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CLI Demo GIF Generator

Turns a list of shell commands into polished animated terminal demo GIFs using VHS recordings.

Dev & CodingIntermediate★ 1,519⑂ 235AI score 9/10Last updated: Nov 8, 2026

What it does

  • Records terminal sessions with VHS (Charm's terminal recorder) and outputs animated GIFs from a simple list of commands.
  • Offers four workflows: fully automated script, batch generation from a YAML config, interactive live recording, and hand-written .tape files.
  • Controls theme, font size, dimensions and playback speed, with smart per-command timing (install/build/test → 3s, ls/echo → 1s).
  • Documents production patterns: self-bootstrapping demos that hide setup via Hide → commands → clear → Show, output noise filtering, gifsicle post-processing speed-ups, and ffmpeg frame verification.
  • Calls out the VHS parser limitation with $, backticks and escaped quotes, plus the base64 encoding workaround.

Who it's for

  • Open-source maintainers who need demo GIFs for their README.
  • Engineers shipping CLI tools and developer utilities.
  • DevRel folks and technical writers who embed terminal walkthroughs in docs and slides.

Example uses

  1. Generate a 1400x600 demo GIF of npm install my-package followed by npm run build with one command.
  2. Define install and usage demos in demos.yaml and render them all at once via batch_generate.py.
  3. Build a repeatable demo where the uninstall/cleanup step runs hidden, so every re-recording looks identical.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/daymade/claude-code-skills/HEAD/cli-demo-generator/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on AI Skill Mart.
Copy the cli-demo-generator folder from the GitHub repo daymade/claude-code-skills into my ~/.claude/skills/cli-demo-generator/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/daymade/claude-code-skills.git /tmp/claude-code-skills && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r /tmp/claude-code-skills/cli-demo-generator ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Open a terminal and install VHS: brew install charmbracelet/tap/vhs (on Linux follow the VHS project's install instructions).
  2. Install the optional helpers: brew install gifsicle asciinema ffmpeg (speed-ups, interactive recording, frame checks).
  3. If you plan to use batch YAML configs, run pip3 install pyyaml.
  4. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/daymade/claude-code-skills.git
  5. Copy the skill into place: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r claude-code-skills/cli-demo-generator ~/.claude/skills/
  6. Restart Claude Code and ask something like "record these CLI commands as a demo GIF" to trigger the skill.
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT