Apple Frames CLI, Now with Support for Framing Screen Recordings

Apple Frames CLI, now with fancy progress bars for video framing.

I’m on my way to California for WWDC, and with the conference kicking off tomorrow, I thought I’d take advantage of my 12 hours on this airplane by sharing the latest addition to the Apple Frames CLI: support for video framing.

In case you missed it in April, along with the release of version 4.0 of my Apple Frames shortcut, I also launched a companion CLI for developers and tinkerers who wanted to further automate the process of framing screenshots with a terminal or desktop agent. The Frames CLI, which is free and open source, uses the same technical foundation as the Apple Frames shortcut, but extends it with additional options (such as batch mode), improved performance, and native integration with agents such as Codex and Claude Code thanks to a bundled skill. I mostly built the Apple Frames CLI for myself because I figured it’d come in handy for my iOS 27 review setup this summer; I’ve heard from so many developers who are now using frames in Terminal to automate their App Store screenshot submission processes, which is really humbling.

One of the things I’ve always wanted to add to the Apple Frames shortcut, but never could due to technical constraints in the Shortcuts app, is support for framing screen recordings taken on iPhone, iPad, or Mac to produce high-quality .mp4 files to use in my articles. After a few weeks of work and testing in Codex, I’m happy to say that’s now built into the Apple Frames CLI with a new frames video command.

With the new frames video command (which is extensively covered in the CLI’s documentation and updated skill for agents), you’ll be able to frame individual screen recordings with the same capabilities previously seen when framing images: you can pick a specific frame color or a random one; you can merge multiple framed videos together in the same output file, with framed devices using proportional scaling when placed next to each other (so an iPhone looks physically smaller than an iPad); you can also choose from three quality presets and enable an --alpha flag that merges multiple framed videos in the same single video with alpha transparency.

I personally love the --playback-offset flag, which merges multiple screen recordings and plays one after the other starting from the left side. I plan on using this a lot for comparisons between iOS 26 and 27 in my review later this year.

An example of framed screen recordings with playback offset.

Video support requires ffmpeg 5.1+ and ffprobe 5.1+. frames setup checks for both and can install ffmpeg with Homebrew on macOS; supported video input extensions are .mp4, .mov, and .m4v. This entire feature was made possible by ffmpeg, which continues to feel like a miracle piece of technology that shouldn’t be possible, and yet here we are.

Once again, the best way to install or update the Apple Frames CLI is to ask your agent of choice to do it for you. Give your Codex or Claude Code a link to the repo, and ask it to set up the CLI and associated skill for you. Then, find some existing screen recording from the Photos app, export them, and take the new frames video command for a spin. if you’re anything like me, you’ll be surprised by how fast and nice it is to finally have framed screen recordings without having to use a manual video editing app.

I wanted to get this out before WWDC because, beyond my annual review duties, I know that a lot of developers are going to be capturing videos of issues in their new apps and sending them to Apple engineers in the summer. Now you get to submit those radars in style.

As always, I’m open to feedback and suggestions on how to improve the Apple Frames CLI. You can find the CLI on GitHub, and you can always download the original Apple Frames shortcut from the (recently redesigned) MacStories Shortcuts Archive.