swordfish-rs

Typing effect cli tool for screencasts and demos

1. 💬 Describe what you are doing
2. ⚡️ Run any terminal command and get their outputs to screen
3. 🤖 Reproducible steps - iterate on the screenplay file till perfection
4. 😎 Mimics real person behavior with realtime typing into terminal

Demo

Example screenplay.yaml file:

- !clear
# - !turbo {by: 3}
- !write {msec: 0, color: green, text:  "$ "}
- !write {msec: 20, text:    "i am going to list this dir"}
- !wait {msec: 1000}
- !erase {msec: 20, by_chars: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx }
- !wait {msec: 1000}
- !write {msec: 20, text: ls}
- !wait {msec: 1000}
- !execute {line: ls -la}
- !wait {msec: 3000}
- !write {msec: 1000, color: green, text:  "$ "}
- !write {msec: 20, text: "bye, press any key..."}
- !pause

Running swordfish screenplay.yaml:

Quick start

1. Install:

cargo install swordfish-rs

Requires Rust on your machine, get it from https://rustup.rs

or download a binary

2. Create this getting started screenplay file as getting_started.yaml:

- !clear
- !prompt {color: green, text:  "$"}
- !write {msec: 20, text: "swordfish reads screenplay files, in yaml format"}
- !wait {msec: 2000}
- !erase {msec: 20, amount: 1000 }
- !wait {msec: 1000}
- !write {msec: 20, text: "it contains a list of commands, each command can have parameters that control it"}
- !wait {msec: 2000}
- !new_line
- !write {msec: 20, text: "that's it"}
- !new_line

3. Run swordfish

swordfish getting_started.yaml

Commands

The following commands are available, written with ! before the command name, for example !clear.

clear

Clear screen command.

erase

Erase characters to the left.

Argument	Type	Description
amount (optional)	String	the amount of backspaces
by_chars (optional)	String	the amount of backspace is determined by the length of the provided text
msec	Integer	delay between individual backspaces in millisecs

Use either amount or by_chars or both.

execute

Execute shell commands or other applications and show their output.

Argument	Type	Description
line	String	command line to execute, respects quoted arguments

The output is presented, while the executed command itself will not show.

new_line

Simulate user's ENTER.

pause

Pause before next command and wait for user input (any key...)

prompt

Prompt specify a constant text that is shown after every execute and cis not affected by erase.

Argument	Type	Description
text	String	the prompt text
color (optional)	String	text's color: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white or a brighter variant, for example bright_red

title

Sets the terminal window title.

Argument	Type	Description
text	String	the text to use for the terminal window title

turbo

Speed everything, useful when iterating over the screenplay.

Argument	Type	Description
by	Integer	Speed everything by this factor

wait

Pauses execution for the specified time, then contrinues.

Argument	Type	Description
msec	Integer	delay before next command in millisecs

write

Write text to the terminal.

Argument	Type	Description
text	String	the text to type in the terminal, each character will be entered one by one with some delay
msec	Integer	delay between typed chars in millisecs
color (optional)	String	text's color: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white or a brighter variant, for example bright_red