Files
hyperframes/packages/engine
terencecho efc16a945f fix(engine): treat ffmpegStreamingTimeout as per-frame inactivity, not total render time (#901)
## Summary

- Convert `streamingEncoder.ts`'s safety timer from a total-render hard cap to a per-frame inactivity timeout
- Reset the timer only on `accepted === true` writes — buffered writes don't count as consumer progress
- Update the `ffmpegStreamingTimeout` config doc to reflect the new semantics

## The bug

The timer was set once at spawn and fired SIGTERM unconditionally at `ffmpegStreamingTimeout` ms — turning a "FFmpeg is hung" guard into a hard cap on total render duration. Slow-but-progressing captures (CI runner under load, large compositions, slower compositor paths after [#838](https://github.com/heygen-com/hyperframes/pull/838)'s always-clip change) regularly exceeded the 600s default and were killed mid-encode. The symptom surfaced as:

```
Streaming encode failed: FFmpeg exited with code 255
video:NNNkB audio:0kB ...
[libx264 @ ...] frame I:3  Avg QP:12.91  size: 73263
[libx264 @ ...] frame P:431 Avg QP:14.72  size: 31633
...
[libx264 @ ...] kb/s:7661.05
Exiting normally, received signal 15.
```

libx264 had encoded most frames cleanly; SIGTERM arrived during the encode, libx264 printed its end-of-encode stats, and Node observed a non-zero exit. The `audio:0kB` in stderr is incidental — `streamingEncoder` is video-only; audio is muxed later in `assembleStage`.

Downstream reproduction: `style-13-prod` fails deterministically in `heygen-com/hyperframes-internal` CI after bumping `@hyperframes/producer` from 0.6.7 → 0.6.10. Bisects to #838 widening the SDR capture path at dpr=1 — same composition shape, slower per-frame, total render now crosses 600s.

## The fix

Convert the timer to a heartbeat: each `writeFrame` that goes through to the kernel pipe (i.e. `stdin.write` returns `true`) resets it. Only true hangs (no successful frame write for the timeout window) trip SIGTERM now; "slow but progressing" renders are unbounded.

Crucially, the heartbeat does **not** reset on `accepted === false`. A `false` return means Node had to buffer the write because FFmpeg hasn't drained the pipe yet — that's not proof of consumer progress, just proof we produced. Without this distinction, a hung FFmpeg with a live Chrome would queue frames into Node's writable buffer indefinitely (no backpressure path back to the capture loop) and grow until OOM. In steady state with a slow-but-alive FFmpeg, writes alternate between `true` and `false` as the buffer drains and refills; the `true`s are enough to keep the heartbeat ticking.

Renames are intentionally avoided — `ffmpegStreamingTimeout` keeps its name and `600_000` default; only the semantics changed. The config doc spells out the new behavior so downstream consumers know what 600s now means.

## Test plan

- [x] **Slow-but-progressing capture** (`accepted=true`): 9× `writeFrame` at 900ms intervals (under the 1000ms threshold) — encoder stays alive through 8.1s. Stall past the threshold — SIGTERM fires.
- [x] **Stalled FFmpeg with live producer** (`accepted=false`): override `stdin.write` to return false; pump 9× `writeFrame` at 900ms intervals. SIGTERM still fires inside the 1000ms window — buffered writes don't keep the heartbeat alive.
- [x] Existing 33 tests in `streamingEncoder.test.ts` still pass
- [x] Lint (`oxlint`) + format (`oxfmt --check`) clean
- [ ] CI regression suite

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
2026-05-16 12:38:16 -07:00
..
2026-05-16 16:35:46 +00:00
2026-03-21 22:43:56 -07:00

@hyperframes/engine

Seekable web-page-to-video rendering engine built on Puppeteer and FFmpeg.

Framework-agnostic: works with GSAP, Lottie, Three.js, CSS animations, or any web content that implements the window.__hf seek protocol.

Install

npm install @hyperframes/engine

Requirements: Node.js >= 22, Chrome/Chromium (auto-downloaded by Puppeteer), FFmpeg

What it does

The engine opens your HTML composition in a headless Chrome instance, seeks frame-by-frame using Chrome's HeadlessExperimental.beginFrame API, captures screenshots, and encodes them into video with FFmpeg.

Key services

Service Description
browserManager Launches and pools headless Chrome instances (chrome-headless-shell)
frameCapture Manages capture sessions — seek, screenshot, buffer lifecycle
screenshotService BeginFrame-based capture with CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol)
chunkEncoder FFmpeg encoding with chunked concat, GPU detection, faststart
streamingEncoder Pipe frames to FFmpeg in real time (no intermediate PNGs on disk)
audioMixer Parse <audio> elements and mix audio tracks via FFmpeg
videoFrameExtractor Extract frames from <video> elements for compositing
parallelCoordinator Split frame ranges across worker processes
fileServer Serve local HTML files to the browser via Hono

Usage

import {
  acquireBrowser,
  releaseBrowser,
  createCaptureSession,
  initializeSession,
  captureFrame,
  closeCaptureSession,
} from "@hyperframes/engine";

// 1. Launch browser
const browser = await acquireBrowser({ captureMode: "beginFrame" });

// 2. Open a capture session
const session = createCaptureSession({
  browser: browser.browser,
  url: "http://localhost:3000/my-composition.html",
  width: 1920,
  height: 1080,
  fps: 30,
});
await initializeSession(session);

// 3. Capture frames
for (let i = 0; i < totalFrames; i++) {
  await captureFrame(session, i, `/tmp/frames/frame-${i}.png`);
}

// 4. Clean up
await closeCaptureSession(session);
await releaseBrowser(browser);

Most users should use @hyperframes/producer or the hyperframes CLI instead of calling the engine directly.

Documentation

Full documentation: hyperframes.heygen.com/packages/engine