Follow-up to PR #298 addressing @jrusso1020's review. Each item below maps to a point in his comment. ## Significant ### 1\. Drift threshold 150 ms → 50 ms _mirrorParentMediaTime_ was too loose for lip-synced talking-head content. ITU-R BT.1359 puts A/V perceptibility at ±45 ms; 150 ms sat well inside the "unacceptable" zone. Dropped to 50 ms, extracted as a static constant for clarity. **Verified live on factory-series-c-video (agent-browser):** steady-state offset under parent ownership sampled five times over 400 ms = `[35.7, 33.5, 31.2, 27.2, 36.9]` ms — below the perceptibility floor. Before this PR the same measurement could drift up to 150 ms before correction. ### 2\. Dynamic sub-composition media proxies Under parent ownership, a sub-composition that attaches a new `<audio data-start>` mid-playback was correctly silenced in the iframe (sticky `outputMuted`) but had no parent-frame counterpart to play → silent hole in the audio track. Added a `MutationObserver` on the iframe body watching for `audio[data-start]` / `video[data-start]` additions. New elements are adopted through the same `_adoptIframeMedia` helper the initial scan uses, and if parent ownership is already active the new proxy gets its `currentTime` mirrored and `play()` called immediately (gated on `!this._paused`). Observer disconnects on iframe reload + component disconnect. ### 3\. `bridgeMuted` sticky in `syncRuntimeMedia` The asymmetry James flagged: `outputMuted` was sticky per-tick, `bridgeMuted` was one-shot via `onSetMuted`. A sub-composition activating after a user mute would briefly play at author volume before the next bridge message. `syncRuntimeMedia` now accepts `userMuted` and the per-clip loop uses a single combined `shouldMute` gate. One invariant, two inputs. ### 4\. Reset `_audioOwner` on iframe reload The latch never cleared. On composition switch the player would stay in `parent` ownership against a fresh runtime that hadn't received `set-media-output-muted` and whose autoplay-blocked latch was clean — a brief double-audio window until the next `NotAllowedError` re-promoted (idempotently). `_onIframeLoad` now resets `_audioOwner = "runtime"`, pauses any parent proxies, and disconnects the old MutationObserver before a fresh one attaches to the new document. If the player had been in `parent` ownership, a corresponding `audioownershipchange` event fires with `reason: "iframe-reload"`. ## Worth addressing ### 5\. Promotion → observable event + reason Promotion was invisible. Added `CustomEvent("audioownershipchange", { detail: { owner, reason } })` fired on every owner transition. `reason` is either `"autoplay-blocked"` (promote → parent) or `"iframe-reload"` (reset → runtime). Gives host apps an SLO-ready signal for "% of sessions in parent ownership" without exposing internal state. **Verified live:** dispatching a synthetic `media-autoplay-blocked` in the live studio produced `{ owner: "parent", reason: "autoplay-blocked" }` on the web component exactly once. ### 6\. Parent proxy play() rejection → `playbackerror` event Previously swallowed silently. Now re-emitted as `CustomEvent("playbackerror", { detail: { source: "parent-proxy", error } })` so embedding apps can recover or fall back. ### 7\. Mobile verification on real hardware Tested with a tunnel in a real iOS device. ## Test gaps (from review) - `userMuted` stickiness (mirror of the existing `outputMuted` test). - **OR invariant** between `outputMuted` and `userMuted` — explicit test that setting one false while the other is true keeps `el.muted === true`. - **Contract pin:** `syncRuntimeMedia` fires `onAutoplayBlocked` on **every** rejection (no internal dedupe) — so a future refactor can't quietly move the latch and break the caller's posting logic. - **Caller-side latch pattern:** a 5-rejection simulation with the init.ts-style wrapper posts exactly once. - **`audioownershipchange`** **dispatch** on promotion + once per transition (no duplicate on idempotent re-promote). - **Mid-playback promotion:** `_paused = false` at flip time fires `_playParentMedia` immediately. - **`playbackerror`** **surface** on parent proxy rejection with the right `source` tag. ## Minor - One-line comment on `_promoteToParentProxy` explaining the `postMessage` async race (the mute lands after ~one message-loop tick; the autoplay gate that triggered promotion keeps the iframe rejecting `play()` during that window, so the double-play bug doesn't reappear). ## What's good (from the review) Kept as-is — noted for posterity: - `muted` vs `volume` framing (orthogonal channels). - Probing reality via `NotAllowedError` instead of `matchMedia('(pointer: coarse)')` / UA sniffing. - Two orthogonal mute channels. - Backwards compat (new actions / messages safely ignored by either side). ## Test results - `packages/core/src/runtime/media.test.ts` — **42 tests pass** (+4 new: `userMuted` sticky, OR invariant, fires-every-rejection, caller-latch dedupe) - `packages/core/src/runtime/bridge.test.ts` — **15 tests pass** - `packages/player/src/hyperframes-player.test.ts` — **26 tests pass** (+3 new: `audioownershipchange` dispatch, mid-playback promotion, `playbackerror` surface) - Typecheck green on `core` + `player` - `tsup` build green on `core` / `player` / `cli` - Live factory-series-c-video repro via agent-browser: runtime ownership still zero `volumechange` thrash, zero `PARENT.play()` calls; parent ownership measures 27–37 ms steady-state drift, well inside the 50 ms threshold. ## Test plan - [x] Unit tests (83 total across touched files) - [x] Typecheck clean - [x] Build clean - [x] Live studio repro on factory-series-c-video: runtime path unchanged, parent path drift tightened - [x] `audioownershipchange` event fires with correct detail on synthetic autoplay block - [x] Physical iOS / Android device verification (unchanged since #298)
Write HTML. Render video. Built for agents.
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
Option 1: With an AI coding agent (recommended)
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 and GSAP animations. In Claude Code, the skills register as slash commands — invoke /hyperframes to author compositions, /hyperframes-cli for CLI commands, and /gsap for animation help.
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).
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/introduction — Quickstart | 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 |
CLI commands: init, lint, preview, render, transcribe, tts, doctor |
hyperframes-registry |
Block and component installation via hyperframes add |
gsap |
GSAP animation API, timelines, easing, ScrollTrigger, plugins, React/Vue/Svelte, performance |
Contributing
See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
