. --region X,Y,WIDTH,HEIGHT uses window-local points from the top-left. Accessibility selects elements whose bounds centers are in the region; OCR crops the corresponding image region and translates its recognized bounds back to window coordinates. Visual --ignore-rect options remain measured in baseline PNG pixels.

An inspect result with exit 0 means the read completed; check complete and issues before using its evidence. assert and semantic wait turn incomplete observations into errors. Named static text and unknown roles cannot establish a control's enabled state. Inspection reports are saved locally; save assertion/wait stdout to preserve the verdict. Semantic verdicts do not use visual comparison replay. Vision can misread text even at confidence 1.0; inspect recognized text before relying on it.

Treat missing evidence as error, never as proof of absence. Empty or incomplete Accessibility text is insufficient; complete-tree absence applies only to the app's exposed Accessibility tree. OCR can establish a positive text match above --min-confidence, but low-confidence evidence is insufficient. OCR cannot prove text absence and cannot check control state. A valid mismatch returns exit 1, operational or insufficient-evidence errors return exit 2, and a wait whose valid condition remains unmet at its deadline returns a timeout failure. Inspect the returned source/confidence evidence. The agent workflow describes these evidence limits and Apple API boundaries.

CLI interface

python3 scripts/seer doctor --json
python3 scripts/seer windows --json
python3 scripts/seer capture [--window-id ID|--process NAME] [--out PATH] --json
python3 scripts/seer inspect --window-id ID [--source ax|ocr]
                           [--region X,Y,WIDTH,HEIGHT] [--timeout SEC] --json
python3 scripts/seer assert --window-id ID [--source ax|ocr]
                           (--text TEXT|--text-absent TEXT|--enabled NAME|--disabled NAME)
                           [--role AXButton] [--match exact|contains]
                           [--min-confidence N] [--region X,Y,WIDTH,HEIGHT]
                           [--timeout SEC] --json
python3 scripts/seer wait --stable --window-id ID [--timeout SEC] [--interval SEC]
                          [--stable-for SEC] [--max-diff-percent N]
                          [--ignore-rect X,Y,WIDTH,HEIGHT ...] [--out PATH] --json
python3 scripts/seer wait (--stable|--text TEXT|--text-absent TEXT|--enabled NAME|--disabled NAME)
                          --window-id ID [--source ax|ocr] [--role AXButton]
                          [--match exact|contains] [--min-confidence N]
                          [--region X,Y,WIDTH,HEIGHT] [--timeout SEC]
                          [--interval SEC] --json
python3 scripts/seer verify [--loop-dir DIR] [--resize] [--max-diff-percent N]
                            [--ignore-rect X,Y,WIDTH,HEIGHT ...]
                            [--create-baseline|--update-baseline]
                            CURRENT BASELINE --json

Commands emit one JSON object to stdout and diagnostics to stderr, except --help, which prints ordinary help text. Operational errors return exit 2 with schema_version: 1, operation (the recognized subcommand or null), status: "error", and error: {code, message}. Doctor errors also include capabilities and frontmost_process. Exit 0 means pass, exit 1 means a valid visual or semantic condition failed (including a condition wait timeout), exit 2 means an operational error or insufficient semantic evidence, and exit 3 means needs_baseline. The default allowed visual difference is 0%.

window_id is the native, session-scoped identifier for one exact window. It survives movement and reordering, but becomes stale when the window closes or is recreated; rerun windows before retrying. The 1-based index remains informational. capture --process remains a compatibility fallback that targets the process's first window.

Comparison reports PNG dimension and known DPI mismatches. It never resizes implicitly. verify --resize explicitly opts into the baseline pixel grid; the current image is resized when pixel dimensions differ, and scale_evidence records the opt-in. A known DPI mismatch without that flag returns image_scale_mismatch; a dimension mismatch returns image_size_mismatch. Unknown scale is not treated as a verified match. image_not_found and invalid_image are image-comparator error codes. The wait timeout covers capture subprocesses as well as frame polling. A timeout does not replace an existing --out file. A successful wait response has reason: "stable", a condition object (stable_for, interval, timeout, max_diff_percent, ignore_rects, and reference: "interval_anchor"), capture metadata under capture (source: "seer.capture"), and image/metadata paths under artifacts.

Exact-ID capture confirms that the window is on-screen before and after capture; hidden, minimized, or closed windows return an error. Inspect the fresh image even after PNG validation succeeds: a valid PNG does not establish that the UI content is correct.

Set SEER_OUT_DIR to change .seer/ output or SEER_LOOP_DIR to change only baseline, latest, history, diff, report, and evidence-bundle storage.

Optional workflows