Examples

The repository examples are intentionally small. They are smoke tests for core behavior and copyable starting points for your own tapes. Render all examples from a checkout with:

mise run render-examples

Generated files are written under examples/output and copied to target/betamax-examples for local inspection. README GIF previews are hosted as GitHub Release assets; curated site previews may also live under site/public/assets with Git LFS. See Generated Media Storage for the full storage guidance.

Example Index

Tape	Demonstrates	Useful docs
quick-start.tape	installing, help, new, and nested run	Quick Start
basic.tape	typing, waits, theme, window bar, border radius	Tape files, themes
hide-show.tape	hidden setup and hidden trailing cleanup	Hidden work
waits.tape	line, screen, regex, and default prompt waits	Wait commands
keys.tape	key commands, repeats, editing, and interrupt	Input and keys
keyboard-overlay	input labels over review media	Presentation overlays
clipboard-env.tape	Env, Copy, and Paste	Tape reference
captions.tape	visual captions for review media	Presentation overlays
presentation-overlays.tape	captions plus keyboard overlay layout	Presentation overlays
outputs.tape	GIF, PNG, JSON, screenshot, state, frame dir	Outputs
scrollback.tape	scrollback-inclusive state JSON	State JSON
text-styles.tape	ANSI styles, truecolor, and styled state spans	State JSON
layout.tape	padding, margin, fill, window bar, radius	Themes and styling
themes.tape	copied Ghostty themes and palette mapping	Theme lookup
screenshot.tape	screenshots and terminal state JSON	Checkpoints
video.tape	GIF, MP4, and WebM from one capture	Video encoding

Preview GIFs

These previews come from the example tapes above.

Quick Start

quick-start.tape shows the full first-run path: install check, help output, creating a starter tape, inspecting it, running it, and listing the generated GIF.

Basic

basic.tape is the smallest useful demo: it sets a portable shell, chooses Aardvark Blue, types one command, waits for the result, and hides shell cleanup.

Hide And Show

hide-show.tape demonstrates the most important authoring trick. Hidden setup still runs and updates terminal state, but the animation starts only when Show reveals the prepared screen.

Captions

captions.tape annotates rendered media without changing the terminal session. Caption changes are presentation metadata: waits and state outputs keep matching the terminal itself. Captions render in a reserved presentation row below the terminal canvas.

Keyboard Overlay

keyboard-overlay.tape shows typed commands and key presses as compact labels over generated media. See Presentation Overlays for overlay modes and placement. Labels appear when input is queued and linger briefly after typing, which keeps review GIFs readable without turning the overlay into a permanent command log.

presentation-overlays.tape combines captions and keyboard overlay chips. The caption is left-aligned with the terminal frame, key chips are right-aligned, and long captions are truncated with ... rather than wrapped over the chips. Caption glyphs are clipped to their reserved width as a final guard for font fallback and unusually wide characters.

Themes

themes.tape shows ANSI colors mapped through a bundled Ghostty theme. Use betamax themes to list the names available to Set Theme.

Video

video.tape writes GIF, MP4, and WebM from one capture. The GIF is encoded in process; MP4 and WebM are handed to ffmpeg.

Example Patterns

Use examples/outputs.tape when checking artifact behavior. It writes a GIF, a PNG, final state JSON, a PNG frame directory, a checkpoint screenshot, and checkpoint state JSON.

Use examples/scrollback.tape and examples/text-styles.tape when evaluating terminal testing. Together they exercise the parts of state JSON that matter for snapshot tests: viewport text, scrollback text, default style, non-default style table entries, and styled spans.

Use examples/waits.tape when debugging timing. It shows the three wait targets and a custom WaitPattern, which is usually preferable to adding sleeps.