jlevy/fdu/skill

cli-animate

cli-animate runs a scripted terminal session for real (commands execute in a PTY under asciinema; only the typing is simulated, with a fast-human keystroke model), keeps it as an asciicast, and renders that one recording to a web replay and to video. Timing in the output is the commands’ real timing, and a lossless render can be checked frame by frame.

Before You Start

1. Run cli-animate doctor. It must report asciinema 3.x, ffmpeg with libx264, a

Chromium (CHROME_PATH), and the fonts. Run cli-animate fonts if fonts are missing.

1. Find or write a scenario YAML. Read cli-animate record --help and an example such

as examples/fdu/showcase.yaml for the fields. Every command in it really runs, in the scenario’s cwd, with the user’s permissions: read each one before recording.

Workflow

cli-animate make path/to/scenario.yaml --out out/ --gif   # record, capture, verify, deliver
cli-animate serve out/scenario.cast                       # watch the replay in a browser

Or step by step: record → render --master out/x.master.mp4 (captures once, delivers the web MP4) → verify <cast> <master> → deliver <master> --profile gif for more formats. Add --json to any command for machine-readable results.

Done When

• make (or verify on the master) reports every change frame on its event’s frame,

exit status 0.

• The receipt beside the cast (*.receipt.json) lists each step with exit code 0 unless

the scenario meant otherwise, and plausible wall times.

• You have watched the video or replay before sharing it.

Boundaries

• Speed is evidence only for the machine and conditions recorded.

Record on quiet hardware with a warm cache unless the demo is about cold behavior, and say which.

• Programs that query the terminal (cursor position, colour reports) are not answered

while recording; full-screen TUIs may misbehave.

• Never put secrets in a scenario or let a recorded command print them: the cast keeps

every byte of output.

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