Record

Record browser activity as a video file. Supports GIF (pure Go), WebM, and MP4 (require ffmpeg).

terminal

# Start recording (format from file extension)curl -X POST http://localhost:9867/record/start \  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \  -d '{"format":"gif","fps":5,"quality":80}'# Check statuscurl http://localhost:9867/record/status# Stop and savecurl -X POST http://localhost:9867/record/stop > recording.gif

# Start recording (format from file extension)curl -X POST http://localhost:9867/record/start \  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \  -d '{"format":"gif","fps":5,"quality":80}'# Check statuscurl http://localhost:9867/record/status# Stop and savecurl -X POST http://localhost:9867/record/stop > recording.gif

Start Response

{
  "status": "recording",
  "format": "gif",
  "fps": 5,
  "quality": 80,
  "tabId": "tab1"
}

Status Response

{
  "active": true,
  "format": "gif",
  "durationSeconds": 12.5,
  "frames": 62,
  "tabId": "tab1",
  "fps": 5
}

API Body Fields (POST /record/start)

format: gif, webm, or mp4. Determined by file extension in CLI.
fps: Frames per second, 1-30 (default 5).
quality: JPEG capture quality 1-100 (default 80).
scale: Resolution multiplier (default 1.0). Values < 1 reduce output size.
tabId: Target a specific tab.

CLI

record start <file>: Start recording. Format from extension (.gif, .webm, .mp4).
record stop: Stop and save to the path given at start.
record status: Show active recording info.
--fps <n>: Frames per second (default 5).
--quality <n>: JPEG capture quality (default 80).
--scale <f>: Resolution scale (default 1.0).
--tab <id>: Target a specific tab.

Format Dependencies

Format	Dependency	Encoding	Notes
`.gif`	None	Pure Go (Floyd-Steinberg dithering)	Always available; CPU-intensive for long recordings
`.webm`	`ffmpeg`	VP8 via ffmpeg pipe	Requires ffmpeg on `$PATH`
`.mp4`	`ffmpeg`	H.264 via ffmpeg pipe	Requires ffmpeg on `$PATH`

GIF encoding runs entirely in-process — no external binary needed. Dithering is CPU-bound; recordings over ~2 minutes at 10 fps can take 30-60 seconds to encode. Frames are capped at 600 (max ~2 minutes at 5 fps) and downscaled if they exceed 1280x720 pixels to limit memory usage.

WebM and MP4 stream frames to ffmpeg during record stop. If ffmpeg is not installed, record start returns a 400 error with a message indicating the dependency. Install ffmpeg via your package manager (brew install ffmpeg, apt install ffmpeg, etc.) or use .gif as a zero-dependency alternative.

Notes

Gated by security.allowScreencast (disabled by default). Enable with pinchtab config set security.allowScreencast true and restart the server.
One active recording per bridge instance.