Droid Control

Automate terminals and browsers. Three routing decisions, then atoms guide you the rest of the way.

Ground rules

1. Real apps, real environments. Non-deterministic behavior (LLM responses, network latency, variable output) is expected. Handle it with wait / wait-idle. Never substitute fixtures or mocked data.
2. Commit to execution. Once you've chosen a driver, run the plan. If something fails mid-run, recover and retry -- don't re-evaluate the approach.
3. Atoms are self-contained. Load one and follow its mechanics. No cross-referencing needed.
4. tctl is the ONLY way to launch recorded sessions. tctl manages recording by wrapping asciinema rec around the PTY — raw tuistory has no recording capability and never will. Never call tuistory launch directly; unknown flags crash tuistory-relay. Always resolve TCTL to its absolute filesystem path before use, especially when delegating to workers (they don't inherit ${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT}).
5. Isolate every run. Multiple droids may be filming simultaneously on the same machine. Session names and output paths share a global namespace (/tmp/tctl-sessions/). At the start of every workflow, generate a run ID (RUN_ID=$(date +%s)-$$ or similar) and use it as a prefix for all session names and a scoped temp directory for all output files:

   RUN_ID="$(date +%s)-$$"
   RUN_DIR="$(mktemp -d /tmp/droid-run-${RUN_ID}-XXXXXX)"
   # Session names: -s ${RUN_ID}-before, -s ${RUN_ID}-after
   # Output paths: ${RUN_DIR}/before.cast, ${RUN_DIR}/after.cast
   

   Never use bare session names like -s demo, -s before, -s after — they will collide with concurrent runs.

Routing

Three independent lookups. Do all three, then load the union of skills they produce.

1. Target route — what are you driving?

Target	Load these skills
Droid CLI (droid-dev, droid exec)	droid-cli + tuistory backend via ${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT}/bin/tctl
Droid CLI (real terminal proof)	true-input + droid-cli
Other terminal TUI	tuistory backend via ${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT}/bin/tctl
Other terminal TUI (real terminal proof)	true-input
Web page or Electron app	agent-browser
Raw terminal byte sequences	true-input + pty-capture

tuistory is the default for terminal work. Use true-input only when you need real terminal rendering evidence.

2. Stage route — what does the workflow need?

Every workflow passes through stages. Load the atoms for each stage you'll use.

Stage	Skill	When to load
Capture	capture	Always -- every workflow records or captures something
Compose	compose	When the deliverable is a produced artifact (video, annotated screenshots, comparison image)
Verify	verify	Always -- every deliverable gets checked against commitments

3. Artifact route — does compose need polish tools?

Only relevant when compose is loaded.

Artifact need	Also load
Showcase polish (window chrome, branded frame, cinematic background)	showcase
Effects and keystroke overlays	(compose handles this — they're fields in the Remotion props JSON)

Workflow shape

Command (intent + commitments)
  → Target route (load driver atoms)
  → Capture (record / screenshot / byte-capture)
  → Compose (assemble deliverable, if needed)
  → Verify (check against commitments)
  → Report

Commands declare what to produce. Atoms own how.

Layout default

Default: single. One clip showing the target/final state. Pick this unless the deliverable is fundamentally a comparison.

Case	Layout
Brand-new feature (no meaningful prior state)	single
Bug fix, single-clip proof of the working path	single
Walkthrough / tutorial / readme hero	single
Regression proof (broken vs fixed)	side-by-side
Behavior-preserving refactor (visual parity is the point)	side-by-side
User explicitly asks for a comparison	side-by-side

Do not synthesize a "before" state to justify side-by-side. If there is no real baseline, use single.

Delegation

The parent agent plans and orchestrates. Mechanical work runs in worker subagents via the Task tool. This keeps the parent's context clean and enables parallelism.

What to delegate

Task	Delegate?	Why
Capture clip (single layout)	YES	Worker runs the interaction script end-to-end and returns the .cast path
Capture both clips (comparison layout)	YES — run_in_background=true for each	Branches are independent; run in parallel
Remotion render	YES	Needs only props JSON, clip paths, output path. Runs render-showcase.sh (handles .cast conversion, fidelity profiles, duration detection, cleanup)
Planning, interaction scripting	NO — parent	Requires PR context and editorial judgment
Layout and prop construction	NO — parent	Requires editorial decisions about effects, timing, labels
Verification	NO — parent	Requires commitment context
Single ffprobe / file-existence check	NO — inline	Too trivial for subagent overhead

How to delegate

Step 0: Resolve paths and generate a run ID. Workers don't inherit ${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT}. Resolve once, paste everywhere:

TCTL="$(realpath "${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT}/bin/tctl")"
RENDER="$(realpath "${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/render-showcase.sh")"
RUN_ID="$(date +%s)-$$"
RUN_DIR="$(mktemp -d /tmp/droid-run-${RUN_ID}-XXXXXX)"

Use ${RUN_DIR} for all output files (recordings, props, rendered video). Use ${RUN_ID}- as a prefix for all session names. Never use bare names like -s before or hardcoded paths like /tmp/before.cast.

Give workers exact commands with the resolved absolute paths — not abstract instructions, not tuistory, not ${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT}. The parent does the thinking; the worker executes:

Task prompt for a capture worker:
  "Run these commands in order. Report the output file path and any errors.
   1. /abs/path/to/bin/tctl launch "droid-dev" -s 1712345678-42-before --backend tuistory \
        --repo-root /abs/path/to/baseline/worktree \
        --cols 120 --rows 36 --record /tmp/droid-run-1712345678-42-xxxx/before.cast \
        --env FORCE_COLOR=3 --env COLORTERM=truecolor
   2. /abs/path/to/bin/tctl -s 1712345678-42-before wait ">" --timeout 15000
   3. /abs/path/to/bin/tctl -s 1712345678-42-before type "hello world"
   4. /abs/path/to/bin/tctl -s 1712345678-42-before press enter
   5. /abs/path/to/bin/tctl -s 1712345678-42-before wait-idle
   6. /abs/path/to/bin/tctl -s 1712345678-42-before close"

Task prompt for a Remotion render worker:
  "Run this command. Report the output file path and any errors.
   /abs/path/to/scripts/render-showcase.sh \
     --props /tmp/droid-run-1712345678-42-xxxx/showcase-props.json \
     --output /tmp/droid-run-1712345678-42-xxxx/demo.mp4 \
     /tmp/droid-run-1712345678-42-xxxx/before.cast /tmp/droid-run-1712345678-42-xxxx/after.cast"

Parallel capture pattern (comparison flows only)

Only applicable when the Layout default table above selects side-by-side. For a single layout, launch one capture worker and skip this section.

For before/after comparison demos, launch both capture workers simultaneously:

1. Parent constructs the interaction script (identical for both branches)
2. Launch worker A: capture the baseline/reference branch with `--repo-root` set to that worktree
3. Launch worker B: capture the candidate/change branch with `--repo-root` set to that worktree
4. Wait for both to complete (TaskOutput)
5. Collect .cast paths from results
6. Continue to compose

Shared tooling

Terminal drivers use the unified tctl wrapper. agent-browser has its own CLI and does not use tctl.

Drivers can be combined in one workflow — e.g., tctl for a CLI and agent-browser for a web UI it interacts with.

Prerequisites

Stage	Platform	Required	Optional
tuistory	All	tuistory, asciinema, agg	tmux
true-input	Linux/Wayland	cage, wtype, Wayland terminal, /dev/dri/*	grim, wf-recorder
true-input	Windows (KVM)	libvirt, qemu, KVM VM with SPICE + SSH, DROID_VM_* env vars	virt-manager
true-input	macOS (QEMU)	qemu, socat, macOS VM with SSH, DROID_MAC_* env vars	—
agent-browser	All	agent-browser (+ agent-browser install)	—
compose	All	ffmpeg, ffprobe, agg	—
showcase	All	Node.js (>= 18), Chrome/Chromium	—

Install commands

# tuistory driver + recording
npm install -g tuistory                              # virtual PTY driver
pip install asciinema                                # terminal recording (tctl wraps this)
cargo install --git https://github.com/asciinema/agg  # .cast -> .gif converter (compose needs this)

# true-input driver (Linux/Wayland)
sudo apt-get install -y cage wtype                   # required: headless compositor + keystroke injection
sudo apt-get install -y grim wf-recorder             # optional: screenshots + video recording

# agent-browser driver
agent-browser install                                # one-time: downloads bundled Chromium

# compose + showcase (video rendering)
sudo apt-get install -y ffmpeg                       # video processing (includes ffprobe)
cd ${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT}/remotion && npm install       # Remotion dependencies
# Chrome or Chromium must be installed for Remotion rendering