Tape Recording

TUIOS can record what you do into a .tape file. A recording holds actions, such as "open a window" and "type this text", not terminal output. The result is a plain text tape that you can read, edit and replay.

Record a tape

tuios tape play "$(tuios tape dir)/my-workflow.tape"

Keys

The tape prefix is Ctrl+B T, followed by:

The tape manager lists your recordings. Use j and k or the arrow keys to select, Enter to play in the current session, r to record and d to delete.

What a recording looks like

# my-workflow
# Recorded: 2026-09-22T10:15:04+04:00

# Disable animations for consistent playback
DisableAnimations

EnableTiling
WindowManagementMode
NewWindow
Sleep 1.204113s
TerminalMode
Type "ls -la"
Sleep 612.40875ms
Enter

# Re-enable animations
EnableAnimations

Every recording has the same frame:

• A header comment with the name and the start time.
• DisableAnimations at the start and EnableAnimations at the end, so playback does not depend on your animation setting.
• The state at the moment you started: SwitchWorkspace if you were not on workspace 1, then EnableTiling or DisableTiling, then the mode.

Between actions, a pause longer than 100 ms becomes a Sleep with the exact measured time. Round the values by hand if you want a tidier file.

Printable keys you type into a pane are joined into one Type command. The text is written out when the next non-text key, action, mode switch or workspace switch happens, or when you stop recording.

What is recorded

Not recorded:

• Mouse actions: clicks, drags and resizes.
• Splits, zoom and other BSP actions. A session built from splits replays as if you never split.
• Renames, and moving a window to another workspace.
• Copy mode, overlays and anything else not in the table above.

Some recorded commands do not replay the way you performed them:

• RestoreWindow restores only the focused window, not every minimized one.
• FocusWindow <n> looks for a window named or with the ID n, not the window at position n, so it usually does nothing.
• SnapFullscreen snaps to the top-left quarter.

Fix these by hand after recording. SmartSplit, RenameWindow "name" and FocusWindow <name> all work on playback. See Tape Scripting for every command.

Managing recordings

tuios tape list              # name, size and date of each recording
tuios tape show my-workflow  # print a recording
tuios tape delete my-workflow
tuios tape dir               # print the recordings directory

show and delete take the name with or without .tape. delete asks for confirmation.

Recordings are saved in the tuios folder of your data directory, which tuios tape dir prints:

Setting XDG_DATA_HOME moves it on every platform. Only files ending in .tape are listed.

Editing a recording

A recording is a normal tape, so you can:

• add comments,
• replace the exact Sleep values with round ones,
• add WaitUntilRegex so playback waits for real output,
• add the splits and renames the recorder missed,
• delete mistakes.

For example, a recording that starts a dev server can wait for it before opening a second pane:

EnableTiling
NewWindow
RenameWindow "server"
Type "npm start"
Enter
WaitUntilRegex "listening on" 15000

SmartSplit
RenameWindow "shell"

Run tuios tape validate on the file after editing.

Tips

• Turn tiling on before you record. Tiled layouts replay the same way at any terminal size. Floating window positions are not recorded.
• Keep one task per tape. Short tapes are easier to fix than a whole afternoon.
• Start from a known state. tape play starts with no windows, so a recording made in a busy session will not replay the same way.
• Recording writes the file once, when you stop. Nothing is written per keystroke.

Related