CoA CLI
Render CoAnimator projects to MP4 without opening the app, from a shell script, a cron job, or CI.
coa renders CoAnimator projects headlessly. It runs the same chunk-parallel
export pipeline as the desktop app, at the same settings, so what comes out of CI
matches what you approved on the stage.
Putting coa on your PATH
The desktop app ships the CLI. One menu click symlinks it onto your PATH, so there is nothing to install separately.
Rendering
# render a project headlessly — same pipeline as the editor
coa render my-demo --preset 1080p60 --runners 8
# a packaged project file works too
coa render launch-video.coa --out launch.mp4The render target can be a project id, a folder, or a .coa file.
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
--preset | Resolution and frame rate, from 720p30 through 4K60. |
--runners | How many chunks render in parallel. |
--out | Where to write the MP4. |
coa render exits 0 on success and 1 on failure, so it drops into a CI job
without a wrapper script.
MP4 is the only export format today. Lottie export is on the public roadmap but has not shipped.
Renders you can trust in CI
Every frame is a pure function of the timeline clock, so the exporter can render any moment on demand and the result is reproducible run after run.
coa render uses the same pipeline as the editor, so there is no second rendering
path to drift from the first.
Renders run on your hardware, laptop or CI runner, with no per-export fees. Fully deployed workers for cloud-side rendering are on the way.
Scheduled video
Because a project is just files, a video can be regenerated on a schedule: a cron
job, an agent reading the week's merged PRs, and coa render at the end. That is
how changelog videos stay current
without anyone re-recording them.