Share terminal sessions as razor-sharp animated SVG everywhere

Example generated with svg-term --cast 113643 --out examples/parrot.svg --window --no-cursor --from=4500

svg-term-cli

• 💄 Render asciicast to animated SVG
• 🌐 Share asciicasts everywhere (sans JS)
• 🤖 Style with common color profiles

Maintenance note: This CLI is a maintained fork of marionebl/svg-term-cli. The underlying renderer uses a maintained fork of svg-term: okhsunrog/svg-term.

Install

1. Install asciinema via: https://asciinema.org/docs/installation

2. Install @okhsunrog/svg-term-cli (this maintained fork):

   # npm (global)
   npm install -g @okhsunrog/svg-term-cli
   
   # OR
   
   # Bun (global)
   bun add -g @okhsunrog/svg-term-cli

   Note: If you previously installed the original package name globally, uninstall it first to avoid PATH conflicts:

   npm uninstall -g svg-term-cli || true
   bun remove -g svg-term-cli || true

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18 (ESM)
• For local development/build: Bun >= 1.0

Usage

Generate the parrot.svg example from asciicast at https://asciinema.org/a/113643

svg-term --cast=113643 --out examples/parrot.svg --window

Optimization

SVG output is optimized by default using SVGO. You can control optimization and size with the following flags:

• --no-optimize: disable SVGO optimization (default is optimized)
• --window: include window chrome; omit for smaller output
• --padding, --padding-x, --padding-y: reduce padding to shrink the canvas, e.g. --padding 0
• --at <ms>: render a single frame (static preview) instead of the full animation
• --from <ms> / --to <ms>: trim the animation to a time range

Examples:

# Optimized animated SVG (default optimization)
svg-term --in rec.cast --out examples/archinstall-zfs.svg --window

# Unoptimized output (bigger)
svg-term --in rec.cast --out examples/unoptimized.svg --window --no-optimize

# Smallest static preview: no window, no padding, single frame
svg-term --in rec.cast --out examples/preview.svg --at 4500 --padding 0

Development

This repo uses Bun for tooling.

# install deps
bun install

# type-check + build to lib/
bun run build

# run tests
bun test

Interface

λ svg-term --help

  Share terminal sessions as razor-sharp animated SVG everywhere

  Usage
    $ svg-term [options]

  Options
    --at            timestamp of frame to render in ms [number]
    --cast          asciinema cast id to download [string], required if no stdin provided [string]
    --command       command to record [string]
    --from          lower range of timeline to render in ms [number]
    --height        height in lines [number]
    --help          print this help [boolean]
    --in            json file to use as input [string]
    --no-cursor     disable cursor rendering [boolean]
    --no-optimize   disable svgo optimization [boolean]
    --out           output file, emits to stdout if omitted, [string]
    --padding       distance between text and image bounds, [number]
    --padding-x     distance between text and image bounds on x axis [number]
    --padding-y     distance between text and image bounds on y axis [number]
    --profile       terminal profile file to use, requires --term [string]
    --term          terminal profile format [iterm2, xrdb, xresources, terminator, konsole, terminal, remmina, termite, tilda, xcfe], requires --profile [string]
    --to            upper range of timeline to render in ms [number]
    --width         width in columns [number]
    --window        render with window decorations [boolean]

  Examples
    $ cat rec.json | svg-term
    $ svg-term --cast 113643
    $ svg-term --cast 113643 --out examples/parrot.svg

Rationale

Replace GIF asciicast recordings where you can not use the asciinema player, e.g. README.md files on GitHub and the npm registry.

The image at the top of this README is an example. See how sharp the text looks, even when you zoom in? That’s because it’s an SVG!

Related

• asciinema/asciinema - Terminal session recorder
• derhuerst/asciicast-to-svg - Render frames of Asciicasts as SVGs
• marionebl/svg-term - Render asciicast to animated SVG
• marionebl/term-schemes - Parse and normalize common terminal emulator color schemes

Differences from upstream

Compared to the original projects:

• Upstream CLI: marionebl/svg-term-cli
• Upstream renderer: marionebl/svg-term
• Maintained renderer fork used here: okhsunrog/svg-term

Changes in this CLI:

• Migrated to Bun for tooling (install/build/test) and TypeScript 5
• Switched to ESM (NodeNext) and modern tsconfig
• Replaced Jest + ts-jest with Bun’s test runner
• Updated dependencies: meow@^13, chalk@^5, execa@^9, svgo@^4, plist@^3, get-stdin@^9, tempy@^3
• Removed legacy/unused deps and old type packages
• CLI help/flags updated; optimization flags documented; example SVGs refreshed

Changes in the renderer fork (okhsunrog/svg-term):

• Migrated to ESM and Bun tooling; added types entry
• Updated React to 19 and Emotion to 11 (@emotion/react, @emotion/styled)
• Fixed React key warnings in frame word rendering
• Kept public render(input, options) API compatible with upstream

These updates modernize the stack while preserving the core behavior and interface of the original tools.

Gallery

• marionebl/commitlint
• marionebl/share-cli
• marionebl/remote-share-cli

License

Copyright 2025. Released under the MIT license.