For the first few months I used AI, my "archive" was a folder full of screenshots. Dozens of PNG files with names like Screenshot 2025-11-15 at 2.34.17 PM.png . It worked. Sort of. I could find things by scrolling through thumbnails. But there were three problems I kept running into: Screenshots aren't searchable. If I needed to find a specific code snippet from a conversation three months ago, I had to open each screenshot and visually scan. With 50+ screenshots, that's not practical. Screenshots don't preserve context. A screenshot captures what's on screen at one moment. It doesn't capture the flow of the conversation — the back-and-forth, the refinements, the moments where I changed my mind. That context is where the real value lives. Screenshots are dead ends. I can't copy code from a screenshot without running it through OCR. I can't quote a specific passage. I can't build on what I learned. A screenshot is a snapshot, not a resource. Switching to exports changed everything.…