yr

What is yr?

yr (Yemelianov Recorder) is a CLI tool for creating terminal recordings from scripted scenarios. Write a .yr script describing what to type, and yr renders it into a GIF or WebP — no screen recording software needed.

Built in Rust with ConPTY on Windows (and portable-pty on other platforms), yr gives you pixel-perfect terminal output with full ANSI color support.

Why yr?

The Problem: Existing tools like VHS and asciinema are Linux-first. ConPTY on Windows has quirks that cause garbled output, dropped frames, and broken recordings. Creating terminal demos for documentation shouldn’t require a Linux VM.

The Solution: yr is built Windows-first with ConPTY handling baked into its architecture. It also introduces directives that existing tools lack: instant paste, secret masking, output-driven synchronization, and chapter markers.

How it compares

Key Features

• Line-based DSL — Simple .yr scripts: Type, Enter, Sleep, Exec
• Paste — Instant text input for long commands
• Mask / Unmask — Hide secrets in all captured frames
• WaitFor — Sync on terminal output instead of fragile sleep durations
• Marker — Annotate chapters for navigation and splitting
• Themes — Dracula, Nord, Monokai, GitHub Dark, and more
• Bundled font — JetBrains Mono included, no system font dependencies

Quick Start

# Record and render a scenario
yr render demo.yr --output demo.gif

# Preview in terminal (no rendering)
yr preview demo.yr

# Validate script syntax
yr validate demo.yr

Example Script

Set Shell "powershell -NoProfile"
Set Width 80
Set Height 24
Set Theme "dracula"
Set FontSize 14

Type "echo 'Hello from yr!'"
Enter
Sleep 2s

Type "Get-Process | Select-Object -First 5 Name,CPU"
Enter
Sleep 3s

Directives

Paste — Instant Text Input

Unlike Type (one character at a time), Paste writes everything at once — perfect for long commands that aren’t the focus of your demo.

# Slow, deliberate typing
Type "echo hello"
Enter

# Instant paste for boilerplate
Paste "Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select-Object -First 5"
Enter

Mask / Unmask — Hide Secrets

Masks replace secret values with asterisks in all captured frames. The secret never appears in any output file.

Env API_KEY "sk-proj-abc123def456"
Mask "sk-proj-abc123def456"

Type "echo $env:API_KEY"
Enter
# Output shows: **********************

WaitFor — Output Synchronization

Replace fragile Sleep durations with output-driven waits. Polls the terminal every 50ms until the pattern appears.

Exec "cargo build"
WaitFor "Finished" 60s

Type "cargo test"
Enter
WaitFor "test result: ok"

Marker — Chapter Annotations

Force-capture a frame with a name. Enables chapter navigation, progress bars, and recording splitting.

Marker "Setup"
Type "git clone https://github.com/org/repo.git"
Enter
WaitFor "done."

Marker "Build"
Type "cargo build --release"
Enter
WaitFor "Finished"

Output Formats

Integration with RAPS

yr is used to create all terminal recordings on this website. The demo showcase and documentation GIFs are rendered from .yr scripts stored in the raps-demo repository.

# Record a RAPS demo
yr render raps-auth.yr --output auth-demo.gif

# Re-render with different theme
yr render raps-auth.yr --output auth-demo.gif --theme nord

Directive Reference