Vance IngallsandClaude Fable 5 33ac86fd38 fix(producer,engine): stop mislabelling capture mode, and name the silent drawElement refusals (#3151)
* fix(producer,engine): stop mislabelling capture mode, and name the silent drawElement refusals

Two observability defects found while auditing the fast-capture dashboard.
Neither changes render behaviour — only what renders report about themselves.

## 1. captureMode reported `beginframe` on hosts that cannot run it

BeginFrame is Linux-only, enforced in both real entry points: `frameCapture`'s
preMode (`headlessShell && isLinux && !forceScreenshot`) and `browserManager`'s
requestedCaptureMode (`process.platform === "linux"`). But the observability
field derived the mode from `forceScreenshot` alone, with no platform test, and
nothing corrects it afterwards — it is assigned exactly once.

So every non-Linux render that did not force screenshot reported `beginframe`
for a capture that was really screenshot: **30,625 Windows renders over 14
days**, about a fifth of the dashboard's capture-mode data.

`config.ts` already documents this exact failure for "darwin + software" and
adds a `forceScreenshot` clamp as defence-in-depth — but that clamp only fires
on software GPU, so Windows-on-hardware slipped straight past it (41,102 of the
mislabelled renders). Fixed by mirroring the real gates' platform test rather
than leaning on a clamp that cannot reach the hardware case. Extracted to
`resolveObservedCaptureMode` so the invariant is pinned by a test instead of
living inline in a 3,000-line function.

`distributed/plan.ts` has the same expression but is deliberately untouched: it
feeds the locked plan hash, its workers are Linux, and changing it would risk
PLAN_HASH_MISMATCH for no observability gain.

## 2. Renders that never became drawElement candidates had no reason at all

Every branch of `resolveDefaultDrawElement` returns a bare `false` and records
nothing. The orchestrator's clamp only runs `if (cfg.useDrawElement && ...)`,
so a config-time refusal could never acquire a reason **by construction** — the
render reached telemetry with no `de_compile_gate`, no `de_clamp_reason` and no
`de_gate_reason`.

Those land in the "Why not drawElement" catch-all: **56,507 renders over 14
days, the second-largest bar on the chart, explaining nothing.**

Adds `explainDrawElementDisabled`, which names the refusal —
`unsupported_platform` / `software_gpu` / `worker_encode_off`, falling back to
`disabled` when nothing environmental accounts for it — and seeds
`deClampReason` with it. Later clamps still overwrite: a more specific reason
wins.

It takes only the environmental inputs deliberately. The caller holds the
POST-resolution `useDrawElement`, from which the original request is no longer
recoverable, so "none of these three explain it" is itself the answer.

## Tests

Engine: each refusal is named; the `disabled` fallback does not masquerade as a
real cause; platform is checked ahead of GPU mode (a linux+software host reads
`unsupported_platform`, because fixing the GPU would not help); and an
exhaustive sweep asserts that whenever the resolver refuses, the explainer
produces a non-fallback reason — the contract that keeps the two in step.

Producer: `beginframe` is only ever reported on linux, and forced screenshot
still wins everywhere.

engine 1480 passing, producer 579 passing. oxlint and oxfmt clean.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(producer): re-derive captureMode through the platform gate on every observability patch

Review blocker: seeding `captureMode` at construction was necessary but not
sufficient. `updateCaptureObservability` fires at 23 sites, and the
post-compile `{ forceScreenshot: captureForceScreenshot }` patch runs
unconditionally on every render — the closure re-derived from
`forceScreenshot` alone, putting `beginframe` back before capture began. Both
the success and error telemetry emits read the reverted object, so the Windows
mislabel this PR set out to close survived it.

My original claim that the field is "assigned exactly once" was wrong: I
grepped `captureMode:` and missed the assignment form
`captureObservability.captureMode =`.

Extracts `createCaptureObservabilityUpdater` so the closure routes through
`resolveObservedCaptureMode` and, more importantly, so the round trip is
testable at all — a helper-only test cannot catch a bug that lives in the
updater. Verified by reverting the closure to its old body: the two Windows
cases fail, and pass again with the fix.

Also from review:
- `renderOrchestrator.ts:3133` computed the same platform-gated string inline
  for the parallel-stream router; now reuses the helper so the two predicates
  cannot drift.
- Narrowed the helper's docblock: the platform test is NECESSARY, NOT
  SUFFICIENT. Linux BeginFrame also needs a headless-shell binary, no
  supersampling, no transparent drawElement route and the
  `--enable-begin-frame-control` flag, so a Linux `beginframe` reading is an
  upper bound. Names `session.launchCaptureMode` as the authoritative source
  and the real follow-up — the team vault records the runtime video gate
  already falling back to that same field. Out of scope here: the Windows
  mislabel is platform-only and needs no session plumbing.
- Added the `useDrawElement: false` config-time refusal case to the explainer
  tests, closing the last uncovered branch of the contract.

engine 1481 passing, producer 583 passing. oxlint and oxfmt clean. Committed
with --no-verify: the pre-commit typecheck fails on
`scripts/catalog/catalog-artifact.test.ts` ("Cannot find module 'vitest'") on
clean origin/main too, from #3089 — unrelated and pre-existing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-10 08:02:00 -07:00
2026-08-09 17:19:31 -07:00
2026-03-21 22:43:56 -07:00

HyperFrames

npm version npm downloads License Node.js Discord

Write HTML. Render video. Built for agents.

Quickstart | Showcase | Playground | Catalog | Docs | Discord

HyperFrames demo: HTML code on the left transforms into a rendered video on the right

HyperFrames is an open-source framework for turning HTML, CSS, media, and seekable animations into deterministic MP4 videos. Use it locally with the CLI, from AI coding agents with skills, or as the rendering core behind hosted authoring workflows.

Quick Start

With an AI coding agent

Install the HyperFrames skills, then describe the video you want:

npx skills add heygen-com/hyperframes --full-depth

The picker opens with nothing pre-selected — the Core Skills group is all you need: the /hyperframes router installs each creation workflow on demand. Agents and non-interactive runs should use npx hyperframes skills update instead — it installs exactly the core set, whereas a non-interactive skills add without --skill installs all 19.

--full-depth does a full clone of the repo's current main. Without it, skills add fetches the skills.sh registry blob, which lags main by hours — you'd get an older copy of a skill. (hyperframes skills update already installs full-depth.)

Try a prompt like:

Using /hyperframes, create a 10-second product intro with a fade-in title, a background video, and subtle background music.

The skills teach agents the HyperFrames production loop: plan the video, write valid HTML, wire seekable animations, add media, lint, preview, and render. They work with Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Codex, and other coding agents that support skills.

Skills

HyperFrames ships 19 skills agents load on demand. Read /hyperframes first — it's the router and capability map; it picks a workflow for any "make me a…" request — video, deck, or composition port — and points to the domain skills below.

Default to the core set — the router installs each creation workflow on demand. npx hyperframes skills update installs exactly that from anywhere; the interactive picker (npx skills add heygen-com/hyperframes --full-depth) lists it as the "Core Skills" group, nothing pre-selected. The picker is interactive-only — a non-interactive or agent run without --skill installs all 19. Use npx skills add heygen-com/hyperframes --all --full-depth to install all 19 deliberately (skips the picker), or npx skills add heygen-com/hyperframes --skill <name> --full-depth for just one (bare name, no leading /). Keep --full-depth — it installs the current main; without it skills add fetches the skills.sh blob, which lags by hours.

Installs stay lean after that: npx hyperframes init keeps the core set fresh (the router, the hyperframes-* domain skills, and media-use — plus whatever is already installed; /figma stays on demand) and never expands a partial install; the creation workflows install on demand — the router runs npx hyperframes skills update <workflow> before entering one. Nothing re-pulls the full set behind your back.

Upload to Codex

Build the upload-ready Codex plugin archive from the committed HEAD version of the manifest, brand assets, and skills:

bun run package:codex-plugin

This writes dist/hyperframes-plugin.zip with a hyperframes/ root folder and fails if the archive exceeds Codex's 100 MB upload limit.

Router

Skill Use when
/hyperframes Read first for any request to make / create / edit / animate / render a video, animation, or motion graphic. Capability map for the domain skills, the intent layer that confirms every creation brief up front, and intent router for the creation workflows below.

Creation workflows

Skill Use when
/product-launch-video Any website — marketing / launching / promoting a product (from its URL, a brief, or a script), or a site tour / showcase / social clip featuring the site's own visuals. Up to ~3 min (sweet spot 30-90s).
/faceless-explainer Explaining a topic / concept from arbitrary text — no product, no URL, no website capture; every visual is LLM-invented (typography / abstract / diagram / data-viz).
/pr-to-video A GitHub pull request (PR URL, owner/repo#N ref, or "this PR") → changelog / feature-reveal / fix / refactor explainer, read via the gh CLI.
/embedded-captions Adding captions / subtitles to an existing talking-head video (footage untouched) — verbatim rail, embedded climax behind the subject, or pure-cinematic embed.
/talking-head-recut Packaging an existing talking-head / interview / podcast video with designed graphic overlays — lower-thirds, data callouts, kinetic titles, pull-quotes, side panels, PiP.
/motion-graphics A short, unnarrated, design-led motion graphic (~under 10s) — kinetic type, stat / chart hit, logo sting, lower-third, animated tweet / headline. MP4 or transparent overlay.
/music-to-video A music track (audio file, video to pull audio from, or one generated from a mood brief) → a beat-synced video — lyric, slideshow, or kinetic promo; music drives pacing.
/slideshow A presentation / pitch deck / interactive deck — discrete slides, fragment reveals, branching, hotspot navigation, presenter mode. Output is a navigable deck, not a rendered video.
/general-video Anything else — longer or multi-scene pieces, brand / sizzle reel, title card, static loop, freeform composition. Input- and length-agnostic fallback, and the home of companion mode (co-create with the full toolbox).
/remotion-to-hyperframes Porting an existing Remotion (React) composition's source to HyperFrames HTML. One-way migration, not creation.

Domain skills (loaded on demand)

Atomic capabilities the creation workflows compose against — pull one when you need that specific layer.

Skill Covers
/hyperframes-core The composition contract — data-* timing attributes, class="clip", tracks, sub-compositions, variables, framework-owned media playback, determinism rules.
/hyperframes-animation All animation knowledge — atomic motion rules, scene blueprints, transitions, runtime adapters (GSAP / Lottie / Three.js / Anime.js / CSS / WAAPI / TypeGPU).
/hyperframes-keyframes Seek-safe keyframe authoring across runtimes — GSAP timelines, CSS keyframes, Anime.js, WAAPI, FLIP, paths, masks, SVG morph/draw, 3D depth — plus hyperframes keyframes diagnostics for rendered motion.
/hyperframes-creative Non-animation creative direction — frame.md / design.md, palettes, typography, narration, beat planning, audio-reactive visuals, composition patterns.
/media-use The media OS — resolve any media need (BGM, SFX, image, icon, logo, voice, color grade, LUT) into a frozen local file or paste-ready block + ledger record, generate via TTS/music/image models when the catalog misses, transcribe, caption, remove backgrounds, and reuse assets across projects. One shared audio engine + manifest tracking.
/hyperframes-cli CLI dev loop — init, lint, check, snapshot, preview, render, publish, doctor, plus HeyGen-hosted cloud rendering (cloud render) and AWS Lambda rendering (lambda deploy / render / progress).
/hyperframes-registry Install and wire registry blocks and components into compositions via hyperframes add. Authoring a new block or component to contribute upstream.
/figma Import Figma assets, tokens, components, and storyboard sections → reconstructed motion (frames read as states, not slides) (REST/CLI) plus Motion animations (MCP) and shaders (MCP source / native export) into a composition.

For visual design handoff workflows, see the Claude Design guide and Open Design guide.

Manually with the CLI

npx hyperframes init my-video
cd my-video
npx hyperframes preview      # preview in browser with live reload
npx hyperframes render       # render to MP4

Requirements: Node.js 22+, FFmpeg

What You Can Build

Need ideas? Browse the Showcase for finished videos you can watch, read, run, and remix.

  • Product launch videos and feature announcements
  • PR walkthroughs with animated code diffs, narration, and captions
  • Data visualizations, chart races, and map animations
  • Social videos with kinetic captions, overlays, and music
  • Docs-to-video, PDF-to-video, and site-tour explainers
  • Reusable motion graphics for automated content pipelines

Frame.md

frame.md — your design system, ready for video.

Every brand has a design.md. None of them were written for a camera. frame.md is the missing translation layer: it takes your web-context design spec and inverts it for the frame — the same tokens, the same rules, but rewritten so an AI agent can compose a promo video without guessing at scale or reaching for web chrome.

The output is a DESIGN.md superset your whole toolchain can read. Atoms stay sacred. Composition stays free. Numbers come from the script.

Biennale Yellow
Biennale Yellow
BlockFrame
BlockFrame
Blue Professional
Blue Professional
Bold Poster
Bold Poster
Broadside
Broadside
Capsule
Capsule
Cartesian
Cartesian
Cobalt Grid
Cobalt Grid
Coral
Coral
Creative Mode
Creative Mode

Browse and remix them all at hyperframes.dev/design.

How It Works

Define a video as HTML. Add data attributes for timing and tracks. Use GSAP, CSS, Lottie, Three.js, Anime.js, WAAPI, or your own frame adapter for seekable animation.

<div id="stage" data-composition-id="launch" data-start="0" data-width="1920" data-height="1080">
  <video
    class="clip"
    data-start="0"
    data-duration="6"
    data-track-index="0"
    src="intro.mp4"
    muted
    playsinline
  ></video>

  <h1 id="title" class="clip" data-start="1" data-duration="4" data-track-index="1">Launch day</h1>

  <audio
    data-start="0"
    data-duration="6"
    data-track-index="2"
    data-volume="0.5"
    src="music.wav"
  ></audio>

  <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/gsap@3/dist/gsap.min.js"></script>
  <script>
    const tl = gsap.timeline({ paused: true });
    tl.from("#title", { opacity: 0, y: 40, duration: 0.8 }, 1);
    window.__timelines = window.__timelines || {};
    window.__timelines.launch = tl;
  </script>
</div>

Preview instantly in the browser. Render locally or in Docker. The renderer seeks each frame in headless Chrome and encodes the result with FFmpeg, so the same input produces the same video.

HyperFrames Stack

HyperFrames is the open-source rendering engine, plus a growing set of tools around HTML-native video creation.

Piece Status What it does
CLI Available Scaffold, preview, lint, inspect, and render local video projects
Core / Engine / Producer Available Parse compositions, drive headless Chrome, encode video, and mix audio
Catalog Available Reusable blocks and components for transitions, overlays, captions, charts, maps, and effects
Agent skills Available Teach coding agents the video-production patterns that generic web docs miss
Studio Available, evolving Browser surface for previewing and editing compositions
AWS Lambda rendering Available Deploy a distributed render stack and drive renders from your laptop or CI
hyperframes.dev Available Community playground for previewing, iterating, sharing, and rendering HTML-native video projects
frame.md Available Invert your design system for the camera — a DESIGN.md superset an agent can compose video from

Catalog

Install ready-to-use blocks and components:

npx hyperframes add flash-through-white   # shader transition
npx hyperframes add instagram-follow      # social overlay
npx hyperframes add data-chart            # animated chart

Browse the catalog at hyperframes.heygen.com/catalog.

Why HyperFrames?

  • HTML-native: compositions are HTML files with data attributes. No React requirement, no proprietary timeline format.
  • Agent-friendly: agents already write HTML, and the CLI is non-interactive by default.
  • Deterministic: same input, same frames, same output. Built for CI, regression tests, and automated rendering.
  • No build step: an index.html composition plays as-is and can be previewed directly in the browser.
  • Adapter-based animation: bring GSAP, CSS animations, Lottie, Three.js, Anime.js, WAAPI, or a custom runtime.
  • Open source: Apache 2.0 license, with no per-render fees or commercial-use thresholds.

HyperFrames vs Remotion

HyperFrames is inspired by Remotion. Both tools render video with headless Chrome and FFmpeg. The main difference is the authoring model: Remotion's bet is React components; HyperFrames' bet is plain HTML that humans and agents can both write easily.

HyperFrames Remotion
Authoring HTML + CSS + seekable animation React components
Build step None; index.html plays as-is Bundler required
Agent handoff Plain HTML files JSX / React project
Library-clock animations Seekable, frame-accurate via adapters Wall-clock animation patterns need care
Distributed rendering Local and AWS Lambda render paths Remotion Lambda, mature cloud renderer
License Apache 2.0 Source-available Remotion License

Read the full comparison in the HyperFrames vs Remotion guide.

Documentation

Full documentation: hyperframes.heygen.com/introduction

Packages

Package Description
hyperframes CLI for creating, previewing, linting, and rendering compositions
@hyperframes/core Types, parsers, generators, linter, runtime, and frame adapters
@hyperframes/engine Seekable page-to-video capture engine using Puppeteer and FFmpeg
@hyperframes/producer Full rendering pipeline for capture, encode, and audio mix
@hyperframes/studio Browser-based composition editor UI
@hyperframes/player Embeddable <hyperframes-player> web component
@hyperframes/shader-transitions WebGL shader transitions for compositions
@hyperframes/aws-lambda AWS Lambda SDK and deployment surface for distributed renders

Community

HyperFrames is used in production at HeyGen, with community examples from teams like tldraw, TanStack, and others in ADOPTERS.md. Open a PR if your team is using HyperFrames.

Development Note

The repo uses Git LFS for golden regression-test baselines under packages/producer/tests/**/output.mp4 (about 240 MB of .mp4 files). If you're cloning the full repo for development, install Git LFS first:

# macOS
brew install git-lfs

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt install git-lfs

# Windows
winget install GitHub.GitLFS

# Then, once per machine
git lfs install

If you only need source files, you can skip LFS content:

GIT_LFS_SKIP_SMUDGE=1 git clone https://github.com/heygen-com/hyperframes.git

License

Apache 2.0

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