AI Snapshot

Written By Tim Harvey

The AI Snapshot feature exports a selected time range from your capture as a structured text block and copies it to the clipboard. Paste it directly into any AI assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or any other) and ask about your firmware's behavior — with your actual captured data as context, not a description of it from memory.

The Active Debug Port captures your firmware's internal state with nanosecond precision alongside hardware signals. An AI Snapshot packages all of that into a single structured block: Active Debug Port output, logic transitions, protocol decodes, and analog measurements, all time-aligned and ready to hand off.

MCP Server: If you use Claude Desktop, the MCP Server takes this further. Claude can control the ACTIVE-PRO application directly — running captures, searching for specific events, and exporting snapshots — based on plain-English instructions. No copy-paste required.

What Gets Exported

The AI Snapshot collects all visible, enabled channels that have data within the selected time range and combines them into a single structured text block in chronological order.

The format is the Active-Pro Firmware Trace (.aft) format. The exported block contains:

  1. Header line: Identifies the file as an AFT trace.
  2. [ANALYSIS CONTEXT] section: Your briefing text (if you provided one), included at the top so the AI has context before seeing any data. Omitted if the Analysis Context field is empty.
  3. [DEVICE SOURCES] section: Lists which device ports (A–D), logic channels, and analog channels appear in the selected range, along with their custom names.
  4. Channel listings: For each Active Debug Port device, a labeled section listing the named channels present.
  5. Event data: All events in the selected range, sorted by timestamp, in CSV-format rows.

Data Included

  • Active Debug Port channels: Text strings and numeric values logged by your firmware via ACTIVEText, ACTIVEprintf, and ACTIVEValue
  • Logic channels: State transitions (0 and 1) for each enabled digital input — only transitions are recorded, not every sample
  • Analog channels: Voltage or calibrated engineering unit readings per sample

Only channels that are enabled (visible) and have data in the selected range are included. This means you can control exactly what goes into the snapshot by enabling or disabling channels before selecting the range.

Tip: Before taking a snapshot, hide any channels you do not need. Fewer channels means a smaller snapshot, which uses less of the AI's context window and keeps the analysis focused.

Taking a Snapshot

Step 1: Select a Time Range

Right-click and drag across the waveform to select the time range you want. A colored highlight appears over the selected region as you drag.

Alternatively, place X1 and X2 cursors and then right-click drag precisely between them, or use the same right-click drag technique in the List tab to select a range of decoded packet rows.

Step 2: Choose "Copy AI Snapshot"

Release the mouse button. A small menu appears with two options:

  • Copy AI Snapshot (Ctrl+C)
  • Copy Data (Ctrl+Shift+C)

Select Copy AI Snapshot.

Step 3: Confirmation

A brief on-screen notification appears over the selected region with the message "AI Snapshot Copied" and an estimated token count for the copied text. The status bar also briefly shows "AI Snapshot Copied."

The token count estimate is useful because AI assistants have context window limits. If the count is very high, consider narrowing your time selection or hiding additional channels to reduce it.

Step 4: Paste into Your AI Assistant

Switch to your AI assistant and paste (Ctrl+V). The AI will receive your firmware trace in full.

Tip: If you use Claude Desktop with the MCP Server installed, you can skip the copy-paste step entirely. Ask Claude to export an AI Snapshot directly to a file and analyze it in the same conversation.

Analysis Context

The Analysis Context field is in the Notes tab, below the rich text notes editor. It is a plain-text area where you write a briefing that appears at the top of every AI Snapshot exported from this capture file — before the AI sees any data.

A well-written Analysis Context makes AI responses significantly more useful. Rather than asking the AI to guess what your system is supposed to be doing, you tell it directly. Write what the firmware is supposed to be doing, what problem you are investigating, what question you want the AI to answer, and any relevant hardware or software context that is not visible in the trace data.

That context tells the AI what to look for. Without it, the AI is working from raw data alone.

If this field is left empty, the [ANALYSIS CONTEXT] section is omitted from the export entirely.

The Analysis Context is saved in the .active capture file, so it is restored when you reopen the file. This means you can document your investigation intent and it will always travel with the capture data.

AFT File Format Reference

The AI Snapshot uses the Active-Pro Firmware Trace (.aft) format. Data rows use comma-separated values with the following structure:

timestamp, source_id, channel_id, value

Field Description timestamp Event time as a numeric value (in seconds, with nanosecond precision) source_id``A, B, C, or D (Active Debug Port device), L (logic input), or AN (analog input) channel_id Channel number within the source value Decoded string, voltage value, or logic state (0 or 1)

Fields containing commas are quoted per standard CSV convention.

Example output:

Active-Pro Firmware Trace (.aft)

[ANALYSIS CONTEXT]
Investigating why the motor controller loses lock at high speed.
I2C bus on Device A is the control interface; Device B is the firmware debug output.

[DEVICE SOURCES]
A: I2C Bus
B: Motor Controller Debug
L: Logic Inputs

[DEVICE A CHANNELS]
# I2C decoded output

[DEVICE B CHANNELS]
0: speed_loop
1: phase_error
2: fault_state

---DATA---
0.000125100, A, 0, "W 0x28 0x03 0xFF"
0.000125900, B, 0, "speed_loop: target=4500 actual=4498"
0.000126400, B, 1, "phase_error: 0.3 deg"
0.000201000, A, 0, "R 0x28 0x01 → 0x03"
0.000201500, B, 2, "fault_state: NONE"

Difference Between AI Snapshot and Copy Data

Copy AI Snapshot****Copy Data Format AFT structured text (header, channel legend, analysis context, interleaved data) Simpler CSV format Intended use Pasting into AI assistants Pasting into spreadsheets or scripts Channel legend Included Not included Analysis context Included Not included Shortcut Ctrl+C (in context menu) Ctrl+Shift+C (in context menu)

Tim Harvey
Previous

Devices
Next

Export and File Operations