Screenshots without the interruption

Drift is a macOS menubar app that quietly screenshots your browser, iOS app, or Mac app as you build

macOS 14+ · Works with any browser, iOS app, or Mac app

Why this exists

When I started designing in code with AI, I gained speed and lost history.

As I started using AI tools, especially Claude Code, to design more UI in the browser, I started losing the record I had of all my design decisions and design options.

When I was using Figma, I would duplicate artboards and try out different things. Then I could look back and see a record of everything I had done. I could pull out some of my favorite versions to compare them and make decisions based on that.

But as I moved into code faster and faster, iterating on designs there, trying things out with real data and actually interacting with them, I was losing that record. Sometimes I wanted to go back to a previous decision or idea I had tried, and I couldn't easily do that. Sometimes I wanted to look at options side by side and say, "Which feels better?" and I didn't have that.

I would take screenshots sometimes, but taking screenshots manually both took me out of the flow and was easy to forget. I wasn't always capturing the moments that mattered.

So I wanted something that would constantly take screenshots in the background. Something I wouldn't have to think about. Something that would automatically capture things as I went, so when I got to a point where I thought, "Wait, what was that thing I tried earlier?" I could open it and look back through the whole timeline.

So I built Drift to quietly capture screenshots as I coded.

How does it work?

Everything is organized around Projects, each tied one-to-one to a git repo. Point Drift at a project's directory, then tell it which URLs, iOS apps, or Mac apps to watch — it quietly builds a visual timeline in the background from there.

Organized by project

Each project has a one-to-one relationship with a git repo. Point Drift at the project's directory, and everything it captures is scoped to that project.

Tagged by branch, source, and time

Every frame is saved to a local database along with its git branch, source (URL or app), and timestamp — so you can filter to one feature branch, one page or app, or a certain window of time.

Only screenshots selected URLs and apps

Drift will only screenshot the URLs and bundle IDs you tell it to. Then when those URLs or apps are frontmost, Drift will take a screenshot every five seconds (duplicates thrown out automatically).

Local and private

Screenshots live in a local database on your machine. Nothing is uploaded to a server, there's no AI or LLM involved, and no one else — including me — can access your data.

Share a quick screenshot

Grab a screenshot from Drift and drop it into a PR to show what changed, or share it in Slack to show progress.

Revisit a decision

Look back through all the iterations a screen went through. Pull out the ones that stand out, or grab two that are close together and drop them into Figma side-by-side to decide what the next revision should be.

Watch it evolve

Hit play and watch a screen evolve, iteration by iteration — like Procreate, but for a screen instead of a drawing. It's my favorite feature, and it makes turning that evolution into a quick video easy, instead of piecing one together by hand.

Tell the story

Pull out the most interesting screenshots to write a case study on how a page evolved, or present a design review: the options you tried, what didn't work, and why one direction is the one to move forward with.