Documentation

Install or update

With Go 1.27.1 or a Go installation that supports automatic toolchain selection:

go install github.com/termbacktime/termbacktime@latest

Go installs to GOBIN, or your Go workspace’s bin directory. Add it to PATH if necessary. With GOTOOLCHAIN=local, install Go 1.27.1 yourself first.

Without Go, download the installer, inspect it and run it:

sh install.sh

The installer checks release checksums and installs to ~/.local/bin. Re-run it to update. Choose a release with --version vX.Y.Z or a destination with --bin-dir DIRECTORY. It never rewrites shell profiles or installs Go.

Record locally

termbacktime record --output demo.json
termbacktime record --upload --title "A useful discovery"

Exit the shell to finish. Local recordings are saved first, even when an upload fails. A crash leaves a recoverable .partial journal that can be opened in the player.

Replay and export

termbacktime play demo.json --speed 2
termbacktime play <gist-id>

The browser player accepts legacy packed recordings, ordinary JSON and recovery journals. It exports readable JSON, text, HTML, GIF and WebM. Browser video exports are limited to 60 seconds and bounded dimensions. Unicode grapheme widths, ligatures, images and clipboard prompts are optional in Preferences.

Share live

termbacktime live

Send the complete URL to viewers you trust. It carries a viewing capability and an encryption key in its fragment. Terminal data is encrypted before reaching Cloudflare. Sessions last up to eight hours and accept up to 100 read-only viewers. New viewers see the current screen, without previous scrollback.

Keep the original URL if you need to reconnect later. The viewer removes its key from browser history after opening. Old broker links cannot resume sessions on the new service.

GitHub authorization

termbacktime auth --open
termbacktime auth --logout

Only Gist uploads require authorization. A secret Gist is accessible to anyone who knows its URL; live end-to-end encryption does not apply to uploaded recordings.

Platforms and removal

Release binaries support macOS Intel and Apple Silicon; Linux amd64, 386, arm64, ARMv6 and ARMv7; Linux under WSL; and FreeBSD amd64 and 386. Native Windows PTYs are not supported.

Remove the executable from the installation directory to uninstall. Your recordings and ~/.termbacktime.json remain until you remove them yourself.

Migration

Existing JSON configuration and recording formats remain supported. Live signaling now uses the unified website. The old broker and manual TURN flags have been removed; the service supplies connection credentials. Use --endpoint to select another deployment.