diff --git a/src/App.tsx b/src/App.tsx
index 8abf98f..4c97748 100644
--- a/src/App.tsx
+++ b/src/App.tsx
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import { TitleBar } from "./components/TitleBar";
 import { SettingsModal } from "./components/SettingsModal";
 import { UpdateToast } from "./components/UpdateToast";
 import { OnboardingOverlay } from "./components/onboarding/OnboardingOverlay";
+import { DemoPanel } from "./components/DemoPanel";
 import { initializeNotifications } from "./notifications";
 
 export default function App() {
@@ -94,6 +95,7 @@ export default function App() {
       <SettingsModal />
       <UpdateToast />
       <OnboardingOverlay />
+      {import.meta.env.DEV && <DemoPanel />}
     </div>
   );
 }
diff --git a/src/components/DemoPanel.tsx b/src/components/DemoPanel.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e87ba12
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/components/DemoPanel.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+import { useEffect, useState } from "react";
+import { FolderJobProgress, useGalleryStore } from "../store";
+
+// Dev-only screenshot/demo helper. Injects frozen UI states that are otherwise
+// too transient to capture (e.g. the background-worker pipeline, which drains
+// in under a second on a fast machine). Gated by import.meta.env.DEV in App.tsx
+// so the whole thing is tree-shaken out of production builds.
+//
+// Toggle the controls with Ctrl+Shift+D. Injected state persists in the store
+// while the panel is hidden, so: open → inject → hide → screenshot.
+
+function emptyProgress(folderId: number): FolderJobProgress {
+  return {
+    folder_id: folderId,
+    thumbnail_pending: 0,
+    metadata_pending: 0,
+    embedding_pending: 0,
+    embedding_ready: 0,
+    embedding_failed: 0,
+    caption_pending: 0,
+    caption_ready: 0,
+    caption_failed: 0,
+    tagging_pending: 0,
+    tagging_ready: 0,
+    tagging_failed: 0,
+  };
+}
+
+// A believable multi-folder "busy pipeline" — three folders at different stages.
+const BUSY_PRESETS: Partial<FolderJobProgress>[] = [
+  // Embeddings actively running, tagging queued behind it.
+  { embedding_ready: 34, embedding_pending: 16, tagging_pending: 50 },
+  // Just started: thumbnails draining, everything else queued.
+  { thumbnail_pending: 11, embedding_pending: 50, tagging_pending: 50 },
+  // Late stage: embeddings done, tagging running.
+  { embedding_ready: 40, tagging_ready: 18, tagging_pending: 22 },
+];
+
+export function DemoPanel() {
+  const folders = useGalleryStore((state) => state.folders);
+  const [open, setOpen] = useState(false);
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    const onKey = (event: KeyboardEvent) => {
+      if (event.ctrlKey && event.shiftKey && event.key.toLowerCase() === "d") {
+        event.preventDefault();
+        setOpen((value) => !value);
+      }
+    };
+    window.addEventListener("keydown", onKey);
+    return () => window.removeEventListener("keydown", onKey);
+  }, []);
+
+  const injectBusy = () => {
+    const progress: Record<number, FolderJobProgress> = {};
+    folders.slice(0, BUSY_PRESETS.length).forEach((folder, index) => {
+      progress[folder.id] = { ...emptyProgress(folder.id), ...BUSY_PRESETS[index] };
+    });
+    useGalleryStore.setState({ mediaJobProgress: progress });
+  };
+
+  const injectSingleEmbedding = () => {
+    const folder = folders[0];
+    if (!folder) return;
+    useGalleryStore.setState({
+      mediaJobProgress: {
+        [folder.id]: { ...emptyProgress(folder.id), embedding_ready: 27, embedding_pending: 23 },
+      },
+    });
+  };
+
+  const clear = () => useGalleryStore.setState({ mediaJobProgress: {} });
+
+  if (!open) return null;
+
+  return (
+    <div className="fixed bottom-4 left-4 z-[100] w-56 rounded-lg border border-amber-400/40 bg-amber-950/90 p-3 text-xs text-amber-100 shadow-xl backdrop-blur">
+      <div className="mb-2 flex items-center justify-between">
+        <span className="font-semibold uppercase tracking-wide">Demo · Ctrl+Shift+D</span>
+      </div>
+      <p className="mb-2 text-[11px] leading-snug text-amber-200/70">
+        Inject a frozen worker-bar state, hide this panel, then screenshot.
+      </p>
+      <div className="flex flex-col gap-1.5">
+        <button
+          className="rounded-md border border-amber-400/30 bg-amber-500/15 px-2 py-1.5 text-left hover:bg-amber-500/25"
+          onClick={injectBusy}
+        >
+          Pipeline: busy (3 folders)
+        </button>
+        <button
+          className="rounded-md border border-amber-400/30 bg-amber-500/15 px-2 py-1.5 text-left hover:bg-amber-500/25"
+          onClick={injectSingleEmbedding}
+        >
+          Pipeline: embedding (1 folder)
+        </button>
+        <button
+          className="rounded-md border border-white/10 bg-white/[0.06] px-2 py-1.5 text-left text-gray-300 hover:bg-white/10"
+          onClick={clear}
+        >
+          Clear injected state
+        </button>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+  );
+}