@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+'@wdio/devtools-backend': patch
+'@wdio/devtools-service': patch
+'@wdio/selenium-devtools': patch
+'@wdio/nightwatch-devtools': patch
+---
+
+A trace zip stores each action screenshot once. The `frame-snapshot` event for an action used to carry its screenshot again as base64 inside the page it describes, beside the same screenshot under `resources/`; it now references that file through `resourceOverrides`, which a trace viewer resolves to the stored image. On a WebdriverIO cucumber example trace this takes the zip from 1.63 MB to 1.10 MB and `trace.trace` from 538 KB to 5 KB. The DevTools trace player reads such a zip as before.
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ Contains:
 - `writeTraceZip` / `buildTraceZip` — the zip writer and its resource model (`TraceZipResource`).
 - `buildActionEvents`: commands → the ordered before/after event stream the player replays, including the `(startTime, sequence, index)` ordering key, with a row's children written inside its span under its callId.
 - `buildGroupPath` — the suite/test/step hierarchy a row is nested under.
-- `buildImageFrameSnapshots` / `upsertRichestSnapshot` / `buildDenseScreencast` / `thinScreencastFrames` — filmstrip and per-action frame snapshots.
+- `buildImageFrameSnapshots` + `buildScreenshotResourceSnapshots` / `upsertRichestSnapshot` / `buildDenseScreencast` / `thinScreencastFrames` — filmstrip and per-action frame snapshots (each a page whose image is the stored screenshot, reached through a `resourceOverrides` entry and the one recorded response it patches).
 - `buildMutationsNdjson` / `reattributeDomAnchors` — the DOM mutation stream and its anchor repositioning.
 - `buildConsoleEvents`, `networkRequestToHar`, `buildSourceResources` / `sourceResourceName` / `callSourceToStack`, `generateTranscript`, `sha1Hex`.
 - `parseTraceZip` (`trace-reader.ts` and its `trace-reader-*` siblings) — the reverse direction: a `trace.zip`, ours or a foreign one, back into the `TracePlayerData` the player renders. Imported by subpath (`@wdio/devtools-trace/trace-reader`) and kept out of the package index, so adapters that reach `trace` through `core` never inline it. It reaches no Node built-in, because the hosted player runs it in the browser (`tests/trace-reader-browser-safe.test.ts` walks its imports); the disk read is `readTraceZip` in `read-trace-zip.ts`, and source paths are hashed with the pure `portableSha1Hex` so the reader needs no `node:crypto`; resource bytes keep native `sha1Hex`, ~30x faster.
 
@@ -223,7 +223,7 @@ In trace mode no DevTools UI window opens. At session end the adapter writes tra
 | **Python** | `pytest --devtools-trace`, or `devtools.enable(trace=True)` in a plain script |
 
 The trace artifact contains:
-- `trace.trace` — NDJSON `context-options` + `before`/`after` action events. When test hooks are available (Mocha's `it()` / Cucumber's `Scenario()`), each test becomes a `Tracing.tracingGroup` span — an open/close `before`/`after` pair with `method: "tracingGroup"` and `params.name` set to the test title. Child actions inside the group carry `parentId` pointing back to the group's `callId`, so timeline viewers render tests as labelled spans wrapping their commands.
+- `trace.trace` — NDJSON `context-options` + `before`/`after` action events. When test hooks are available (Mocha's `it()` / Cucumber's `Scenario()`), each test becomes a `Tracing.tracingGroup` span — an open/close `before`/`after` pair with `method: "tracingGroup"` and `params.name` set to the test title. Child actions inside the group carry `parentId` pointing back to the group's `callId`, so timeline viewers render tests as labelled spans wrapping their commands. For viewers that render a DOM snapshot per action, it also carries one `frame-snapshot` event per action: a page holding just that action's screenshot. The image is not stored a second time: its `src` is a placeholder `https://screenshot.wdio-devtools.invalid/` address, which the event's `resourceOverrides` maps to the screenshot's file under `resources/`.
 - `trace.network` — HAR-style network entries derived from the existing capture
 - `resources/page@<id>-<ts>.jpeg` — screenshot per user-facing action
 - `resources/page@<id>-<ts>-elements.json` — flat interactable element list extracted by the page-injected scripts in `@wdio/devtools-core/element-scripts`
 
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@ export const TRACE_EVENT_TYPES = {
   before: 'before',
   after: 'after',
   frameSnapshot: 'frame-snapshot',
+  /** Here only the response a frame-snapshot's screenshot override patches; captured traffic is in `.network`. */
+  resourceSnapshot: 'resource-snapshot',
   screencastFrame: 'screencast-frame',
   contextOptions: 'context-options',
   console: 'console',
 
@@ -35,8 +35,10 @@ import {
 import { buildDenseScreencast } from './screencast-trace.js'
 import {
   buildImageFrameSnapshots,
+  buildScreenshotResourceSnapshots,
   FrameSnapshotIndex,
-  type FrameSnapshotEvent
+  type FrameSnapshotEvent,
+  type ScreenshotResourceEvent
 } from './trace-frame-snapshots.js'
 import { buildActionEvents, type ActionEvent } from './trace-action-events.js'
 import { buildSourceResources } from './trace-sources.js'
@@ -138,6 +140,7 @@ type TraceEvent =
   | ConsoleEvent
   | StdioEvent
   | FrameSnapshotEvent
+  | ScreenshotResourceEvent
 
 function shortId(sessionId?: string): string {
   return (sessionId ?? Math.random().toString(36).slice(2, 10)).slice(0, 8)
@@ -255,6 +258,8 @@ function eventTime(e: TraceEvent): number {
   switch (e.type) {
     case 'context-options':
       return -Infinity
+    case 'resource-snapshot':
+      return e.snapshot._monotonicTime
     case 'before':
       return e.startTime
     case 'after':
@@ -279,6 +284,7 @@ function eventTime(e: TraceEvent): number {
 function eventOrder(e: TraceEvent): number {
   switch (e.type) {
     case 'context-options':
+    case 'resource-snapshot':
       return 0
     case 'after':
       return 1
@@ -340,6 +346,7 @@ function buildEventStream(
       wallTime,
       viewport
     ),
+    ...buildScreenshotResourceSnapshots(snapshotIndex.refs(), pageId),
     ...buildConsoleEvents(trace.consoleLogs, pageId, wallTime)
   ]
   events.sort(compareEvents)
 
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
-// Image-backed frame-snapshot synthesis: each action screenshot becomes a
-// minimal DOM document so standard trace viewers render the action pane.
-// Compatibility shim until real DOM snapshots are captured.
+// Image-backed frame-snapshots, a shim until real DOM snapshots are captured: each action is a page
+// whose <img> resolves, through `resourceOverrides`, to the screenshot already stored under `resources/`.
 
 import { imageMime, type ActionSnapshot } from '@wdio/devtools-shared'
+import { networkRequestToHar, type ResourceSnapshotEntry } from './trace-har.js'
+import { screenshotResourceName } from './trace-snapshots.js'
 
 const SNAPSHOT_DOCTYPE = 'html'
+// `.invalid` never resolves (RFC 6761), so a viewer that ignores the override fetches nothing.
+const SCREENSHOT_URL_ORIGIN = 'https://screenshot.wdio-devtools.invalid'
+// Before every snapshot, including one clamped to 0: the viewer only serves a resource loaded before the snapshot.
+const SCREENSHOT_RESOURCE_TIME = -1
 const FALLBACK_FRAME_URL = 'about:blank'
 const BODY_STYLE = 'margin:0'
 const IMAGE_STYLE = 'display:block;width:100vw;height:100vh;object-fit:contain'
@@ -40,6 +45,15 @@ export interface FrameSnapshotEvent {
   snapshot: FrameSnapshot
 }
 
+/** The response a frame-snapshot's screenshot override patches; the viewer applies an override only to a recorded resource. */
+export interface ScreenshotResourceEvent extends ResourceSnapshotEntry {
+  snapshot: ResourceSnapshotEntry['snapshot'] & {
+    _monotonicTime: number
+    pageref: string
+    _frameref: string
+  }
+}
+
 export interface FrameSnapshotRef {
   callId: string
   snapshotName: string
@@ -133,8 +147,13 @@ function frameIdForPage(pageId: string): string {
   return `frame@${suffix}`
 }
 
+/** One URL per image type, so the shared response's content type is right for every override of it. */
+export function screenshotUrl(screenshot: string): string {
+  const extension = imageMime(screenshot).slice('image/'.length)
+  return `${SCREENSHOT_URL_ORIGIN}/action.${extension}`
+}
+
 function imageDocument(snap: ActionSnapshot): FrameSnapshotNode {
-  const screenshot = snap.screenshot ?? ''
   return [
     'HTML',
     {},
@@ -145,7 +164,7 @@ function imageDocument(snap: ActionSnapshot): FrameSnapshotNode {
       [
         'IMG',
         {
-          src: `data:${imageMime(screenshot)};base64,${screenshot}`,
+          src: screenshotUrl(snap.screenshot ?? ''),
           style: IMAGE_STYLE
         }
       ]
@@ -175,8 +194,55 @@ export function buildImageFrameSnapshots(
       timestamp: Math.max(0, ref.snapshot.timestamp - wallTime),
       wallTime: ref.snapshot.timestamp,
       collectionTime: 0,
-      resourceOverrides: [],
+      resourceOverrides: [
+        {
+          url: screenshotUrl(ref.snapshot.screenshot ?? ''),
+          sha1: screenshotResourceName(pageId, ref.snapshot.timestamp)
+        }
+      ],
       isMainFrame: true
     }
   }))
 }
+
+/** One resource-snapshot per screenshot URL the frame-snapshots reference. */
+export function buildScreenshotResourceSnapshots(
+  refs: FrameSnapshotRef[],
+  pageId: string
+): ScreenshotResourceEvent[] {
+  const byUrl = new Map<string, ScreenshotResourceEvent>()
+  for (const { snapshot } of refs) {
+    const screenshot = snapshot.screenshot ?? ''
+    const url = screenshotUrl(screenshot)
+    if (byUrl.has(url)) {
+      continue
+    }
+    const mimeType = imageMime(screenshot)
+    const har = networkRequestToHar({
+      id: url,
+      url,
+      method: 'GET',
+      status: 200,
+      statusText: 'OK',
+      timestamp: snapshot.timestamp,
+      startTime: snapshot.timestamp,
+      time: 0,
+      type: 'image',
+      response: { fromCache: false, headers: {}, mimeType, status: 200 }
+    })
+    har.snapshot.response.content._sha1 = screenshotResourceName(
+      pageId,
+      snapshot.timestamp
+    )
+    byUrl.set(url, {
+      type: 'resource-snapshot',
+      snapshot: {
+        ...har.snapshot,
+        _monotonicTime: SCREENSHOT_RESOURCE_TIME,
+        pageref: pageId,
+        _frameref: frameIdForPage(pageId)
+      }
+    })
+  }
+  return [...byUrl.values()]
+}
@@ -70,6 +70,14 @@ export function upsertRichestSnapshot(
   mergeSnapshotInto(snapshots[idx]!, snap)
 }
 
+/** Name under `resources/` of the screenshot captured at `timestamp`. */
+export function screenshotResourceName(
+  pageId: string,
+  timestamp: number
+): string {
+  return `${pageId}-${timestamp}.jpeg`
+}
+
 export function buildSnapshotResources(
   rawSnapshots: ActionSnapshot[],
   pageId: string
@@ -80,7 +88,7 @@ export function buildSnapshotResources(
     const base = `${pageId}-${snap.timestamp}`
     if (snap.screenshot) {
       out.push({
-        resourceName: `${base}.jpeg`,
+        resourceName: screenshotResourceName(pageId, snap.timestamp),
         data: Buffer.from(snap.screenshot, 'base64')
       })
     }
@@ -110,7 +118,7 @@ function frameForSnapshot(
   const frame: ScreencastFrameEvent = {
     type: 'screencast-frame',
     pageId,
-    sha1: `${base}.jpeg`,
+    sha1: screenshotResourceName(pageId, snap.timestamp),
     width: viewport.width,
     height: viewport.height,
     timestamp