Vance Ingalls c1ba528a1f fix(cli): scan puppeteer cache for chrome-headless-shell; warn on system-chrome fallback (#821)
## What

Two correctness fixes to `packages/cli/src/browser/manager.ts` so the CLI picks the right Chrome binary for any perf path that depends on `chrome-headless-shell`:

1. **Also scan the puppeteer-managed cache.** `findFromCache` now reads from both `~/.cache/hyperframes/chrome` (the CLI's own managed cache) and `~/.cache/puppeteer/chrome-headless-shell/<version>/<platform-dir>/chrome-headless-shell` (the path layout that the engine's `resolveHeadlessShellPath` already reads from). When `chrome-headless-shell` is present in either cache, it now wins over system Chrome.
2. **Warn when falling through to a non-`chrome-headless-shell` system binary on Linux.** A single one-time `console.warn` explains the perf consequence and points the user at `npx @puppeteer/browsers install chrome-headless-shell`. Linux-scoped because the BeginFrame perf path is Linux-only.

## Why

Discovered in a recent spike on the BeginFrame perf path. On a clean install, the CLI's hyperframes-managed cache (`~/.cache/hyperframes/chrome`) is empty, so `findFromCache` returns `undefined`. The CLI then falls through to `findFromSystem()` and picks `/usr/bin/google-chrome`, exporting it to the engine via `PRODUCER_HEADLESS_SHELL_PATH` in `render.ts`. The engine receives that path, sees it's already set, and skips its own correct `~/.cache/puppeteer/chrome-headless-shell` scan.

Regular Chrome (147+) has dropped `HeadlessExperimental.enable`. The engine's BeginFrame probe correctly catches this and silently falls back to screenshot mode — but the operator sees no signal, so any user who installed `chrome-headless-shell` via `npx @puppeteer/browsers install` (the standard puppeteer flow) silently loses the perf path.

This is a "two codepaths know about 'the chrome we ship' but look in different places" bug. The fix collapses them.

## How

- `findFromCache` now consults both caches. Hyperframes-managed cache wins when both contain a binary (preserves existing behavior).
- New `findFromPuppeteerCache` mirrors `resolveHeadlessShellPath` from `packages/engine/src/services/browserManager.ts` — same path layout, same newest-first version sort. A comment in both files notes they need to move together if puppeteer ever changes the on-disk layout.
- `warnSystemFallbackOnce` is gated on `process.platform === "linux"` and on the binary name (`basename` of the path being `chrome-headless-shell`/`.exe`). One-shot latch so a long-running `hyperframes studio` process isn't spammed. Exported test-reset helper `_resetSystemFallbackWarnForTests` for the unit tests.

No public-API changes. `findBrowser`, `ensureBrowser`, `clearBrowser`, `setBrowserPath` all keep the same signatures.

## Test plan

- [x] Unit tests added (`packages/cli/src/browser/manager.test.ts`, 7 tests):
  - cache hit on hyperframes dir
  - cache hit on puppeteer dir (the new path)
  - newest-version preference when multiple versions are cached
  - system fallback + Linux warning emitted
  - no warning when the resolved path is itself `chrome-headless-shell` (e.g. `HYPERFRAMES_BROWSER_PATH` override)
  - no warning on macOS (Linux-only perf path)
  - one-time warning idempotency across repeated `findBrowser()` calls
- [x] `bun run --filter @hyperframes/cli typecheck` — passes
- [x] `bun run --filter @hyperframes/cli test` — 305/305 passing
- [x] `bun run --filter @hyperframes/cli build` — passes
- [ ] Manual smoke on a Linux host with chrome-headless-shell in the puppeteer cache (skipped — sandbox already has both binaries and the unit tests cover the resolution logic deterministically; reviewers welcome to verify)

— Vai
2026-05-14 17:09:35 -07:00
2026-05-13 13:40:16 -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.

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

Hyperframes is an open-source video rendering framework that lets you create, preview, and render HTML-based video compositions — with first-class support for AI agents.

Quick Start

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

npx skills add heygen-com/hyperframes

This teaches your agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Codex) how to write correct compositions, GSAP timelines, Tailwind v4 browser-runtime styles, and first-party adapter animations. In Claude Code, the skills register as slash commands — invoke /hyperframes to author compositions, /hyperframes-cli for the dev-loop commands (init, lint, preview, render), /hyperframes-media for asset preprocessing (TTS, transcription, background removal), /tailwind for init --tailwind projects, /gsap for timeline animation help, or the adapter skills (/animejs, /css-animations, /lottie, /three, /waapi) when a composition uses those runtimes.

For Claude Design, open docs/guides/claude-design-hyperframes.md on GitHub and click the download button (↓) to save it, then attach the file to your Claude Design chat. It produces a valid first draft; refine in any AI coding agent. See the Claude Design guide.

For Codex specifically, the same skills are also exposed as an OpenAI Codex plugin — sparse-install just the plugin surface:

codex plugin marketplace add heygen-com/hyperframes --sparse .codex-plugin --sparse skills --sparse assets

For Claude Code, the repo also ships a Claude Code plugin manifest: test it locally with claude --plugin-dir .. The manifest intentionally omits skills because Claude Code auto-discovers the root skills/ directory by convention, and for marketplace submission use the title HyperFrames by HeyGen plus the black/white icon assets at assets/claude-code-icon-dark.svg and assets/claude-code-icon-light.svg for the two theme slots. For Cursor, the same skills are packaged as a Cursor plugin — install from the Cursor Marketplace, or sideload by cloning this repo and pointing Settings → Plugins → Load unpacked at the repo root.

Try it: example prompts

Copy any of these into your agent to get started. The /hyperframes prefix loads the skill context explicitly so you get correct output the first time.

Cold start — describe what you want:

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

Warm start — turn existing context into a video:

Take a look at this GitHub repo https://github.com/heygen-com/hyperframes and explain its uses and architecture to me using /hyperframes.

Summarize the attached PDF into a 45-second pitch video using /hyperframes.

Turn this CSV into an animated bar chart race using /hyperframes.

Format-specific:

Make a 9:16 TikTok-style hook video about [topic] using /hyperframes, with bouncy captions synced to a TTS narration.

Iterate — talk to the agent like a video editor:

Make the title 2x bigger, swap to dark mode, and add a fade-out at the end.

Add a lower third at 0:03 with my name and title.

The agent handles scaffolding, animation, and rendering. See the prompting guide for more patterns.

Option 2: Start a project manually

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

hyperframes init installs skills automatically, so you can hand off to your AI agent at any point.

Requirements: Node.js >= 22, FFmpeg

Why Hyperframes?

  • HTML-native — compositions are HTML files with data attributes. No React, no proprietary DSL.
  • AI-first — agents already speak HTML. The CLI is non-interactive by default, designed for agent-driven workflows.
  • Deterministic rendering — same input = identical output. Built for automated pipelines.
  • Frame Adapter pattern — bring your own animation runtime (GSAP, Lottie, CSS, Three.js).

Hyperframes vs Remotion

Hyperframes is inspired by Remotion — we used Remotion at HeyGen in production, learned a ton from it, and kept attribution comments in the source for the patterns it pioneered (Chrome launch flags, image2pipe → FFmpeg streaming, frame buffering). Both tools drive headless Chrome and both are deterministic. They differ on one decision: what the primary author writes. Remotion's bet is React components; Hyperframes' bet is HTML.

Hyperframes Remotion
Authoring HTML + CSS + GSAP React components (TSX)
Build step None; index.html plays as-is Required (bundler)
Library-clock animations (GSAP, Anime.js, Motion One) Seekable, frame-accurate Plays at wall-clock during render
Arbitrary HTML / CSS passthrough Paste and animate Rewrite as JSX
Distributed rendering Single-machine today Lambda, production-ready

Licensing: fully open source vs source-available

Hyperframes is completely open source under Apache 2.0 — an OSI-approved license. Use it commercially at any scale, with no per-render fees, no seat caps, no company-size thresholds.

Remotion is source-available, not open source. The code is on GitHub under a custom Remotion License that requires a paid company license above small-team thresholds. It's a great product with a real team behind it — but if open-source licensing matters to you (OSI compliance, redistribution rights, no per-use fees), that's a first-order decision point.

Full write-up with benchmarks, an honest list of where each tool wins, and a GSAP side-by-side: Hyperframes vs Remotion guide.

How It Works

Define your video as HTML with data attributes:

<div id="stage" data-composition-id="my-video" data-start="0" data-width="1920" data-height="1080">
  <video
    id="clip-1"
    data-start="0"
    data-duration="5"
    data-track-index="0"
    src="intro.mp4"
    muted
    playsinline
  ></video>
  <img
    id="overlay"
    class="clip"
    data-start="2"
    data-duration="3"
    data-track-index="1"
    src="logo.png"
  />
  <audio
    id="bg-music"
    data-start="0"
    data-duration="9"
    data-track-index="2"
    data-volume="0.5"
    src="music.wav"
  ></audio>
</div>

Preview instantly in the browser. Render to MP4 locally or in Docker.

Catalog

50+ ready-to-use blocks and components — social overlays, shader transitions, data visualizations, and cinematic effects:

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

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

Documentation

Full documentation at hyperframes.heygen.com/introductionQuickstart | Guides | API Reference | Catalog

Packages

Package Description
hyperframes CLI — create, preview, lint, and render compositions
@hyperframes/core Types, parsers, generators, linter, runtime, frame adapters
@hyperframes/engine Seekable page-to-video capture engine (Puppeteer + FFmpeg)
@hyperframes/producer Full rendering pipeline (capture + encode + audio mix)
@hyperframes/studio Browser-based composition editor UI
@hyperframes/player Embeddable <hyperframes-player> web component
@hyperframes/shader-transitions WebGL shader transitions for compositions

Skills

HyperFrames ships skills that teach AI agents framework-specific patterns that generic docs don't cover.

npx skills add heygen-com/hyperframes
Skill What it teaches
hyperframes HTML composition authoring, captions, TTS, audio-reactive animation, transitions
hyperframes-cli Dev-loop CLI: init, lint, inspect, preview, render, doctor
hyperframes-media Asset preprocessing: tts (Kokoro), transcribe (Whisper), remove-background (u2net) — voice/model/codec selection
hyperframes-registry Block and component installation via hyperframes add
website-to-hyperframes Capture a URL and turn it into a video — full website-to-video pipeline
remotion-to-hyperframes Translate a Remotion (React) composition into a HyperFrames HTML composition
gsap GSAP timelines for HyperFrames: paused registration, deterministic seeking, easing, sequencing, performance
animejs Anime.js animations and timelines registered on window.__hfAnime for deterministic HyperFrames seeking
css-animations CSS keyframe animation patterns that HyperFrames can discover, pause, and seek
lottie lottie-web and dotLottie players registered on window.__hfLottie with local assets and paused playback
three Three.js scenes that render from HyperFrames hf-seek events and window.__hfThreeTime instead of wall-clock time
waapi Web Animations API element.animate() patterns seeked through document.getAnimations()

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Cloning the repo

The repo uses Git LFS for golden regression-test baselines under packages/producer/tests/**/output.mp4 (~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
# (or install Git for Windows, which bundles Git LFS as an optional component)

# Then (once, per machine)
git lfs install

If you hit git-lfs filter-process: command not found during git clone or npx skills add heygen-com/hyperframes, install Git LFS and retry. You can also skip LFS content if you only need the source files:

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

License

Apache 2.0

S
Description
Write HTML. Render video. Built for agents.
Readme
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JavaScript 9.3%
CSS 4.1%
Shell 0.3%
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