VHS by Charmbracelet
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 22 of 86 privilege escalation tools by recommenders
Free open-source command-line tool that records terminal sessions from a script into GIFs or videos, popular for README demos.
Free open-source command-line tool that records terminal sessions from a script into GIFs or videos, popular for README demos.
20 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Scripts terminal demos into GIFs
“I highly recommend showcasing the interactivity with a few GIFs in your README. You can script them with”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Yapi – FOSS Terminal API Client for Power Users” “is a really good utility for automatically making these gifs”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Witr – Explain why a process is running on your Linux system” “VHS is fantastic for scripting cli video generation.”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Kage – Shadow any website to a single binary for offline viewing” Useful for README and docs screenshots
“I highly recommend showcasing the interactivity with a few GIFs in your README. You can script them with”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Yapi – FOSS Terminal API Client for Power Users” “we use them for all the ratatui screenshots generally”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Trust – Coding Rust like it's 1989” Simple, neat CLI recording tool
“VHS is a cool CLI recording tool”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “Ask HN: Make good open-source products, but how to get user?” “I just think it’s a neat tool”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Gotui – a modern Go terminal dashboard library”
Other privilege escalation tools people recommend
The four most recommended other privilege escalation tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 86 privilege escalation tools, rankedWhat people said
All 21 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“if I would have invested in owning VHS, DVD, or HD-DVD, that would not have paid off for me”
“the VHS cassete itself is arguably a better design”
“VHS is a cool CLI recording tool”
“VHS is fantastic for scripting cli video generation.”
“the sacrifice was absolutely worth it”
“especially if it was a well-worn copy”
“definitely sturdier than discs”
“you can still get all the classics at your local thrift store”
“we use them for all the ratatui screenshots generally”
“Thats what the market ended up selecting for.”
“VHS chose a better combination”
“but break down quickly when coloring just outside those intended lines.”
“VHS HQ and HiFi, which came much later when beta was basically dead, was probably better than beta II”
“I fucking hated them as a medium.”
“you can just pop it back in and continue where you were”
“is a really good utility for automatically making these gifs”
“I highly recommend showcasing the interactivity with a few GIFs in your README. You can script them with”
“I just think it’s a neat tool”
“The first VHS sucked when compared to Beta video”
“People generally chose VHS because they could record 6-9 hours on a single tape”
“I have always felt certain media just looks better (to my own personal tastes) on VHS and on CRTs.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.