aniterm

watch anime openings in your terminal. or any video really.

 █████╗ ███╗   ██╗██╗████████╗███████╗██████╗ ███╗   ███╗
██╔══██╗████╗  ██║██║╚══██╔══╝██╔════╝██╔══██╗████╗ ████║
███████║██╔██╗ ██║██║   ██║   █████╗  ██████╔╝██╔████╔██║
██╔══██║██║╚██╗██║██║   ██║   ██╔══╝  ██╔══██╗██║╚██╔╝██║
██║  ██║██║ ╚████║██║   ██║   ███████╗██║  ██║██║ ╚═╝ ██║
╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝  ╚═══╝╚═╝   ╚═╝   ╚══════╝╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝     ╚═╝
  anime openings and videos in your terminal
  best quality default  ·  /p pause  /q quit  /h help

install

npm install -g aniterm

requires ffmpeg on your PATH.

for YouTube support, also install yt-dlp.

usage

# play a local video
aniterm video.mp4

# play a YouTube link (needs yt-dlp)
aniterm "https://youtube.com/watch?v=NbdM922nITE"

# play multiple videos (queue)
aniterm opening1.mp4 opening2.mp4

# disable audio
aniterm video.mp4 --no-audio

# just show video info
aniterm video.mp4 --info

controls

during playback, type a command and press enter:

command	action
/p	pause / play
/q	quit
/r	replay current video
/add <file>	add video to queue
/menu	show queue
/h	show help

jjk 8-bit openings

these look insane in the terminal:

• AIZO - King Gnu (8-bit)
• AIZO - King Gnu (8-bit cover)

aniterm "https://youtube.com/watch?v=NbdM922nITE"

how it works

1. ffmpeg decodes video to raw RGB24 frames
2. each pixel becomes two colored block characters (██) using ANSI escape codes
3. ffplay plays audio in the background, synced to frame timing
4. stdin reads slash commands in raw mode

tips

• 8-bit and pixel art videos look best — low resolution = crisp terminal rendering
• zoom out in your terminal (Ctrl+-) for more pixels
• works on Windows, macOS, and Linux

programmatic API

import { play } from "aniterm";

await play([{ source: "video.mp4", label: "my video" }]);

license

MIT