evp

evp — a small Rust CLI that ingests VHS-format scripts and produces GIF, SVG, or JSON outputs using libghostty as the underlying terminal emulator.

evp runs a real shell inside an embedded Ghostty VT, schedules typed input from your .tape script onto an absolute timeline, snapshots the terminal at the configured framerate, then streams frames to one or more renderer threads.

evp is very similar to VHS except:

• significantly faster. The gif is ready as soon as the recording finishes.
• all key codes possible
• specify full shell path with arguments
• SVG output (as well as gif)
• no runtime dependencies (everything is statically linked)
• embedded fonts
• TODO: mouse support
• TODO: font is embedded in the SVG so that it renders the same everywhere
• TODO: text is selectable

Acknowledgments

VHS

evp is based on the vhs project. They share little code but evp does try use the same .tape file format.

The color themes in assets/vhs-themes.json are taken from the VHS project and are licensed under the MIT License. See licenses/VHS-MIT.txt for the full license text.

Copyright (c) 2022-2023 Charmbracelet, Inc