capncap vs asciinema

asciinema records what your terminal printed; capncap records what your terminal looked like — and both agree on one thing: commands should be text, not pixels.

how asciinema works

asciinema captures the terminal's text stream and replays it in the browser. files are tiny, the text is selectable at any moment, and it's a beloved open-source standard. but it's text-only by design: no camera, no voice-over, no other windows, and the "video" can't leave the terminal.

how capncap works

capncap records real video of the terminal window — plus your camera and mic as separate streams if you want to narrate. while recording Terminal.app or iTerm2, it also reads the commands you run and stores them as data alongside the video. the shared page shows them as chips: click a command to copy it, click its timestamp to jump the video there. (more terminals coming — ghostty next.)

which one to use

pure CLI walkthrough with no narration, smallest possible file: asciinema. a tutorial or demo where your face, voice, editor, or browser appear next to the terminal — and viewers still want to copy the exact commands: capncap. many people will use both.

try it

capncap is free on the mac app store (macOS 15+). record a terminal window and the commands come along automatically.