CLI Demo Generator Skill

npx degit daymade/claude-code-skills/cli-demo-generator ~/.claude/skills/cli-demo-generator

cli-demo-generator solves the “show, don’t tell” problem of CLI tools. Hand-recording terminal demos is fragile — typos, wrong timing, window-size drift. This skill scripts the recording so it’s reproducible.

How it works

Built on top of VHS — you write a small .tape script describing what to type, what to wait for, what to show, and the skill renders it to GIF / MP4 / WebM.

What’s automatable

• Keystrokes — exact typing, with realistic timing
• Waits — Sleep 2s between commands so viewers can read
• Window sizing — fixed dimensions so output looks the same every run
• Themes — Dark / Light / custom color palette
• Output format — GIF (universal), WebM (smaller), MP4 (highest quality)

Where it shines

• README hero GIFs — “see what this tool does in 10 seconds”
• Documentation — show command sequences for tutorials
• Twitter / X posts — terminal demos go viral when polished
• Internal demos — explain a workflow without scheduling a Zoom

Why it’s worth a skill (vs just asciinema)

asciinema is great for sharing live recordings, but the output is HTML + JSON — not a GIF you can drop into a README. VHS produces actual files you can ship.

→ Install on GitHub

Use cli-demo-generator to record a 15-second demo of `pnpm install`,
`pnpm dev`, then opening localhost:4321 in a browser tab. Output a
README-quality GIF, dark theme, monospace font.