Session Replay Skill | Agent Skills

Session Replay

Turn a Claude Code session JSONL file into an animated GIF that plays back the conversation as typed terminal output.

The skill orchestrates three steps: parse the session file into turns, generate a VHS tape from those turns, and hand off to scry for GIF rendering.

When To Use

Creating demos of development workflows
Adding visual evidence to pull requests
Sharing session highlights to Slack or GitHub
Embedding session replays in tutorials

When NOT To Use

Writing blog posts from sessions (use scribe:session-to-post)
Generating API documentation (use scribe:doc-generator)
Recording live terminal commands (use scry:vhs-recording directly)

Integration Points

| Need | Skill | What it adds | |------|-------|-------------| | GIF rendering | scry:vhs-recording | Converts VHS tape to animated GIF | | Tutorial embedding | scribe:tech-tutorial | Embed GIF in tutorial markdown | | PR preparation | sanctum:prepare-pr | Attach replay as PR evidence |

Workflow

Step 0: Pick a Session (when no path is provided)

When the user invokes /session-replay without a path argument, use scribe.session_parser.list_sessions() to discover recent session files from ~/.claude/projects/.

The function returns a list of SessionInfo objects sorted by modification time (most recent first), each containing:

path -- full path to the .jsonl file
modified -- mtime timestamp
first_user_message -- preview of the first human message
turn_count -- number of user turns in the session
project_name -- parent directory name

Present the list to the user as a numbered menu:

Recent sessions:
 1. [my-project] "implement auth module" (8 turns, 2h ago)
 2. [api-server] "fix rate limiting bug" (3 turns, 5h ago)
 3. [docs-site]  "update installation guide" (12 turns, 1d ago)

Ask the user to pick a number. Use the selected session's path for the remaining steps.

If list_sessions returns an empty list, report that no sessions were found and suggest providing a path directly.

Step 1: Parse the Session

Use scribe.session_parser.parse_session() to read the JSONL file. The parser:

Extracts user and assistant turns
Skips sidechain (subagent) records
Collapses tool calls into readable summaries
Wraps text at the configured column width
Truncates long responses at the configured row count

Apply filters based on user options:

--turns selects specific turn ranges (e.g. 1-5)
--show controls which layers appear: user, assistant, tools

Step 2: Generate VHS Tape

Use scribe.tape_generator.generate_tape() to convert the parsed turns into a VHS tape file. The generator:

Creates the Output directive and Set commands
Types user messages at 30ms/char with $ prefix
Types assistant responses at 15ms/char
Types tool summaries at 100ms with two-space indent
Adds 1.5s pauses between turns
Holds the final frame for 3s
Scales all timing by the --speed multiplier
Truncates when --max-duration is exceeded

Write the tape to a temp file: {tempdir}/session-replay-{timestamp}.tape

Step 3: Render GIF

Invoke Skill(scry:vhs-recording) with the tape file path. Scry validates the tape, runs VHS, and produces the GIF at the path specified in the Output directive.

After successful rendering, delete the temp tape file.

Error Handling

| Error | Action | |-------|--------| | VHS not installed | Report: install via go install github.com/charmbracelet/vhs@latest | | Tape syntax error | Report VHS error output. Likely a string escaping bug. | | GIF generation fails | Report VHS error. Suggest --turns 1-5 to reduce scope. | | Scry skill not found | Report: scry plugin required for GIF rendering. |

Example

# Pick from recent sessions interactively
/session-replay

# Replay a specific file directly
/session-replay ~/.claude/projects/my-project/abc123.jsonl

# First 5 turns only, faster playback
/session-replay --turns 1-5 --speed 1.5

# Show only the conversation, no tool calls
/session-replay --show user,assistant --output demo.gif

Output (interactive picker):

Recent sessions:
 1. [my-project] "implement auth module" (8 turns, 2h ago)
 2. [api-server] "fix rate limiting bug" (3 turns, 5h ago)
 3. [docs-site]  "update installation guide" (12 turns, 1d ago)

Pick a session [1-3]: 1

Parsed 42 turns from session (12 user, 15 assistant, 15 tools)
Generated tape: /tmp/session-replay-1711234567.tape
Rendering GIF via scry...
Done: session-replay.gif (18s, 960x540)

Agent Skills: Session Replay

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