Claude-night-market session-replay

Convert a Claude Code session JSONL file into an animated GIF replay showing the conversation as typed terminal output.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/athola/claude-night-market

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/athola/claude-night-market "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/plugins/scribe/skills/session-replay" ~/.claude/skills/athola-claude-night-market-session-replay && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: plugins/scribe/skills/session-replay/SKILL.md

Session Replay

Turn a Claude Code session JSONL file into an animated GIF that plays back the conversation as typed terminal output.

The skill orchestrates three steps: parse the session file into turns, generate a VHS tape from those turns, and hand off to scry for GIF rendering.

When To Use

Creating demos of development workflows
Adding visual evidence to pull requests
Sharing session highlights to Slack or GitHub
Embedding session replays in tutorials

When NOT To Use

Writing blog posts from sessions (use
```
scribe:session-to-post
```
)
Generating API documentation (use
```
scribe:doc-generator
```
)
Recording live terminal commands (use
```
scry:vhs-recording
```
directly)

Integration Points

Need	Skill	What it adds
GIF rendering	`scry:vhs-recording`	Converts VHS tape to animated GIF
Tutorial embedding	`scribe:tech-tutorial`	Embed GIF in tutorial markdown
PR preparation	`sanctum:prepare-pr`	Attach replay as PR evidence

Workflow

Step 0: Pick a Session (when no path is provided)

When the user invokes

/session-replay

without a path argument, use

scribe.session_parser.list_sessions()

to discover recent session files from

~/.claude/projects/

The function returns a list of

SessionInfo

objects sorted by modification time (most recent first), each containing:

```
path
```
-- full path to the .jsonl file
```
modified
```
-- mtime timestamp
```
first_user_message
```
-- preview of the first human message
```
turn_count
```
-- number of user turns in the session
```
project_name
```
-- parent directory name

Present the list to the user as a numbered menu:

Recent sessions:
 1. [my-project] "implement auth module" (8 turns, 2h ago)
 2. [api-server] "fix rate limiting bug" (3 turns, 5h ago)
 3. [docs-site]  "update installation guide" (12 turns, 1d ago)

Ask the user to pick a number. Use the selected session's

path

for the remaining steps.

list_sessions

returns an empty list, report that no sessions were found and suggest providing a path directly.

Step 1: Parse the Session

Use

scribe.session_parser.parse_session()

to read the JSONL file. The parser:

Extracts user and assistant turns
Skips sidechain (subagent) records
Collapses tool calls into readable summaries
Wraps text at the configured column width
Truncates long responses at the configured row count

Apply filters based on user options:

```
--turns
```
selects specific turn ranges (e.g.
```
1-5
```
)
```
--show
```
controls which layers appear:
```
user
```
,
```
assistant
```
,
```
tools
```
,
```
thinking
```
(thinking is excluded by default)

Step 2: Generate VHS Tape

Use

scribe.tape_generator.generate_tape()

to convert the parsed turns into a VHS tape file. The generator:

Creates the Output directive and Set commands
Types user messages at 30ms/char with
```
$ 
```
prefix
Types assistant responses at 15ms/char
Types tool summaries at 100ms with two-space indent
Adds 1.5s pauses between turns
Holds the final frame for 3s
Scales all timing by the
```
--speed
```
multiplier
Truncates when
```
--max-duration
```
is exceeded

Write the tape to a temp file:

{tempdir}/session-replay-{timestamp}.tape

Step 3: Render GIF

Invoke

Skill(scry:vhs-recording)

with the tape file path. Scry validates the tape, runs VHS, and produces the GIF at the path specified in the Output directive.

After successful rendering, delete the temp tape file.

Error Handling

Error	Action
VHS not installed	Report: install via `go install github.com/charmbracelet/vhs@latest`
Tape syntax error	Report VHS error output. Likely a string escaping bug.
GIF generation fails	Report VHS error. Suggest `--turns 1-5` to reduce scope.
Scry skill not found	Report: scry plugin required for GIF rendering.

Example

# Pick from recent sessions interactively
/session-replay

# Replay a specific file directly
/session-replay ~/.claude/projects/my-project/abc123.jsonl

# First 5 turns only, faster playback
/session-replay --turns 1-5 --speed 1.5

# Show only the conversation, no tool calls
/session-replay --show user,assistant --output demo.gif

Output (interactive picker):

Recent sessions:
 1. [my-project] "implement auth module" (8 turns, 2h ago)
 2. [api-server] "fix rate limiting bug" (3 turns, 5h ago)
 3. [docs-site]  "update installation guide" (12 turns, 1d ago)

Pick a session [1-3]: 1

Parsed 42 turns from session (12 user, 15 assistant, 15 tools)
Generated tape: /tmp/session-replay-1711234567.tape
Rendering GIF via scry...
Done: session-replay.gif (18s, 960x540)