---
title: "Start a preview render of a plugin instance"
method: POST
path: "/api/plugin_settings/{plugin_setting_id}/screenshots"
tags: ["Plugin Settings - Preview"]
---

# Start a preview render of a plugin instance

`POST /api/plugin_settings/{plugin_setting_id}/screenshots`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://trmnl.com`
- URL: `https://trmnl.com/api/plugin_settings/{plugin_setting_id}/screenshots`
- Auth: HTTP bearer

Renders the instance so you can check its layout. The image comes back at reduced
resolution and is not sized for a panel; a device is driven through /api/display.

## Path parameters

- `plugin_setting_id` string, required

## Request body

- object
  - `size` 'markup_full' | 'markup_half_horizontal' | 'markup_half_vertical' | 'markup_quadrant'
  - `device_model` string, nullable: Device model keyname to render on. Omit for the standard preview appearance

## Response `202`

Renders one reduced image per request, however many the MCP tools batch at once

- object
  - `data` object
    - `job_id` string
    - `status` 'pending'

## Other responses

- `401`: Unauthorized
- `404`: UUID belonging to another user
- `422`: Unknown device model
- `429`: The account has used its hourly render allowance, shared with the dashboard and MCP

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/trmnl/apis/trmnl-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/trmnl/apis/trmnl-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/trmnl/apis/trmnl-api/revisions/66179e6d663b?raw)