Showreel Studio Help
Help · Recording

The driver: what operates your app

The code that clicks and types through your app during a take, compiled from the storyboard's steps or written by Claude.

The driver is the code that operates your app while a film records: it clicks, types and waits, line by line, in time with the voice-over. Each film has its own, films/<film>/driver.mjs. There are two ways to get one, and you rarely need to open it.

Compiled from the steps

When the storyboard's lines have Steps (from exploring the app or a demonstration), the driver is compiled from them. No model and no key are needed.

  • The time between steps comes from the line's voice-over, so the actions fit the words.
  • The click that leaves a screen waits, with the cursor resting on it, until the line's voice-over is done.
  • Recording compiles the driver by itself when a film has steps and no driver, or when the compiled driver is older than the storyboard. So after editing a line's Steps, just record again.

In the app

The Driver step in the pipeline compiles it now. The Files panel shows the driver, read-only.

In the terminal

Compile the driver from the steps:

showreel compile compose

Written by Claude

For anything the steps cannot say, such as a hover, a drag, or waiting for something particular, Claude writes the driver in Claude Code with the showreel-driver skill. It snapshots the screens, writes driver.mjs and records. Ask Claude for it, or see Use Showreel Studio from Claude Code.

Telling them apart

A compiled driver starts with this line:

// showreel:compiled

Delete that line to make the driver your own, for example to add waits or hovers by hand. From then on it is never compiled over.

If you later want a compiled one again:

  • In the app, click Driver in the pipeline. It asks first, because the driver was written by hand, and keeps yours as driver.hand.mjs.
  • In the terminal, add --force, which keeps yours the same way:
showreel compile compose --force

The rules a driver follows

The rules for writing a driver are kept on the Showreel Studio service, so they can improve without an update. Print them:

showreel rules driver

What next