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ui-before-after

Testing & Quality
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Analyse a branch or PR and automatically capture before/after screenshots of every UI surface its changes touch, then pixel-diff the pairs to surface what actually changed and assemble PR-ready before/after montage images. Generic and diff-driven: it derives the capture targets from the diff (changed tools/routes → URLs) instead of hand-listing screens, captures "before" from the base branch and "after" from the head, then keeps only the views that visually differ. Each comparison is auto-cropped to the region that actually changed (the bounding box of differing pixels), falling back to the full page only when the change spans most of it. Use for before/after shots, a visual diff of a branch/PR, "screenshots for the PR description", "show what changed in the UI", or a side-by-side of UI changes. Takes a PR number/URL (resolved via gh) or a branch; defaults to the current branch vs its base. Flags: --scope <selector>, --base <ref|merge-base>, --theme light|dark|both, --all (capture every route, not just changed), --no-autocrop, --pagewide <n>, --threshold <n>.

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF/blob/HEAD/.claude/skills/ui-before-after/SKILL.md

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UI Before / After (generic visual diff)

Point it at a branch or PR; it figures out which UI changed, screenshots every affected surface before (base) and after (head), pixel-diffs the pairs, and montages the ones that actually changed into images for the PR description.

$ARGUMENTS: a PR number/URL, a branch, or nothing (current branch vs base). By default it captures the full viewport and auto-crops each comparison to the region that changed. Flags: --scope <css> (narrow the capture to a container, e.g. [data-sidebar="tool-panel"], when you already know where the change is), --no-autocrop (keep full frames), --pagewide <fraction> (above this share of the page, skip cropping; default 0.6), --base <ref|merge-base>, --theme light|dark|both, --all (walk every route, not just changed), --threshold <fraction> (diff sensitivity, default 0.001).

Shares the capture harness with ui-walkthrough - read its SKILL.md for the stubbed-Playwright setup, worktree node_modules + generate-icons, the stale-:5173 gotcha, and the dark-mode init-script. Bundled helpers: capture-spec.template.ts, diff-shots.mjs, montage-template.html, shoot-sections.mjs.

Process

1. Resolve target + base

gh pr view <pr> --json number,title,headRefName,baseRefName,url,files   # PR
# or branch: base = merge-base(main, HEAD); head = HEAD
gh pr diff <pr> --name-only        # or: git diff --name-only <base>...HEAD

2. Derive capture targets from the diff (the "analyse" step - no hand-listing)

Map changed frontend files to URLs generically:

  • Tools: a changed components/tools/<toolDir>/… or hooks/tools/<tool>/… → toolId → URL via the repo's own rule getToolUrlPath in toolsTaxonomy.ts:200: / + the id kebab-cased (addPageNumbers → /add-page-numbers).
  • Pages/routes: changed filesPage/* → /files, etc.
  • --all: enumerate every tool in the registry instead of just changed ones. Write frontend/editor/screenshots/ui-diff/targets.json = [{ "id":"compress", "url":"/compress", "name":"Compress" }]. This is what makes it generic - the spec never names a tool.

3. Capture AFTER (head) then BEFORE (base)

Copy capture-spec.template.ts → src/core/tests/stubbed/ui-before-after.spec.ts (it loops targets.json, seeds a sample PDF so file-dependent panels render, navigates to each URL, and screenshots the full viewport - or the --scope container if given). Ensure the harness is ready (node_modules + icons).

# after = current head
cd frontend/editor && PR_SHOT_SIDE=after PR_SHOT_THEME=light \
  npx playwright test --project=stubbed ui-before-after.spec.ts
# before = base, in an isolated worktree (copy the spec + targets.json in)
git worktree add ../ba-base origin/<baseRefName>        # or the merge-base
#   set up its frontend, copy spec + screenshots/ui-diff/targets.json across, then:
cd ../ba-base/frontend/editor && PR_SHOT_SIDE=before PR_SHOT_THEME=light \
  npx playwright test --project=stubbed ui-before-after.spec.ts
#   copy its screenshots/ui-diff/before/ back next to after/. Repeat with
#   PR_SHOT_THEME=dark if --theme includes dark. Remove worktree when done.

4. Auto-diff (surface what changed)

cd frontend/editor && node <skill>/diff-shots.mjs \
  screenshots/ui-diff/before screenshots/ui-diff/after screenshots/ui-diff

Produces diff-report.json classifying each view unchanged | changed | added | removed. For each changed view it computes the bounding box of differing pixels and writes cropped __before_crop.png / __after_crop.png / __diff.png to that region (+ padding) - unless the change covers more than --pagewide of the frame, where it keeps the full frame (pageWide:true). Drop unchanged - that's the noise the user doesn't want.

5. Montage the changes

Build the manifest from the non-unchanged entries (group by tab/tool; each becomes a state row with before/after). For changed views use the cropped cropBefore / cropAfter from diff-report.json (tight on the affected region; full frame when pageWide); added/removed render the "not present" placeholder. Fill montage-template.html (replace the window.__BA__ data block; base64-inline the PNGs for portability), then render one PNG per section with shoot-sections.mjs. Optionally include the __diff.png overlay as a third column.

6. Deliver

Output the montage_<tab>.png files + a short summary (N changed / added / removed, M unchanged skipped) and a paste-ready Markdown block. GitHub has no PR-body image API, so tell the user to drag the PNGs into the description. Do not post to the PR.

Gotchas

  • Two installs (base worktree + head); junction main's node_modules only if its deps match that ref, else npm ci (see ui-walkthrough's stale-dep note).
  • A view that errors on one side (refactored/removed) → that side is missing; the diff marks it added/removed rather than failing the run.
  • Pixel diff needs equal dimensions, so capture at a fixed viewport (the template does); a view whose size changed is reported as "changed (dimensions differ)", uncropped.
  • Auto-crop uses a single bounding box, so two far-apart changes give one large crop (or trip --pagewide); narrow with --scope if that happens.
  • getToolUrlPath is the source of truth for tool URLs - use it, don't guess slugs.
  • Don't commit screenshots/, the throwaway spec, or the base worktree.