Recording demos

Instead of writing scenes and moves by hand, you can record what you do in the editor and let Demo Time turn it into an act for you. Click record, create a file, type some content, save and highlight a few lines, then click stop — Demo Time writes a version 3 act file with the matching create, open, applyPatch, save and highlight moves.

Experimental

Recording is a new way to author demos. The generated act is a normal act file, so you can always open it in the Act Editor afterwards to fine-tune the scenes and moves.

Start and stop recording

The recorder is controlled from the Acts & Scenes view in the Demo Time activity bar:

• Click the ● Record button in the view title bar to start. The button changes to a ■ Stop button while recording.
• Do your thing in the editor — create files, type, save, switch files.
• Click ■ Stop to finish. Demo Time asks for a title and creates a new act file in the .demo folder.

You can also use the command palette: Demo Time: Record demo and Demo Time: Stop recording.

What gets captured

You do…	Recorded move
Have a file open when you start recording	open
Create a new file	create followed by open
Type or edit a file	applyPatch (edits are coalesced — see segmentation)
Save a file	save (can be disabled, see settings)
Switch to another file	flushes the pending edits into a move

Highlights, move boundaries and new scenes are added on demand through the recording actions.

Note

Only files inside your workspace are recorded. The .demo folder itself (act files, snapshots and patches) is ignored, so the recorder never captures its own output.

How edits become moves

While recording, your edits to a file are coalesced: everything you type piles up and only becomes a single applyPatch move when a boundary is reached. The boundaries are:

• Switching to another file
• Saving the file
• The Split move action (a manual boundary, see below)
• The New scene action
• Stopping the recording

This keeps the result clean — one move per meaningful chunk instead of one move per keystroke. Use Split move when you want to break a long edit into several steps within the same scene.

Recording actions

While recording, right-click in the editor to open the Demo Time submenu. The same actions are available via the command palette and through keybindings. The menu only appears while a recording is active.

Action	Keybinding	What it does
Mark highlight	Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+H	Capture the current selection as a highlight move. With no selection it highlights the current line.
Split move	Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+M	End the current move and start a new one — without leaving the file or saving.
New scene	Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+N	End the current scene and start a new one. You are prompted for the scene title.
Stop recording	—	Finish recording and create the act file.

Tip

Split move keeps you in the same scene and just starts a new move; New scene ends the whole scene (a group of moves) and begins a new section of your demo.

Generated files

When you stop, Demo Time creates:

• A new act file in the .demo folder (in JSON or YAML, depending on your demoTime.defaultFileType setting).
• A snapshot and patch per edit move, under .demo/snapshots/recording-<timestamp>/ and .demo/patches/recording-<timestamp>/. These are referenced by the applyPatch moves and use the same format as the Patch actions.

Here is an example of what a recorded act looks like:

JSON

{
  "$schema": "https://demotime.show/demo-time.schema.json",
  "title": "Recorded demo 20260625-101500",
  "description": "Recorded with Demo Time",
  "version": 3,
  "scenes": [
    {
      "title": "Scene 1",
      "moves": [
        { "action": "create", "path": "/src/app.ts" },
        { "action": "open", "path": "/src/app.ts" },
        {
          "action": "applyPatch",
          "path": "/src/app.ts",
          "contentPath": "/.demo/snapshots/recording-20260625-101500/001-app.ts",
          "patch": "/.demo/patches/recording-20260625-101500/001-app.ts.patch"
        },
        { "action": "highlight", "path": "/src/app.ts", "position": "1:3" },
        { "action": "save" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

YAML

title: Recorded demo 20260625-101500
description: Recorded with Demo Time
version: 3
scenes:
  - title: Scene 1
    moves:
      - action: create
        path: /src/app.ts
      - action: open
        path: /src/app.ts
      - action: applyPatch
        path: /src/app.ts
        contentPath: /.demo/snapshots/recording-20260625-101500/001-app.ts
        patch: /.demo/patches/recording-20260625-101500/001-app.ts.patch
      - action: highlight
        path: /src/app.ts
        position: "1:3"
      - action: save

Tip

After recording, open the act in the Act Editor to tweak titles, reorder moves, change the typing mode of the applyPatch moves, or remove anything you do not need.

Settings

Setting	Description	Default
demoTime.recording.captureSaves	When recording a demo, capture file saves as save moves.	true