Asciinema

Asciinema

Asciinema is a free and open-source terminal session recorder. It allows you to easily record terminal sessions and replay them in the browser. Useful for developers to demonstrate command-line workflows.
Asciinema image
terminal recorder workflows opensource

Asciinema: Terminal Session Recorders

Free and open-source terminal session recorder, record and play back terminal sessions in the browser, useful for developers to demonstrate command-line workflows.

What is Asciinema?

Asciinema is a free, open-source terminal recording program. It allows users to easily record terminal sessions and replay them in a web browser. Some key features of Asciinema include:

  • Lightweight and easy to use - just install the CLI tool and start recording
  • Share recordings as links - once recorded, sessions get a permanent URL for sharing
  • Embedded playback - recordings can be embedded in blogs, documentation pages, etc.
  • Text search - find relevant moments in long recordings
  • Speed control and basic editing - adjust pace and trim recordings
  • Supports multiple terminal emulators and OSes - works across Linux, macOS, etc.

Asciinema is aimed primarily at developers and tech writers who want to demonstrate terminal workflows and scripts. Some common uses cases include:

  • Documenting shell commands and workflows
  • Sharing examples of console/CLI app usage
  • Showing terminal UI features and capabilities
  • Creating tutorial recordings for the command line

Since the recordings are fully open and embeddable for free, Asciinema provides a lightweight alternative to video for terminal session capture and sharing.

Asciinema Features

Features

  1. Record terminal sessions and replay them in a web browser
  2. Share recordings with others via URL
  3. Embed recordings on websites
  4. Text search within recordings
  5. Synchronized scrolling for side-by-side terminal and output views
  6. Idle time compression to skip pauses
  7. Open source and extensible

Pricing

  • Open Source
  • Free

Pros

Free and easy to use

Great for demonstrating terminal workflows and CLI tools

Embeddable recordings for tutorials and documentation

Platform independent

Cons

Limited customization options

No video or audio capture

Requires installation of client app to record

Limited security features


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