A screenshot is evidence, not permission

A screenshot can contain the fact that resolves a question: the error beside the code, the state of a native window, the layout that disappeared in translation. It can also contain private work. The same proximity that makes screen evidence useful makes the boundary around it consequential.

The answer is not to pretend observation is harmless. It is to make observation narrow enough to understand.

Observation begins with a request

Noru does not decide when to look. A compatible coding agent requests an observation because it believes the current screen will help with the task already in progress. Noru then performs that bounded request through the Mac app's existing authorization and acknowledgement path.

That distinction matters. The agent supplies intent. Noru supplies evidence. Neither fact gives Noru a reason to keep watching after the request ends.

Visible before available

A completed observation receives a capture identity, timestamp, source information, measured dimensions, recognized text, and model-sized pixels. The app visibly acknowledges the observation before the evidence is made available to the agent. If acknowledgement fails, the bundle is not published as though the boundary had succeeded.

This is more than interface ceremony. It makes the observation legible to the person whose screen was involved. Fresh evidence should not appear through an invisible side door.

Observe-only is a product decision

Noru can capture and retrieve. It does not click, type, drag, submit, or claim that the work succeeded. Another authorized tool may act, but that is a separate capability with a separate responsibility.

Keeping those roles apart prevents a convenient screenshot handoff from becoming an implied grant of control. The image can inform an action without authorizing it.

Control has more than one verb

Pause, revoke, and delete solve different problems. Pausing stops new observations while preserving history. Revoking removes an agent's future access. Deleting removes stored evidence. Treating them as synonyms would make the boundary easier to describe and harder to trust.

The product should also prefer the least data that answers the question. A specific window is a narrower source than an entire display. A single requested observation is narrower than a recording. A local original is narrower than a cloud capture store.

The Noru decision

The manual screenshot loop can disappear without making the screen ambient infrastructure for an agent. Noru removes the interruption while preserving a visible moment of observation and a clear separation between evidence and action.

A screenshot can show an agent what is true on screen. It does not give the agent permission to change it.