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name: techsmith-common-errors description: >- Analyze and classify Snagit COM, Camtasia recorder, project-storage, export, installation, and activation failures from redacted evidence. Use when TechSmith automation fails or behaves differently after an upgrade. Trigger with "TechSmith error", "Snagit COM failure", or "Camtasia export problem". argument-hint: "[product] [failure-symptom]" allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Grep, WebFetch, Write, Edit version: 1.6.0 author: Jeremy Longshore jeremy@intentsolutions.io license: MIT tags:

• desktop-automation
• techsmith
• troubleshooting model: inherit effort: medium compatibility: Designed for Claude Code; TechSmith product execution requires an approved Windows or macOS desktop as documented

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TechSmith Automation Error Triage

Overview

This skill diagnoses the layer that failed before suggesting a change. It distinguishes COM registration, executable/version drift, interactive-session limits, local-storage violations, missing media, licensing, and removed legacy exporter assumptions.

Prerequisites

• Product name, exact installed version, operating system, and architecture
• A redacted command, exit code, error text, and relevant local paths
• Confirmation whether the job ran interactively, remotely, or as a service
• Permission to inspect logs without collecting captures, project media, or license material

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect local scripts, manifests, logs, and tests. Use WebFetch only for current primary TechSmith documentation. Use Write or Edit only after confirming the target repository file and approval boundary.

Current Contract

• Snagit COM creation failures are registration or Windows-environment problems, not API authentication failures.
• Camtasia 2022+ recorder automation uses CamtasiaRecorder.exe; old executables and short switches are historical.
• The legacy exporter is absent from Camtasia 2024.1.3+.
• Active Camtasia projects on network, cloud, external, or actively synced paths are unsupported.

Licensing and Authentication

TechSmith desktop activation is not API authentication. Resolve individual sign-in versus business-key or approved offline activation before execution. Redact all keys, account identifiers, activation artifacts, and sensitive endpoint details.

Instructions

1. Capture the exact product/version, executable or ProgID, working directory, session type, and first failing operation.
2. Classify the failure as install/registration, activation, command contract, interactive desktop, project/media, export/codec, permissions, or capacity.
3. Compare only the implicated surface with current official documentation and the installed type library or executable help.
4. Reproduce with the smallest safe probe: COM instantiation, executable discovery, local sample project, or output-directory write.
5. Apply one reversible fix at a time and rerun the same probe.
6. Record the confirmed cause, evidence, remediation, rollback, and residual risk.

Approval Boundaries

Never request a software key, raw capture, customer video, or full project archive as routine diagnostic evidence. Do not recommend disabling endpoint security as a generic fix.

Output

Return the failure layer, safe evidence, confirmed cause or ranked hypotheses, one reversible action, verification result, and escalation package.

Error Handling

Condition	Response
REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG	Confirm Windows, installed Snagit version, and registration; use the documented elevated /register recovery only with approval.
Recorder switch ignored	Check executable generation and replace historical short switches with documented current switches.
Project media missing	Restore original local paths or a standalone/zipped project; do not edit TSCPROJ internals first.
Legacy producer missing	Remove the obsolete dependency and use the modern export workflow supported by the installed version.

Examples

The example below shows the minimum redacted evidence expected from a successful invocation of this operator workflow.

layer=command-contract; product=Camtasia-2026; cause=legacy-exporter-assumption; action=replace-current-workflow

Resources

• Skill-specific official documentation
• Legacy exporter removal
• Cloud storage compatibility