Repeatable desktop and terminal demos

wayreel record GUI and terminal demos in an isolated Wayland session.

Describe keystrokes, commands and pauses in a `.reel` script. Wayreel starts a nested Wayland desktop, runs the demo, and captures a repeatable video or screenshot without taking over the desktop you are using.

curl -fsSL https://codeberg.org/ubunatic/wayreel/raw/branch/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Watch the demos View source

Project snapshot · measured 2026-10-26

Key facts

Commits 219Last commit 2026-10-22 Source receipt ↗ Commits · 7 days 1 Source receipt ↗ Tickets closed 1 / 39 Source receipt ↗ Studies 1 Source receipt ↗

12-week commit activity

2026-10-26

Aug 3

Aug 10

Aug 17

Aug 24

Aug 31

Sep 7

Sep 14

Sep 21

Sep 28

Oct 5

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Oct 19

View 12-week data table

Week starting	Commits
2026-08-03	17
2026-08-10	0
2026-08-17	3
2026-08-24	5
2026-08-31	2
2026-09-07	1
2026-09-14	0
2026-09-21	0
2026-09-28	0
2026-10-05	13
2026-10-12	0
2026-10-19	1

Key Features

A `.reel` script lists keystrokes, apps and presentation; Wayreel runs and records each step.
Uses nested Sway, a separate Wayland desktop, so recording leaves your desktop free.
Checks required commands before sending input; missing apps stop playback early.
Includes script linting, syntax checks and editor support for the `.reel` format.

Verified Engineering Milestones

First release and consolidated script parser (#04, cec5821, e194035)
Required-command checks before playback (#31, 023d821, aa70d53)
Terminal-only recording experiment (#37, c6075c5)

Stack

Go 1.26, Cobra, YAML, Linux/Wayland, nested Sway, Xvfb/Xephyr, PTYs, wtype, wf-recorder, grim, FFmpeg

Interactive demos

Explore the recorder in your browser

Switch workspaces and run the TUI or GUI recording simulation. Open demo in a new tab ↗

Select pipeline stages to inspect the animated capture flow and its details. Open demo in a new tab ↗

Edit a Reel script, inspect compiled JSON, and load it into the simulator. Open demo in a new tab ↗

Why wayreel

Repeat a desktop demo from a script

Recording a GUI or terminal workflow by hand is difficult to repeat and interrupts other desktop work. Wayreel describes the steps in a .reel script and runs them in a separate nested Wayland session. A run can be captured and replayed for documentation, review or a user-configured CI job.

Recording pipeline

From a `.reel` file to a captured demo

Script

Declarative keystrokes, commands, waits and recording settings.

Desktop session

A nested Sway Wayland compositor isolates the run from the host desktop.

Input and capture

Wayland tools send input and capture the resulting desktop or terminal output.

Output

Recorded demos can be encoded as video or saved as screenshots.

Recorded demos

Terminal, application and nested-session runs

Dark terminal playback from demo-tui-dark.reel.

Light terminal playback from demo-tui-light.reel.

A GUI application run from demo-gui.reel.

A nested recording run from demo-nested-wayreel.reel.

A short preview of scripted terminal recording.

A short preview of scripted graphical application recording.

Capabilities

Script the run and review its output

Repeatable input

Encode keystrokes, commands and pauses in versioned .reel scripts.

Isolated compositor

Run the recording in a nested Sway session while leaving the host desktop available.

Terminal and GUI apps

Record terminal workflows and graphical applications in the same pipeline.

Video and screenshots

Capture output for project documentation, reviews and configured CI jobs.

Preflight checks

Check required commands before a run starts so missing apps fail early.

Encoding options

Use FFmpeg to encode captured runs and configure output quality and speed.

Quickstart

Install and record a demo

Install the current release, check the required desktop and capture tools, then run one of the project examples or write a .reel script for your own workflow.

Platform

Linux with Wayland; Wayreel uses a nested Sway session for isolated runs.

Capture tools

Install the commands required by the script, including its terminal or GUI app and recording tools.

wayreel record path/to/demo.reel

Engineering story

A scripted demo engine for Wayland

Read the scripted demo-engine story for the design behind repeatable Wayland recordings.

Project details

Stack

Go 1.26, Cobra, YAML, Linux/Wayland, nested Sway, Xvfb/Xephyr, PTYs, wtype, wf-recorder, grim, FFmpeg

Milestones

First release and consolidated script parser (#04, cec5821, e194035) · Required-command checks before playback (#31, 023d821, aa70d53) · Terminal-only recording experiment (#37, c6075c5)

Source

https://codeberg.org/ubunatic/wayreel ↗

Architecture

Layer composition

Terminal: PTYs, terminal recording
Desktop: Linux, Wayland, Sway
Inference / AI: —
Containers / VM: —
Web: —

Engineering story

wayreel: the story behind the project

Starting state: A mature Go project with a reel scripting language, a growing issue tracker, and an existing static product website.

Read the engineering story

Measurement source · 2026-10-26

Verification receipts

Commits: 219 · Last commit 2026-10-22
git -C <repo> rev-list --count HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<ISO-week-Monday> --until=<ISO-week-Sunday> HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<measured-date-6-days>T00:00:00 --until=<measured-date>T23:59:59 HEAD; git -C <repo> log -1 --format=%cs HEAD; ls <repo>/issues | grep '^[0-9].*\.md$'; grep -l -E '^\*\*Status\*\*: *(Closed|Done|Resolved|Fixed|Complete)' <repo>/issues/*.md | wc -l; ls <repo>/docs/studies/*.md
repositories behind spec project ids in ~/projects; private-repo filter is a safety net and matches no spec project today; missing repos reported separately; seven calendar days ending on measured date in the measuring host's local timezone; commit counts include all authors and merge commits reachable from HEAD · measured 2026-10-26
Commits · 7 days: 1
git -C <repo> rev-list --count HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<ISO-week-Monday> --until=<ISO-week-Sunday> HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<measured-date-6-days>T00:00:00 --until=<measured-date>T23:59:59 HEAD; git -C <repo> log -1 --format=%cs HEAD; ls <repo>/issues | grep '^[0-9].*\.md$'; grep -l -E '^\*\*Status\*\*: *(Closed|Done|Resolved|Fixed|Complete)' <repo>/issues/*.md | wc -l; ls <repo>/docs/studies/*.md
repositories behind spec project ids in ~/projects; private-repo filter is a safety net and matches no spec project today; missing repos reported separately; seven calendar days ending on measured date in the measuring host's local timezone; commit counts include all authors and merge commits reachable from HEAD · measured 2026-10-26
Tickets closed: 1 / 39
git -C <repo> rev-list --count HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<ISO-week-Monday> --until=<ISO-week-Sunday> HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<measured-date-6-days>T00:00:00 --until=<measured-date>T23:59:59 HEAD; git -C <repo> log -1 --format=%cs HEAD; ls <repo>/issues | grep '^[0-9].*\.md$'; grep -l -E '^\*\*Status\*\*: *(Closed|Done|Resolved|Fixed|Complete)' <repo>/issues/*.md | wc -l; ls <repo>/docs/studies/*.md
repositories behind spec project ids in ~/projects; private-repo filter is a safety net and matches no spec project today; missing repos reported separately; seven calendar days ending on measured date in the measuring host's local timezone; commit counts include all authors and merge commits reachable from HEAD · measured 2026-10-26
Studies: 1
git -C <repo> rev-list --count HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<ISO-week-Monday> --until=<ISO-week-Sunday> HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<measured-date-6-days>T00:00:00 --until=<measured-date>T23:59:59 HEAD; git -C <repo> log -1 --format=%cs HEAD; ls <repo>/issues | grep '^[0-9].*\.md$'; grep -l -E '^\*\*Status\*\*: *(Closed|Done|Resolved|Fixed|Complete)' <repo>/issues/*.md | wc -l; ls <repo>/docs/studies/*.md
repositories behind spec project ids in ~/projects; private-repo filter is a safety net and matches no spec project today; missing repos reported separately; seven calendar days ending on measured date in the measuring host's local timezone; commit counts include all authors and merge commits reachable from HEAD · measured 2026-10-26
12-week commit activity
git rev-list --count --since=<Monday> --until=<Sunday> HEAD
12 latest complete ISO weeks; weekly values are from spec/metrics.yaml.