jasoncarreira view-attachment
When a message includes attachments, you see file paths like:
attachments:
- state/attachments/12345-screenshot.png
These are real files on disk. You can't see them inline, but you have several ways to inspect them depending on the file type.
Step 1: Identify the File Type
Check the extension:
- Images:
.png,.jpg,.jpeg,.gif,.webp,.svg,.bmp - Text/code:
.txt,.md,.py,.js,.json,.csv,.log,.yaml,.toml - Documents:
.pdf - Other: anything else
Step 2: Choose a Viewing Strategy
For Text-Based Files
Read them directly — these are just text:
cat state/attachments/12345-notes.txt
For Images (When You Can't View Them Natively)
Try these approaches in order of usefulness:
Option A: Describe from context Often the surrounding message gives enough context. If someone says "look at this error" and attaches a screenshot, the error is probably in their message text too. Ask if unclear.
Option B: File metadata Get dimensions, format, and size to understand what you're looking at:
file state/attachments/12345-image.png
identify state/attachments/12345-image.png 2>/dev/null # if ImageMagick available
Option C: OCR with Tesseract Extract text content from screenshots, documents, or photos of text:
tesseract state/attachments/12345-screenshot.png stdout 2>/dev/null
Option D: Convert to SVG (for simple graphics/charts) Trace bitmap images into vector format you can reason about:
# Install if needed: apt-get install -y potrace
convert state/attachments/12345-chart.png pbm:- | potrace --svg -o - 2>/dev/null
SVG output is XML text — you can read the paths and shapes.
Option E: Base64 encode If another tool or API accepts base64 images, encode it:
base64 -w0 state/attachments/12345-image.png
Warning: base64 output is large. Only use this if you're passing it to a vision-capable API or tool, not for your own comprehension.
Option F: Pixel sampling (last resort) For very simple images, sample pixel values at key coordinates:
# Get the color at specific pixel coordinates (requires ImageMagick)
convert state/attachments/12345-image.png -format '%[pixel:p{100,100}]' info: 2>/dev/null
For PDFs
# Extract text
pdftotext state/attachments/12345-document.pdf - 2>/dev/null
Step 3: Be Honest About Limitations
If none of these approaches give you useful information:
- Say what you tried
- Describe what you CAN tell (file size, type, metadata)
- Ask the human to describe what's in the attachment
Never pretend you can see an image when you can't. Never hallucinate image contents.