Settings

Settings live on the dashboard under Settings, and apply to every project. A change takes effect on your next capture, not one already in progress.

1. Recording format

GIF or MP4. See Recording for the trade-off. The description under the control tells you whether your Chrome build can encode MP4, or will fall back to WebM.

2. Maximum GIF recording length

One to ten minutes. A recording stops at the cap and opens the converter as though you had pressed stop. This exists because a long recording at 15 frames a second becomes a very large GIF.

3. Still image format

PNG keeps text crisp and is the right default for documentation. JPEG produces much smaller files but softens text and adds artefacts around high-contrast edges. The file extension follows the setting.

4. Write metadata file

On by default. When off, capture files are still written to the project folder but project_metadata.json is not updated — so those captures will not appear in the timeline read from that folder.

5. Copy to clipboard on capture

Puts each capture on the clipboard as well as saving it. Because the clipboard only accepts PNG images, a JPEG capture is converted before copying. The save toast reports whether the copy succeeded.

6. Visualise clicks

Draws a marker at each click while recording, so a walkthrough shows where you clicked. Markers are only drawn inside the recorded region — a marker outside it would never appear in the output.

Screenshot needed

lens-click-marker.png

A recording in progress with a red click marker expanding at the point of a click inside the recorded region

7. Play shutter sound

A short camera click when a capture completes. It is synthesised in the page, so nothing is downloaded and no audio file ships with the extension.

8. Flag private data in captures

On by default. Checks each captured region for credentials before you save and offers to blur them — see Capturing for what the bar looks like and what it recognises. It reads the page structure in your browser: no AI, no network call, nothing sent anywhere.

9. Also flag emails and card numbers

On by default, and only has an effect while the check above is on. Widens it past credentials to personal data. Card numbers are validated against their checksum, so order and reference numbers are not flagged.

10. AI provider

None by default, which means every AI feature is off and Lens makes no network requests. Lens has no AI service of its own — you choose who does the work, and that choice decides whether anything leaves your machine.

Picking one that runs in the cloud asks you to confirm first, because it changes what the extension does with page text. Test connection tells you whether the provider is actually reachable before you rely on it.

Connecting a provider also puts two buttons on the save screens: Suggest name & description on a screenshot, and Write steps from clicks on a recording. Both are covered in Capturing and Recording. Neither runs on its own — you press them, per capture.

11. Let the model sharpen redaction hints

Off even when a provider is set. Lets the model re-rank what the check above found, so a key in a documentation example is not flagged as hard as one in a live console.

The model is told the type of each flagged region and the page title and heading — never the flagged text itself. Sending a key to a model to ask whether it is a key would defeat the feature. The model can only re-rank and relabel: it cannot add a region, and it cannot blur one.

12. File name pattern

Controls the name each capture is given before you edit it. The extension is added automatically.

Anything else in the pattern is kept as written. Characters a file system rejects — / \ : * ? " < > | — are replaced with a dash. The line under the field previews the name your next capture will get.

13. Keyboard shortcuts

The Settings page lists the shortcuts currently bound, read from Chrome rather than hardcoded, so it always reflects reality. See Keyboard shortcuts to change them.