Show-InteractiveTranscript

Plays back an interactive transcript recording in the console.

Show-InteractiveTranscript re-emits the output stream of an asciicast v2/v3 (.cast) file - as recorded by Start-InteractiveTranscript or produced by asciinema rec - in the current console, with the original timing. It is the PowerShell-native equivalent of asciinema play, covering view-back scenarios directly inside PowerShell.

Syntax

Show-InteractiveTranscript [-Path] <string> [-IdleTimeLimit <double>] [-Speed <double>]

Parameters

  • Path - the asciicast (.cast) file to play back. Mandatory, position 0, accepts pipeline input (Get-ChildItem .\audit\*.cast | Show-InteractiveTranscript replays every recording in turn).
  • IdleTimeLimit - when greater than zero (seconds), pauses longer than this limit are shortened to it, mirroring asciinema's --idle-time-limit behavior. Zero (default) preserves the original timing.
  • Speed - playback speed multiplier; 1 (default) is original speed. Accepts 0.1 (ten times slower) to 100 (one hundred times faster).

Examples

Show-InteractiveTranscript -Path .\audit\session01.cast

Replays the recording at original speed.

Show-InteractiveTranscript -Path .\audit\session01.cast -Speed 4 -IdleTimeLimit 2

Replays four times faster and skips pauses longer than two seconds.

asciinema play .\audit\session01.cast

The same file also plays with the open asciicast ecosystem - recordings are standard asciicast v2/v3 files.

Notes

  • Input (i) events are not replayed; resize (r) events are ignored - the current console keeps its own size.
  • Both asciicast versions are supported: v2 (absolute event times) and v3 (per-event intervals per the RFC 421 draft), with v3 intervals normalized to absolute times during playback.
  • On Windows the console output encoding is temporarily switched to UTF-8 for the playback and restored afterwards: Windows PowerShell 5.1 hosts write [Console] output through the console output codepage, which would otherwise render characters outside CP437 (e.g. heavy box-drawing borders) as literal ?. The recorded cast file itself is lossless UTF-8 either way.

See also