rec [filename]

Record terminal session.

By running asciinema rec [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 execute some commands during the recording session that should not be captured (e.g. pasting secrets). Resume 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 uploaded 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 asciinema play <filename> and/or uploaded to asciinema server with asciinema upload <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 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 instance), 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 asciicast 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 <link rel="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:

While playing the following keyboard shortcuts are available:

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 asciinema play replays the recorded session using timing information saved in the asciicast, asciinema cat dumps the full output (including all escape sequences) to a terminal immediately.

asciinema cat existing.cast >output.txt gives the same result as recording via asciinema rec --raw output.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.

asciinema rec demo.cast + asciinema play demo.cast + asciinema upload demo.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)) generated 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 asciinema auth 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 machines as you want.

Note: asciinema versions prior to 2.0 confusingly referred to install ID as “API token”.

Tricks

Record slowly, play faster:

First record a session where you can take your time to type slowly what you want to show in the recording:

Play from stdin:

Play file from remote host accessible with SSH: