asciinema is composed of multiple commands, similar to git, apt-get or brew.
When you run asciinema with no arguments a help message is displayed, listing all available commands with
their options.
rec[filename]
Record terminal session.
By running asciinemarec[filename] you start a new recording session. The command (process) that is
recorded can be specified with -c option (see below), and defaults to $SHELL which is what you want in
most cases.
You can temporarily pause recording of terminal by pressing Ctrl+\. This is useful when you want to exe‐
cute some commands during the recording session that should not be captured (e.g. pasting secrets). Re‐
sume by pressing Ctrl+\ again.
Recording finishes when you exit the shell (hit Ctrl+D or type exit). If the recorded process is not a
shell then recording finishes when the process exits.
If the filename argument is omitted then (after asking for confirmation) the resulting asciicast is up‐
loaded to asciinema-server (https://github.com/asciinema/asciinema-server) (by default to asciinema.org),
where it can be watched and shared.
If the filename argument is given then the resulting recording (called asciicast) is saved to a local
file. It can later be replayed with asciinemaplay<filename> and/or uploaded to asciinema server with
asciinemaupload<filename>.
ASCIINEMA_REC=1 is added to recorded process environment variables. This can be used by your shell’s
config file (.bashrc, .zshrc) to alter the prompt or play a sound when the shell is being recorded.
Available options:
--stdin
Enable stdin (keyboard) recording (see below)
--append
Append to existing recording
--raw Save raw STDOUT output, without timing information or other metadata
--overwrite
Overwrite the recording if it already exists
-c,--command=<command>
Specify command to record, defaults to $SHELL-e,--env=<var-names>
List of environment variables to capture, defaults to SHELL,TERM-t,--title=<title>
Specify the title of the asciicast
-i,--idle-time-limit=<sec>
Limit recorded terminal inactivity to max <sec> seconds
--cols=<n>
Override terminal columns for recorded process
--rows=<n>
Override terminal rows for recorded process
-y,--yes
Answer “yes” to all prompts (e.g. upload confirmation)
-q,--quiet
Be quiet, suppress all notices/warnings (implies -y)
Stdin recording allows for capturing of all characters typed in by the user in the currently recorded
shell. This may be used by a player (e.g. asciinema-player (https://github.com/asciinema/asciinema-
player)) to display pressed keys. Because it’s basically a key-logging (scoped to a single shell in‐
stance), it’s disabled by default, and has to be explicitly enabled via –stdin option.
play<filename>
Replay recorded asciicast in a terminal.
This command replays a given asciicast (as recorded by rec command) directly in your terminal. The asci‐
icast can be read from a file or from stdin (`-'):
Playing from a local file:
asciinema play /path/to/asciicast.cast
Playing from HTTP(S) URL:
asciinema play https://asciinema.org/a/22124.cast
asciinema play http://example.com/demo.cast
Playing from asciicast page URL (requires <linkrel="alternate"type="application/x-asciicast"href="/my/ascii.cast"> in page’s HTML):
asciinema play https://asciinema.org/a/22124
asciinema play http://example.com/blog/post.html
Playing from stdin:
cat /path/to/asciicast.cast | asciinema play -
ssh user@host cat asciicast.cast | asciinema play -
Playing from IPFS:
asciinema play dweb:/ipfs/QmNe7FsYaHc9SaDEAEXbaagAzNw9cH7YbzN4xV7jV1MCzK/ascii.cast
Available options:
-i,--idle-time-limit=<sec>
Limit replayed terminal inactivity to max <sec> seconds (can be fractional)
-s,--speed=<factor>
Playback speed (can be fractional)
While playing the following keyboard shortcuts are available:
Space Toggle pause
. Step through a recording a frame at a time (when paused)
Ctrl+C Exit
Recommendation: run `asciinema play' in a terminal of dimensions not smaller than the one used for
recording as there’s no “transcoding” of control sequences for the new terminal size.
cat<filename>
Print full output of recorded asciicast to a terminal.
While asciinemaplay replays the recorded session using timing information saved in the asciicast, asci‐inemacat dumps the full output (including all escape sequences) to a terminal immediately.
asciinemacatexisting.cast>output.txt gives the same result as recording via asciinemarec--rawout‐put.txt.
upload<filename>
Upload recorded asciicast to asciinema.org site.
This command uploads given asciicast (recorded by rec command) to asciinema.org, where it can be watched
and shared.
asciinemarecdemo.cast + asciinemaplaydemo.cast + asciinemauploaddemo.cast is a nice combo if you
want to review an asciicast before publishing it on asciinema.org.
auth
Link and manage your install ID with your asciinema.org user account.
If you want to manage your recordings (change title/theme, delete) at asciinema.org you need to link your
“install ID” with your asciinema.org user account.
This command displays the URL to open in a web browser to do that. You may be asked to log in first.
Install ID is a random ID (UUID v4 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier)) gener‐
ated locally when you run asciinema for the first time, and saved at $HOME/.config/asciinema/install-id.
It’s purpose is to connect local machine with uploaded recordings, so they can later be associated with
asciinema.org account. This way we decouple uploading from account creation, allowing them to happen in
any order.
Note: A new install ID is generated on each machine and system user account you use asciinema on. So in
order to keep all recordings under a single asciinema.org account you need to run asciinemaauth on all
of those machines. If you’re already logged in on asciinema.org website and you run `asciinema auth'
from a new computer then this new device will be linked to your account.
While you CAN synchronize your config file (which keeps the API token) across all your machines so all
use the same token, that’s not necessary. You can assign new tokens to your account from as many ma‐
chines as you want.
Note: asciinema versions prior to 2.0 confusingly referred to install ID as “API token”.
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