[Feature Request]: Manual Project Saving, "Save As" for versioning, and clearer "Previous Recordings" list

[dennyschroeder]

Hi @richiemcilroy,

As a user running Cap entirely offline with a local Desktop License, data and project management are highly critical for my workflow.

Currently, there is no manual "Save" or "Save As..." option within the editor interface. Everything seems to rely on automatic background saving, which creates two major blockers:

1. No Version Control ("Save As"): When working on long-term or complex video projects, I need the ability to manually trigger a "Save As..." to create a new project file version. This allows me to experiment with different edit variations without destroying the original timeline.
2. Ambiguous "Previous" List: When trying to reopen past work via "Import Video -> Previous", the list of recent recordings is completely ambiguous. It is impossible to distinguish which item is a screenshot, a short snippet, or a full video project.

Proposed Solution:

• Add a traditional File -> Save / Save As... option to the Editor menu.
• Enhance the "Previous Recordings" dashboard with clear icons or labels distinguishing between Screenshots and Video Projects, including timestamps and custom project names.

Giving local desktop users manual control over project file creation would be a massive usability upgrade!
Greetings, Denny

[linear]

CAP-719

[tembo]

Thanks for the detailed request. Here's some relevant context from the codebase that might help whoever picks this up:

Current auto-save implementation: The editor currently auto-saves with a 250ms debounce via scheduleProjectConfigSave() in apps/desktop/src/routes/editor/context.ts. Projects are stored as directories with a config.json and content/ subdirectory. There's no "Save As" or version management currently - projects are tied to their directory path, and exports (commands.exportVideoToFile()) create separate video files without creating new project versions.

Recordings vs Screenshots distinction: The codebase already distinguishes between these internally. In TargetCard.tsx, there are separate types RecordingWithPath and ScreenshotWithPath, and recordings show a subtitle indicating "Studio Mode" or "Instant Mode" (line 139-141). The recordings and screenshots are listed in separate menus in the main window (new-main/index.tsx).

Related issues: You might want to check out #1857 which you also opened about custom storage paths - there's likely overlap in the implementation if both features are addressed together. #424 is also related (changing save folder location).

Prior work on naming: PR #1372 added customizable project name templates and migrated from UUID-based names to human-readable pretty_name values. This infrastructure could be leveraged for any "Save As" feature that needs to generate variant names.

For implementation, a "Save As" feature would likely need to:

1. Add a new Tauri command to copy the project directory to a new location
2. Update the editor header (apps/desktop/src/routes/editor/Header.tsx) with the menu option
3. Potentially open the newly created project in a fresh editor window