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Bring Your VHS Tapes Straight Into Atmos Casts

· 2 min read
Erik Osterman
Erik Osterman
Founder @ Cloud Posse

If you already script your terminal demos with VHS, moving them to Atmos casts meant a choice: keep a second recording toolchain around just for those .tape files, or hand-rewrite every Type/Wait/Sleep line into Atmos's own cast YAML. Neither is appealing when you just want one recording working again.

The Problem​

A .tape script and an Atmos type: cast step describe the same kind of thing — typed commands, waits, keypresses — but in two different dialects, driven by two different tools. Rewriting a tape by hand is tedious and easy to get subtly wrong, and keeping vhs installed alongside Atmos just to run old tapes means maintaining two toolchains for one job.

The Change​

A type: cast step can now interpret VHS-dialect tape scripts directly, in memory — no vhs binary, no separate toolchain, and nothing written to disk. Point tape_file: at an existing .tape file, or write one inline with tape::

steps:
  - name: hero-demo
    type: cast
    mode: session
    tape_file: demo/hero.tape
    output:
      mp4: hero.mp4

For a one-off tape with no workflow at all, atmos cast record interprets and records it directly:

atmos cast record demo/hero.tape --output=hero.mp4

The step's existing mode still decides how the tape runs: mode: session replays raw keypresses faithfully (the same trade-off session mode already has — no per-command exit code, since it's one continuous PTY session), while mode: steps turns each typed command into a real, executed step with a real exit code, and errors up front if the tape uses anything mode: steps can't express (a raw keypress, Hide/Show, or Copy/Paste/Env).

Why It Matters​

  • No second toolchain. Existing .tape files run through Atmos's own recorder — nothing external to install.
  • Exit codes when you want them. Choose mode: steps for a tape that only types commands, and get real pass/fail signal per command instead of just a recording.
  • A gentle migration path. Point at a tape as-is today, then hand-migrate to native steps: later if you need finer control — both are documented side by side.

Get Involved​

See tape interpretation for the full directive support matrix, and atmos cast record for the CLI reference.