Recordings

Storage Format and Location

Recordings are saved as .cast files using the asciicast v3 format, each with a small metadata file beside it. The default directory is ~/Documents/TerminaySessions/YYYY-MM-DD, with sessions grouped by the day they were created. Change it with Recording directory in Settings > Recording. A new directory applies to new recordings only; existing ones stay where they are and remain in the timeline.

Recordings are captured and stored by the server that runs the terminal. For the desktop app's own terminals that is your computer. For a terminal on a remote server, the files are written on that server, and recording continues while no client is connected.

Because recordings are ordinary files, you can archive, move, or back them up with your normal file tools.

Automatic Recording

Open Settings > Recording to control recording behavior. Enable Record new terminals when you want Terminay to start capturing each new terminal as soon as it opens.

Automatic recording only applies to new terminals. Existing terminal tabs keep their current recording state until you start or stop them directly.

Manual Sessions

Right-click a terminal tab and choose Start Recording or Stop Recording to record that one session. This is useful when automatic recording is disabled, or when you only want to capture a specific command sequence.

Each manual start creates a separate recording file for that terminal session. Stopping the session finalizes the file and makes it available in the recordings timeline. Enable Open timeline after saving to open the timeline whenever a manual recording is stopped.

Closing a client window, reloading, or losing the connection does not end a recording. It is finalized when you stop it, when the terminal exits, or when the server shuts down. A recording cut short by a server restart is kept and marked as interrupted.

What Is Captured

A recording always contains the terminal's output and resizes. Typed input is not recorded unless you enable Capture input. With it enabled, Sensitive input chooses what happens to input that looks like a password, token, or passphrase: Drop input or Mask with *. Terminay cannot reliably detect every secret prompt, so leave input capture off for sensitive work.

Input capture covers everything written to the terminal, including pastes, macros, dictation, and MCP writes. Changing the setting affects later input only.

Timeline

Open the timeline with File > Recordings or Open recordings timeline in the Command Bar. It lists saved sessions newest first. Search filters the list by terminal title, project, working directory, shell, and date.

Select a recording to replay it. Replay follows the timing captured in the file, with play, pause, restart, seeking, and playback speeds from 0.5x to 4x. It is read-only: nothing in a recording is executed. Reveal shows the underlying file in the file manager, and Delete removes the recording's files after confirmation.

When a window has several servers attached, the timeline has a server selector and shows one server's recordings at a time, starting with the server of the active project.

Privacy

Terminal recordings can include commands, output, prompts, pasted text, and other visible terminal content. Treat them as sensitive when sessions may contain passwords, tokens, private file paths, customer data, or other secrets. Terminay does not redact secrets from recorded output.

Recordings are never uploaded to Terminay services. Keep recording off for sensitive work, stop the current recording before entering secrets, and review files before sharing or syncing them outside your machine.