startRecording

Start recording the screen for video documentation of test runs.

The startRecording command begins a screen recording of the test Flow. Use this command to collect visual evidence of your test runs, especially when debugging complex UI transitions or intermittently failing tests. The resulting video file is saved in .mp4 format.

Important considerations

• You must use the stopRecording command to finalize the video file.

• The behavior and file location of recordings may differ slightly when running tests via Maestro Studio compared to the CLI.

Parameters

To use the startRecording, you can provide only the file name to be saved, or you can use all the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
path	string	Specifies the file path for the recording, relative to the Flow file's directory.
label	string	(Optional) A descriptive label for the command step that appears in the test report.
optional	boolean	(Optional) If true, the command does not fail the test if it cannot be executed. Defaults to false.

Usage examples

Basic usage

This example uses the shorthand syntax to start a recording that will be saved as recording.mp4.

appId: yourAppId
---
- launchApp
- startRecording: recording
- stopRecording

You need to use the stopRecording command to instruct Maestro to stop recording the device screen.

Custom path and labels

This example uses the expanded syntax to specify a directory, a descriptive label for the reports, and marks the command as optional to ensure the test continues even if the video engine fails to start.

- startRecording:
    path: "recordings/user_onboarding"
    label: "Capture onboarding sequence for evidence"
    optional: true

Related commands

• stopRecording