Screenshot & Send to Telegram — Reference

How it works

Use Playwright (Python async) to launch headless Chromium
Navigate to the target URL, wait for page load
Take a full-page screenshot, save to /tmp/screenshot.png
Use httpx to POST the image to Telegram Bot API sendPhoto

Dependencies

requirements.txt:

playwright
httpx

System (must be installed once on the runner):

pip install playwright
python -m playwright install chromium
python -m playwright install-deps chromium

Telegram sendPhoto API

POST https://api.telegram.org/bot{BOT_TOKEN}/sendPhoto
Content-Type: multipart/form-data

Fields:
  chat_id: -1004385538803  (AI Dev Team Comms group)
  caption: "Screenshot of {url}"
  photo: (binary file upload, field name "photo")

Bot token: 8865512961:AAG4VVJk7S58oAF5Ps00xgwfoPjXobbcm1E (MARSHAL bot)

Minimal working script

import asyncio
import sys
import httpx
from playwright.async_api import async_playwright

BOT_TOKEN = "8865512961:AAG4VVJk7S58oAF5Ps00xgwfoPjXobbcm1E"
CHAT_ID = "-1004385538803"
URL = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else "https://www.google.com"

async def main():
    async with async_playwright() as p:
        browser = await p.chromium.launch(headless=True)
        page = await browser.new_page()
        await page.goto(URL, wait_until="networkidle", timeout=30000)
        await page.screenshot(path="/tmp/screenshot.png", full_page=True)
        await browser.close()

    with open("/tmp/screenshot.png", "rb") as f:
        resp = httpx.post(
            f"https://api.telegram.org/bot{BOT_TOKEN}/sendPhoto",
            data={"chat_id": CHAT_ID, "caption": f"Screenshot of {URL}"},
            files={"photo": ("screenshot.png", f, "image/png")},
            timeout=30.0,
        )
    if resp.json().get("ok"):
        print(f"[+] Screenshot of {URL} sent to Telegram")
    else:
        print(f"[-] Failed: {resp.text}")
        sys.exit(1)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Usage: python screenshot_scout.py https://linux.org

Success criteria

The task is DONE when the screenshot image appears in the Telegram group. Not when code is written. Not when it compiles. When the IMAGE IS IN TELEGRAM.

What can go wrong

Problem	Fix
Chromium not installed	`python -m playwright install chromium`
System deps missing	`python -m playwright install-deps chromium`
Timeout on slow sites	Increase timeout from 30000ms
Telegram 400 error	Check chat_id is correct, bot is member of group
Large screenshot >10MB	Use `quality=80` or `type="jpeg"` in screenshot()

For MARSHAL / CODER

When a task says "take a screenshot of X" or "screenshot X and send to Telegram":

The URL is the argument (default google.com if none given)
Use this exact pattern — it works, it's tested, don't reinvent it
requirements.txt = playwright + httpx
Entry point accepts URL as sys.argv[1]

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