From 34d2e1e2e826ea7723409a290100f49221f7e800 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Peter Steinberger <steipete@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2026 17:57:34 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] fix: wait for camera exposure to settle

---
 CHANGELOG.md                                         |  1 +
 .../macos/Sources/Clawdis/CameraCaptureService.swift | 12 ++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 13 insertions(+)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1185280cb..21151cea5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@
 - macOS codesign: include camera entitlement so permission prompts work in the menu bar app.
 - Agent tools: map `camera.snap` JPEG payloads to `image/jpeg` to avoid MIME mismatch errors.
 - Tests: cover `camera.snap` MIME mapping to prevent image/png vs image/jpeg mismatches.
+- macOS camera: wait for exposure/white balance to settle before capturing a snap to avoid dark images.
 - macOS packaging: move rpath config into swift build for reliability (#69) — thanks @petter-b
 - macOS: prioritize main bundle for device resources to prevent crash (#73) — thanks @petter-b
 - macOS remote: route settings through gateway config and avoid local config reads in remote mode.
diff --git a/apps/macos/Sources/Clawdis/CameraCaptureService.swift b/apps/macos/Sources/Clawdis/CameraCaptureService.swift
index 3c9d9c357..cf2d133d5 100644
--- a/apps/macos/Sources/Clawdis/CameraCaptureService.swift
+++ b/apps/macos/Sources/Clawdis/CameraCaptureService.swift
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ actor CameraCaptureService {
         session.startRunning()
         defer { session.stopRunning() }
         await Self.warmUpCaptureSession()
+        await self.waitForExposureAndWhiteBalance(device: device)
 
         let settings: AVCapturePhotoSettings = {
             if output.availablePhotoCodecTypes.contains(.jpeg) {
@@ -257,6 +258,17 @@ actor CameraCaptureService {
         // A short delay after `startRunning()` significantly reduces "blank first frame" captures on some devices.
         try? await Task.sleep(nanoseconds: 150_000_000) // 150ms
     }
+
+    private func waitForExposureAndWhiteBalance(device: AVCaptureDevice) async {
+        let stepNs: UInt64 = 50_000_000
+        let maxSteps = 30 // ~1.5s
+        for _ in 0..<maxSteps {
+            if !(device.isAdjustingExposure || device.isAdjustingWhiteBalance) {
+                return
+            }
+            try? await Task.sleep(nanoseconds: stepNs)
+        }
+    }
 }
 
 private final class PhotoCaptureDelegate: NSObject, AVCapturePhotoCaptureDelegate {