> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.basaltic.sh/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Capture the instance's display > Returns a still image of what the instance's screen is showing right now. The counterpart to console output, for everything a serial transcript cannot reach: a guest stuck in its boot manager, sitting at a GRUB prompt, panicking before serial init, or booted from an image whose kernel was never told to log to ttyS0. In those the transcript is empty and the screen holds the whole answer. A still, not an interactive session — there is no remote desktop. Requires the instance to be running; a stopped instance has no display to capture and returns 409 rather than a blank frame. ## OpenAPI ````yaml /api-reference/specs/compute.yaml get /v1/instances/{instance_id}/console/screenshot openapi: 3.0.3 info: title: Basaltic Compute API version: 1.0.0 description: | Virtual machine instances, and the images, flavors, SSH keypairs and instance pools they are built from. Covers the whole instance lifecycle: start, stop, reboot, resize and reinstall. contact: name: Basaltic Support email: ping@basaltic.sh license: name: Proprietary url: https://basaltic.sh/terms servers: - url: https://compute.{region}.basaltic.sh description: Regional API endpoint variables: region: default: sa-saopaulo-1 description: Region code security: - SignatureAuth: [] paths: /v1/instances/{instance_id}/console/screenshot: get: tags: - Compute summary: Capture the instance's display description: | Returns a still image of what the instance's screen is showing right now. The counterpart to console output, for everything a serial transcript cannot reach: a guest stuck in its boot manager, sitting at a GRUB prompt, panicking before serial init, or booted from an image whose kernel was never told to log to ttyS0. In those the transcript is empty and the screen holds the whole answer. A still, not an interactive session — there is no remote desktop. Requires the instance to be running; a stopped instance has no display to capture and returns 409 rather than a blank frame. operationId: getConsoleScreenshot parameters: - $ref: '#/components/parameters/InstanceId' responses: '200': description: >- The captured frame. Content-Type is what the hypervisor reported for the image, normally image/png. content: image/png: schema: type: string format: binary '401': $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized' '403': $ref: '#/components/responses/Forbidden' '404': $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound' '409': description: Instance is not running, so it has no display to capture content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error' '500': $ref: '#/components/responses/InternalServerError' security: - SignatureAuth: [] components: parameters: InstanceId: name: instance_id in: path description: Instance ID required: true schema: type: string format: uuid example: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 responses: Unauthorized: description: Authentication required or token invalid content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error' example: error: code: UNAUTHORIZED message: Authentication required request_id: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 Forbidden: description: Insufficient permissions content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error' example: error: code: ACCESS_DENIED message: You don't have permission to perform this action request_id: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 NotFound: description: Resource not found content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error' example: error: code: NOT_FOUND message: Resource not found request_id: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 InternalServerError: description: Internal server error content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error' example: error: code: INTERNAL_ERROR message: An internal error occurred request_id: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 schemas: Error: type: object required: - error properties: error: type: object required: - code - message - request_id properties: code: type: string description: Error code identifying the type of error example: INVALID_INPUT message: type: string description: Human-readable error message example: Invalid request parameters request_id: type: string format: uuid description: Request ID for debugging example: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 securitySchemes: SignatureAuth: type: apiKey in: header name: Authorization description: > Request signing with an access key issued to a service account. An HMAC-SHA256 over a canonical form of the request, close to AWS SigV4. The `basaltic` CLI signs for you. Send `Authorization`, `X-Date` (UTC, `YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ`) and `X-Nonce` (random per request); add `X-Content-Sha256` to bind a body, and `X-Amz-Security-Token` when using temporary credentials. ``` Authorization: BASALTIC-HMAC-SHA256 Credential=///basaltic/basaltic_request, SignedHeaders=host;x-date;x-nonce, Signature= ``` `` is the region code you are calling, or `global` for the global services. A signature is valid for 5 minutes from `X-Date`, and mutating requests are replay-guarded on the nonce. **Full signing procedure, including a working implementation:** https://docs.basaltic.sh/authentication ## Rate limits There is no global request budget. A limit applies only where an operation documents a `429`, and that operation says what it counts. Those responses carry `X-RateLimit-Limit`, `X-RateLimit-Remaining`, `X-RateLimit-Reset` and, on a `429`, `Retry-After` — read them rather than hard-coding a number. Retrying before `Retry-After` is refused and extends the window. Everything else is bounded by quota, not by request rate. ````