---
title: Command line
description: reel run, record, render, check, profiles and doctor.
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/reel/reference/cli
---

# Command line
```
reel [run] <reel> [--profile <name> ...] [--events <path>]
reel record <reel> [--events <path>]
reel render <reel> [--profile <name> ...] [--events <path>]
reel check <reel> [--profile <name> ...]
reel profiles [<reel>]
reel doctor
```


| Command                          |                                                                                                                                                                     |
|----------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `reel <reel>`, `reel run <reel>` | Records the reel, then renders every output. Every profile it will render is read first, so a mistake stops it before recording.                                    |
| `reel record <reel>`             | Only records the take, into `.reel/<reel name>/` next to the reel.                                                                                                  |
| `reel render <reel>`             | Only renders the outputs from the last take. Refused when an action in the reel has changed since.                                                                  |
| `reel check <reel>`              | Reads the reel and says what it would do: what it opens, the narration, its actions and captions, and every file it would write, for each profile. Records nothing. |
| `reel profiles [<reel>]`         | The built-in profiles and what each sets; with a reel, its profiles too, with where each setting comes from.                                                        |
| `reel doctor`                    | Whether Screen Recording and Accessibility are granted (it doesn't ask), and which browser `Set Browser chromium` would use.                                        |
| `reel --version`                 | The version.                                                                                                                                                        |

`--profile` renders only some profiles: repeat it, or separate names with commas (`--profile github,social`). A reel
that lists its profiles (`Set Profiles`) renders only from among them.
Rendering says what it is doing as it goes, a line before each pass, then where it wrote each output:
```
profile web
rendering the take
framing it at 16:10
adding the intro and outro
encoding musicbox-web.mp4
wrote docs/media/musicbox-web.mp4 (12.2 MB, H.264 1920x1256, 30 fps, quality 60)
drawing musicbox-web.gif
wrote docs/media/musicbox-web.gif (412 frames of 1500 sampled, 9.9 MB)
```


## Progress events

`run`, `record` and `render` say what they are doing as they do it, one JSON object per line: the run starting, each
scene, each step starting and ending (`"index": 3, "count": 14`), capture starting (the part of the screen recorded,
in global points) and ending, each pass of the render with its profile, Output and how far along it is
(`"fraction": 0.42`; `draw`, `render`, `frame`, `join`, `tracks`, `encode`, `gif`, with `attempt` when a pass is
redone to fit `MaxSize`), each file written, every line printed, and the run ending or failing.
```json
{"at":1793605741592,"count":4,"index":2,"kind":"step","line":8,"phase":"start","pid":23726,"source":"Go line 2"}
{"at":1793605742669,"kind":"pass","pass":{"attempt":1,"fraction":0.5,"name":"encode","output":"demo-github.mp4","profile":"github"},"pid":23726}
```

Every run writes them to `~/Library/Application Support/reel/runs/<pid>.jsonl`, where the companion app reads them;
`--events <path>` also writes them to that file, and `--events -` to standard error. A track of a reel of tracks adds `"track"`. What is printed is the same
either way, and nothing reads the events back: they never change what a run does.
Warnings, such as a relative path that leads out of the git repository, go to standard error. Exit status is
non-zero on any error, with the line it was on.

## The take

`.reel/<reel name>/` holds the take and what rendering derives from it:

| File        |                                                      |
|-------------|------------------------------------------------------|
| `take.mov`  | The recording: the window and its sound.             |
| `take.json` | The window's size and scale, and when each step ran. |
| `voice/`    | Each narrated line, voiced and cached.               |
| `edit.json` | What of the take was kept, and how fast.             |

Add `.reel/` to your `.gitignore`.