asciinwriter 0.2.2

Script and automate interactive terminal sessions for generating asciinema .cast files and reproducible demos.

Asciinwriter

Asciinwriter is a CLI tool for scripting and automating interactive terminal sessions, primarily designed to generate asciinema .cast files for demos, documentation, and automated testing. It simulates human-like typing and command execution, making it ideal for producing realistic terminal recordings and GIFs.

Purpose

• Automate terminal interactions for reproducible demos and documentation
• Generate .cast files for use with asciinema and conversion to GIFs
• Script complex shell sessions with SEND/EXPECT primitives
• Useful for CI, documentation, and teaching

Quick Start

Install dependencies (requires Python 3.11+):

pipx install asciinwriter

Prepare a script file (e.g., demo.scene):

SEND(echo Hello, world!)
ENTER()
EXPECT(Hello, world!)

Run the script and record a cast:

export SCENE_FILE=demo.scene
asciinema rec demo.cast -c asciinwriter

You can then convert the .cast to a GIF using agg or similar tools.

Usage

Asciinwriter reads commands from a scene file specified by the SCENE_FILE environment variable. The file should contain lines like:

• SEND(...) sends text to the shell.
• ENTER() sends the Enter key to the shell.
• EXPECT(...) waits for the given output.
• DELAY(...) pause the typing for a specified period.

Development

• Source code: src/asciinwriter
• Tests: tests/
• Build: poetry build
• Lint: poetry run flake8 src/asciinwriter

License

GPL-3.0-or-later License. See LICENSES/GPL-3.0-or-later.txt for details.

Author

(C) 2025 Alexei Znamensky