Product demos built as code
Frontier models are now most capable at writing code, and least capable at rendering video of a real interface. Cue makes the demo as code: a program that reproduces your product and plays itself. It renders the finished video.
We didn't make this up
Public posts from developers: the cost of making a product demo, the pull toward doing it as code, and where today's code-first tools still hurt. Click any tile to read the source.
"Video tutorial as a code ... so if you change the UI of your SaaS, the video tutorial will automatically reflect this change, without human intervention."
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46325992 YHacker News"It took me a couple days to make the video. Premiere is a bit of a beast."
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40233347 YHacker News"I think that product tutorials are somewhat of a black art."
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40237076 YHacker News"The biggest pain for product demo is to have fake user data to populate the UI."
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40237148 YHacker News"I still think code-driven graphics is the correct approach ... the sheer capability of models at writing code these days has surprised me."
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47170174 YHacker News"I have used Remotion for years because the DX is great, but the performance and overhead is significant."
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47473885 YHacker News"Hiring someone who is really good at product videos is something you should 100% outsource ... it's a distraction from your key priorities."
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40234637 YHacker News"It makes a lot of sense that it can be used to fully automate video editing ... letting LLMs generate high-quality Revideo code is probably not yet possible."
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40656502Your demo, written as code by your coding agent
Cue plugs into Claude Code as a plugin. You point it at your product, and it does the one thing frontier models are now best at: it writes code. The output is a program that reproduces your interface and plays the walkthrough itself.
Plug in
Cue installs into Claude Code, or the coding harness you already use. One command, then it is a capability your agent has.
Reference
It reads your real product: screenshots, the DOM, the actual screens. Nothing is drawn that does not trace to something real.
Write the program
Your agent rebuilds the interface in code and scripts the walkthrough on a timeline. Reasoning as code, the task it is strongest at.
Play it
The program runs as a self-playing webpage: typing, transitions, data arriving, deterministic on every run.
Render
When you are happy with it, Cue records and renders the finished video for you. It re-renders the moment your product changes.
The same idea, on a real product
TitanAI ships to Amazon sellers. Cue wrote its demo as code, the exact thing this page describes.
Cue is a release from our lab, X-Arc. Titan Network is a client of the lab. TitanAI is the agentic product they ship to Amazon sellers: live PPC analysis, the agent's reasoning, the real dashboards.
To launch it, they needed that interface in motion. Cue reproduced it in code and scripted the walkthrough on one timeline. No footage, no animator. Because it is code, every screen is exact, and it re-renders the moment the product changes.
Four ways to make a product demo
The difference is the medium. Cue builds your demo as a webpage, the medium frontier models are trained on, so it matches your real interface and re-renders when your product changes.
| Cue | Remotion | Capture toolsArcade, Navattic | Record + editLoom, Premiere | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it builds | A self-playing webpage of your product | A video composition, written in code | A clickable snapshot of your screens | A screen recording, cut into a video |
| Fidelity to your real UI | Your real interface, rebuilt faithfully | You recreate the visuals in React | Exact at first, drifts as you ship | Exact, frozen at record time |
| Effort to make one | A few prompts | More prompts, built in React | A point-and-click session | Hours of recording and editing |
| When the product changes | Re-render from code | Rewrite the React, re-render | Re-capture, it breaks on redesigns | Re-record and re-edit |
| Where it lives | In your repo, as code | In your repo, as code | On the vendor's platform, not your repo | A video file |
Questions
Is Cue built?›
Yes. It is how we build the launch demos for our own releases. It is in use, not in concept.
Do I need to provide my interface?›
Yes. Cue works from your real interface, either by connecting to your front end or from screenshots. It renders what exists; it does not invent an interface.
How do I get the video?›
Cue builds your demo as a self-playing webpage. When you are happy with it, Cue records and renders the finished video for you, at full resolution.
How is this different from AI video?›
Generative video samples pixels and cannot reproduce a specific interface. Cue renders your interface in code. Different mechanism, different result.
What does it cost?›
Access is opening in stages. Request access below and we will be in touch with the details.
Request access
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