From a browser task to a guide your client can follow

The ScreenMate recorder is a Chrome extension. At install it asks for very little: permission to store an unfinished recording, to add its click listener to the tab you choose, and to talk to screenmate.ai so the editor can import your draft. It does not ask for access to every website.

Open the web app you want to document, click the ScreenMate icon and press Start recording. Chrome grants access to that tab at that moment. If the task moves to a different website, Chrome withdraws access and ScreenMate pauses until you click the icon again and choose Continue recording here. (If you record across many sites and find that tiresome, there is an optional setting to let ScreenMate stay active across sites during a recording; it’s off by default.)

A small “Recording” badge sits in the corner of the page with Pause and Stop buttons; it is hidden for a split second whenever a screenshot is taken so it never appears in your guide. Each meaningful click becomes a step: ScreenMate reads the button or link label and the page title and writes a first draft such as Click “Save changes”. Typing into a field becomes Enter your email address — the text you typed is never recorded, and password fields are never captured at all.

Rapid repeated clicks, double-clicks and the page change that follows a click are folded into one step so you don’t get a pile of duplicates. Screenshots are compressed on your device and identical ones are stored once.

When you press Stop, the recording opens in the ScreenMate editor in your browser. Nothing has been uploaded yet. This is where you check every screenshot and use the Redact tool on anything private — the redaction is painted into the image and the original pixels are discarded. Then edit the wording, reorder steps, add numbered markers or arrows, and write an introduction and completion notes.

If Chrome crashes or restarts mid-recording, the unfinished recording is kept in the extension and offered for recovery the next time you open it.

Export a multi-page PDF (with your logo and colour on Solo and Team) or Markdown with image files. Or save the guide to your account and share a link: new guides are private; you can make a link unlisted (anyone with the link) or public, and separately decide whether search engines may index it. Revoke an unlisted link at any time and the old address stops working.

• Chrome’s own pages (settings, extensions, new tab), the Chrome Web Store and other extensions — Chrome blocks all extensions there.
• Local files opened in the browser (file://).
• Clicks inside some cross-site embedded frames may not register; the screenshot still shows what you saw.
• Desktop applications outside the browser, and mobile browsers. Readers can open guides on any device.

When you try to start on an unsupported page the extension explains why and what to do instead.