hyperframes/skills/hyperframes-cli/references/preview-render.md

preview, play, render, publish

Serve, render, and share commands.

preview

npx hyperframes preview                   # foreground on a TTY; persistent in agent shells
npx hyperframes preview --background      # explicit persistent session
npx hyperframes preview --foreground --json # ready JSON, then remain attached
npx hyperframes preview --background --port 4567 # agent-safe custom port (default 3002)
npx hyperframes preview --selection --json # print the current Studio selection and exit
npx hyperframes preview --context --json  # print compact agent context from Studio

Hot-reloads on file changes. Opens Studio in the browser automatically — the full timeline editor, where the user can play the video and edit anything by hand before rendering. This is the review surface, not just a viewer.

When handing a project back to the user, use the Studio project URL, not the source index.html path:

http://localhost:<port>/#project/<project-name>

Use the actual port and project directory name; treat index.html as source-code context, not the preview surface. For example, after npx hyperframes preview --background --port 3017 in codex-openai-video, report http://localhost:3017/#project/codex-openai-video.

Two ways a handed URL turns out dead — check both before handing it back: the URL is missing its #project/<project-name> hash (Studio loads but has no project to open), or the server is not actually running. Bare preview automatically creates a managed persistent session in a non-TTY agent shell; --background remains the clearest explicit form. Verify the printed URL returns HTTP 200, keep it alive for the whole review, and stop it explicitly with npx hyperframes preview --stop afterward. Use the printed URL as-is: HyperFrames URL-encodes project names that contain route metacharacters.

Agent context from Studio selection

preview --context and preview --selection are the agent bridge into a running Studio session. They do not start a new server; they find the active preview server for the current project, read agent-useful state from Studio, print it, and exit.

Use it when the user gives deictic edit instructions like "change this", "move the selected element", "make the card I clicked bigger", or "fix the current selection":

npx hyperframes preview --context --json --context-fields selection

The compact context payload includes the selected element's source file, composition path, current timeline time, data-hf-id / selector target, bounding box, text content, and a thumbnail URL for the selected element. Prefer selection.target.hfId when present; fall back to selection.target.selector only when no stable data-hf-id exists. If selection is null, inspect errors.selection.code (for example, no-selection).

Keep agent context small by asking only for the slices you need:

npx hyperframes preview --context --json --context-fields selection
npx hyperframes preview --context --json --context-fields lint
npx hyperframes preview --context --json --context-fields selection,lint

Use --context-detail full only when the edit genuinely needs heavy selection fields such as computedStyles, inlineStyles, dataAttributes, or editable text-field metadata:

npx hyperframes preview --context --json --context-fields selection --context-detail full

preview --selection --json remains available when you explicitly want the full selected-element payload and do not need lint/server context.

Failure modes:

Code	Meaning
preview-not-running	Start Studio first with npx hyperframes preview --background.
ambiguous-preview-server	Multiple matching Studio servers are open; rerun with one listed --port.
preview-port-mismatch	The requested --port is not one of the matching Studio servers.
no-selection	Studio is open, but the user has not selected an element yet.
selection-unavailable	The running preview server does not expose selection context cleanly.

If there is no selection, ask the user to click the target element in Studio and rerun the command. If the server error lists candidate ports, rerun the same command with --port <candidate>. Do not infer the target from a screenshot when the CLI can give a stable element target.

play (lightweight player)

npx hyperframes play                  # current project, port 3003
npx hyperframes play ./my-video       # specific project
npx hyperframes play --port 8080      # custom port

play serves the composition through the embeddable <hyperframes-player> web component instead of the full Studio UI. Use it when sharing a preview link or when Studio is heavier than needed (no editor, no panels). play reports the plain http://localhost:<port> URL — no #project/<name> fragment (that's a Studio routing convention only preview uses).

The player's playback-rate attribute (preview speed control, drives the timeline's timeScale) is clamped to [0.1, 5]; values ≤ 0 or non-finite fall back to 1. This is a preview/playback knob, not a composition data-* attribute — authored motion still renders at 1×.

Launching with an external browser (preview + play)

Both preview and play can open inside an explicit Chromium-compatible browser instead of the OS default. Two use cases: isolated Chromium profile, or external CDP attach (DevTools / Playwright / Puppeteer / browser-MCP). HyperFrames itself does not own CDP automation — this only exposes the endpoint; whatever connects to it is your problem. Not to be confused with --browser-gpu (a render flag controlling Chrome GPU access during capture).

Flag	Type	Notes
--browser-path	path	Absolute path to a Chromium-compatible executable (/usr/bin/chromium, /Applications/Brave Browser.app/...).
--user-data-dir	path	Chromium-compatible profile directory. Requires --browser-path. Use a throwaway directory to keep state out of your main profile.
--remote-debugging-port	integer 1-65535	Open a Chromium CDP endpoint on the given port. Requires both --browser-path and --user-data-dir — refused otherwise, so a CDP endpoint cannot leak into your main profile by accident.

# Open preview in an isolated Chromium profile
npx hyperframes preview --background --browser-path /usr/bin/chromium --user-data-dir /tmp/hf-profile

# Same plus a CDP endpoint on :9222 (attach DevTools / Playwright / etc.)
npx hyperframes play --browser-path /usr/bin/chromium --user-data-dir /tmp/hf-profile --remote-debugging-port 9222

Validation runs before any server boots, so an invalid value exits cleanly without leaving a listening socket behind.

render

Render after the user has reviewed in preview and approved, or when they asked for the file or to work without stopping. Passing checks alone is not a reason to render.

npx hyperframes render                                # standard MP4 from cwd
npx hyperframes render ./my-video --output ./out.mp4  # render from outside the project dir
npx hyperframes render --output final.mp4             # named output (no timestamp)
npx hyperframes render -c compositions/intro.html -o intro.mp4  # render a specific sub-composition file
npx hyperframes render --quality draft                # fast iteration
npx hyperframes render --quality looks                # first real encode (default)
npx hyperframes render --fps 60 --quality delivery    # final delivery
npx hyperframes render --format webm                  # transparent WebM
npx hyperframes render --docker                       # byte-identical

Default --output is renders/<project-name>_<YYYY-MM-DD>_<HH-MM-SS>.<ext> — timestamped per render so successive runs don't clobber each other. Pass --output to get a stable name.

Flag	Options	Default	Notes
dir (positional)	path	cwd	Project directory. Omit to use current working directory.
--composition, -c	path to composition file	index.html	Render a specific composition file (e.g. compositions/intro.html) instead of the project's index.html.
--output, -o	path	renders/<project>_<ts>.<ext>	Output path. Default is timestamped (<project-name>_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS.<ext>).
--fps	24, 30, 60	30	60fps doubles render time
--quality	draft, looks, delivery, standard, high	looks	looks is CRF 16 on the standard preset. delivery is high. draft for iterating
--format	mp4, webm, mov, gif, png-sequence, hls	mp4	WebM/MOV render with transparency; gif for inline autoplay in GitHub PRs/READMEs/docs (two-pass palette encode, fps capped at 30 — prefer --fps 15 — no audio, 1-bit transparency only, HDR falls back to SDR); png-sequence writes RGBA frames to a directory (AE/Nuke/Fusion ingest); hls writes an HLS VOD directory (master.m3u8 + video/audio playlists + MPEG-TS segments), SDR only, rejects --gpu, unavailable on lambda/cloudrun
--gif-loop	0-65535	0	GIF loop count; 0 loops forever. Only with --format gif.
--hls-segment-seconds	1-60	4	HLS target segment length in whole seconds; also locks the encoder GOP so every segment starts on a keyframe. Only with --format hls.
--resolution	landscape, portrait, landscape-4k, portrait-4k, square, square-4k (+ aliases 1080p, 4k, uhd)	—	Supersample via Chrome deviceScaleFactor. Aspect ratio must match composition; scale must be an integer. Not with --hdr.
--crf	0-51	—	Encoder CRF (lower = higher quality). Mutually exclusive with --video-bitrate.
--video-bitrate	e.g. 10M, 5000k	—	Target bitrate. Mutually exclusive with --crf.
--hdr	flag	off	Force HDR output even with SDR sources. MP4 only.
--sdr	flag	off	Force SDR even with HDR sources.
--workers	number or auto	auto	Each worker spawns Chrome (~256 MB)
--docker	flag	off	Reproducible output across hosts
--gpu	flag	off	GPU-accelerated FFmpeg encoding (NVENC / VideoToolbox / VAAPI / QSV)
--browser-gpu / --no-browser-gpu	flag	auto (local), off (docker)	Host GPU for Chrome/WebGL capture
--browser-timeout	seconds (0.001–86400)	60	Puppeteer page-navigation timeout for the entry HTML. Raise when heavy compositions (many videos / fonts / remote assets) can't reach domcontentloaded within the 60s default.
--quiet	flag	off	Suppress verbose output
--strict	flag	off	Fail on lint errors
--strict-all	flag	off	Fail on lint errors AND warnings
--variables	JSON object	—	Override values declared in data-composition-variables
--variables-file	path	—	JSON file with variable values (alternative to --variables)
--strict-variables	flag	off	Fail render on undeclared keys or type mismatches in --variables

Quality guidance: draft while iterating, looks (the default) for the first real encode, delivery for final delivery. standard and high still work.

Read the summary's second line. After the output path and size, render prints the capture path, GPU mode, and per-stage timings, e.g. beginframe capture · software gpu · compile 0.7s · setup 1.1s · capture 8.1s · encode 5.8s. capture is the frame loop and setup is calibration plus session init; the capture path reads a|b when parallel workers diverged, and encode (during capture) means the streaming encoder overlapped the loop, so do not add it to the wall time. Local GPU auto (the default) requests BeginFrame. If the line still says screenshot capture with software gpu on Linux, a hint under it says BeginFrame did not run (needs chrome-headless-shell, no --resolution upscale). It only appears when the GPU was auto-probed, never under --docker or --no-browser-gpu, where software GL is the point. Heavy compositions can stall on software GL. Do not reach for --debug just to learn which path ran.

Parametrized renders: the composition declares its variables on the <html> root with data-composition-variables — a JSON array of declarations ({id, type, label, default} per entry) that defines the schema. Scripts inside read the resolved values via window.__hyperframes.getVariables(). The CLI --variables '{"title":"Q4 Report"}' is a JSON object keyed by id that overrides those declared defaults for one render; missing keys fall through, so the same composition runs unchanged in dev preview and in production. Sub-comp hosts can also override per-instance with data-variable-values. See ../../hyperframes/references/format.md for the full pattern.

feedback (report after rendering)

After a render is verified, send one feedback line per task. This is the maintainers' primary signal — a render that finishes silently tells them nothing.

npx hyperframes feedback --rating 10                              # clean run, no notes
npx hyperframes feedback --rating 6 --comment "bg <video> renders grey in multi-scene; worked around with --format png-sequence"

--rating is an integer from 0-10; --comment is free text. A --comment with no --rating is a ratingless report (MISSING FEATURE: and HOST APP: in SKILL.md) that never counts in the rating metric. Feedback is anonymous and attaches a doctorSummary (OS/Node/CPU/mem/ffmpeg) automatically, so don't repeat those fields. A clean run needs only a short result. Before sending any bug, workaround, or confusing behavior, collect this compact reproduction packet:

REPRO COMMAND: <HF_*/PRODUCER_* env> npx hyperframes <exact command>   # run from the project directory; do NOT paste absolute paths
EXPECTED / ACTUAL: <expected behavior> / <observed behavior and isolated trigger>
EXACT ERROR: <verbatim error or warning; include frame/timestamp for visual defects>
OUTCOME: <output correct | output corrupt | fallback succeeded | hard exit | command hung>
WORKAROUND: <exact workaround, or none>
COMPOSITION_STRUCTURE:
  elements: video=<n> audio=<n> img=<n> svg=<n> canvas=<n> subComps=<n>
  attributes: <comma-joined subset of clip-path, filter, mix-blend-mode, transform, mask, position:fixed, overflow:hidden, z-index, data-has-audio, data-duration, data-start, data-composition-src, background-image:url, mask-image:url — or "(none present)">
  timeline: <flat | nested (<n> sub-comps)>; driver=<gsap | data-timeline | gsap+data-timeline | none>
  delta: <what differs between the working workaround-render and the broken default render>
  defect: <spatial location + frame index range, e.g. top-left / frames 0-30 — omit for non-visual defects>

COMPOSITION_STRUCTURE: is a privacy-preserving structural anatomy: counts + presence flags only, no file paths, no src URLs, no user text. It lets maintainers pattern-match the report against known bug families (e.g. "sub-comp mount + clip-path", "GSAP timeline + z-index") without receiving the composition ZIP. Required for any rating ≤ 7 that describes a visual defect (black frame, flicker, corrupt output, wrong frame, blank output, other visual anomaly); optional but appreciated on higher ratings. Agents on this skill can auto-fill the block by calling buildCompositionCensus(html) and renderCompositionCensusBlock(census) from packages/cli/src/utils/compositionCensus.ts against the composition HTML they already have access to — the human user does not fill this out by hand.

Feedback is submitted to a public channel — anonymize before sending. Redact absolute paths (which leak user home directory + machine identity), any user or project names embedded in paths, secrets, and credentials. Path arguments in the command should stay relative to the project directory (./renders/out.mp4, not /Users/<user>/Documents/…/out.mp4; .hf-tmp/, not /home/<user>/projects/<real-name>/.hf-tmp/). Similarly strip absolute paths from EXACT ERROR: stack traces and log excerpts — keep the file basename and line number, drop the leading directory. Preserve flags and relevant HF_* / PRODUCER_* variables verbatim. If the failure no longer reproduces, include the last failing command and log excerpt (redacted the same way). Share a project link only when one is already available and safe to share.

The hyperframes feedback command soft-warns when a non-10 --comment is missing REPRO COMMAND:, and when a rating-≤-7 visual-defect comment is missing COMPOSITION_STRUCTURE:. The warnings print above the submission ack and do not block — some legitimate reports (a one-line "cloudrun quota bumped yesterday, fine now") won't fit the mold. Fix the packet and rerun to silence them.

Hit a reproducible bug? Add --file-issue (optionally --dir <project> and --yes for non-interactive shells) to also publish a minimal repro to a public URL and open a pre-filled GitHub bug issue draft for a maintainer to file. This publishes the project publicly, so it is opt-in and consent-gated; the issue is never auto-submitted.

publish

npx hyperframes publish              # upload current project privately, return stable URL
npx hyperframes publish ./my-video   # specific project
npx hyperframes publish --public     # allow anyone with the URL to view the claimed project
npx hyperframes publish --yes        # skip the confirmation prompt (scripts/CI)

Uploads the project's source (HTML + assets) and returns a stable hosted URL that renders in the browser. A fresh publish is private by default and requires authentication plus access to view. Use --public to allow anyone with the URL to view the claimed project. Updating a project in place keeps its existing visibility: re-publishing without --public never turns a public project private. --yes only skips the confirmation prompt; it does not change visibility. A signed-out publish returns an authentication-required claim URL rather than a public playback URL. Lint findings are surfaced before upload but do not block.

Where to render, and skill attribution

Use cloud rendering when the user wants hosted rendering without local Chrome, FFmpeg, or AWS. Use Lambda only when AWS ownership is a requirement. Use Cloud Run only when GCP ownership is a requirement. Read the matching reference before running any cloud path.

Skill attribution is automatic — the examples above need no --skill. A project scaffolded with hyperframes init --skill=<slug> records its owning skill in hyperframes.json, and every later render inherits it on anonymous telemetry: re-renders, npm run render, and --batch alike. Pass --skill=<slug> explicitly only to stamp a project that was not scaffolded with one (its first render then persists it).