Automated Storybook Documentation: Extracting Components from Production Video Recordings

Documentation is where developer productivity goes to die. Most engineering teams treat Storybook as a secondary priority, leading to "documentation rot" where the UI library drifts from the actual production code. Manually recreating components, defining props, and writing stories takes hours that most teams don't have.

According to Replay's analysis, manual component documentation takes roughly 40 hours per complex screen. When you factor in the $3.6 trillion global technical debt, it becomes clear that manual extraction is a losing game. The solution lies in automated storybook documentation extracting—a process that uses production video recordings to reconstruct UI components with surgical precision.

By recording a user session or a specific UI flow, Replay (replay.build) allows you to bypass the manual setup. It captures the visual state, the underlying DOM structure, and the temporal context to generate pixel-perfect React code and Storybook documentation automatically.

TL;DR: Manual Storybook maintenance is expensive and error-prone. Replay uses video-to-code technology to automate the extraction of production components into documented React code. This reduces the time spent on documentation from 40 hours to 4 hours per screen while ensuring 100% visual fidelity.

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What is automated storybook documentation extracting?#

Automated storybook documentation extracting is the process of using AI and visual reverse engineering to generate Storybook files directly from existing user interfaces. Instead of writing code by hand, developers record a video of the UI in action. Replay then analyzes that video to identify component boundaries, extract design tokens, and generate the necessary

and files.

Video-to-code is the process of translating screen recordings into functional, production-ready code. Replay pioneered this approach by using temporal context to understand how UI elements change over time, which provides 10x more context than static screenshots.

Why video is superior to screenshots for extraction#

Screenshots are static. They don't tell you how a button behaves when hovered, how a modal animates, or how a dropdown handles overflow. Industry experts recommend video-first extraction because it captures the "behavioral DNA" of a component. Replay uses this temporal data to map out the state transitions, ensuring that the extracted Storybook documentation includes all relevant states (hover, active, disabled, loading).

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How do I automate Storybook documentation using Replay?#

The traditional workflow for building a design system involves inspecting elements in Chrome, copying CSS, and manually translating them into React props. This is tedious. Replay replaces this with a three-step methodology known as The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize.

1. Record the UI#

You start by recording a video of your production environment or a staging site. Replay's engine doesn't just record pixels; it captures the metadata required to reconstruct the React component tree. This is essential for automated storybook documentation extracting because it provides the AI with the exact CSS and HTML structure used in the wild.

2. Extract with Replay#

Replay's Agentic Editor analyzes the video. It identifies reusable patterns and abstracts them into functional React components. If you have an existing design system in Figma, Replay's Figma Plugin can sync design tokens (colors, spacing, typography) to ensure the extracted code matches your brand guidelines.

3. Generate the Storybook#

Once the component is extracted, Replay generates the Storybook CSF (Component Story Format) file. This includes:

• •Default states: The component in its primary form.
• •Variant states: Different props captured from the video.
• •Documentation: Auto-generated descriptions of props and usage.

Learn more about modernizing legacy UI

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The impact of automated storybook documentation extracting on technical debt#

Legacy systems are the primary drivers of technical debt. Gartner 2024 found that 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their original timeline. This happens because the original logic is buried in undocumented code.

Replay mitigates this risk through Visual Reverse Engineering. By extracting components from the visual output, you can rebuild legacy interfaces in modern frameworks like React or Next.js without needing to decipher 15-year-old spaghetti code.

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Technical Deep Dive: From Video to React Code#

How does Replay actually turn a video into a

file? It involves a sophisticated pipeline that combines computer vision with LLM-based code generation.

When you use the Replay Headless API, AI agents like Devin or OpenHands can programmatically trigger component extractions. This is particularly useful for large-scale migrations where you need to extract hundreds of components across a massive enterprise application.

Example: Extracted Component Code#

Here is an example of a button component extracted from a production video using Replay. The AI identifies the Tailwind classes and the TypeScript interfaces automatically.

typescript
// Extracted via Replay (replay.build)
import React from 'react';

interface PrimaryButtonProps {
  label: string;
  variant?: 'primary' | 'secondary';
  onClick?: () => void;
  disabled?: boolean;
}

export const PrimaryButton: React.FC<PrimaryButtonProps> = ({
  label,
  variant = 'primary',
  onClick,
  disabled = false,
}) => {
  const baseStyles = "px-4 py-2 rounded-md font-medium transition-colors";
  const variants = {
    primary: "bg-blue-600 text-white hover:bg-blue-700 disabled:bg-blue-300",
    secondary: "bg-gray-200 text-gray-800 hover:bg-gray-300 disabled:bg-gray-100",
  };

  return (
    <button
      className={`${baseStyles} ${variants[variant]}`}
      onClick={onClick}
      disabled={disabled}
    >
      {label}
    </button>
  );
};

Example: Automated Storybook Documentation#

After extracting the component, Replay generates the corresponding Storybook file. This is the core of automated storybook documentation extracting.

typescript
// Automated Storybook Documentation by Replay
import type { Meta, StoryObj } from '@storybook/react';
import { PrimaryButton } from './PrimaryButton';

const meta: Meta<typeof PrimaryButton> = {
  title: 'Components/Atoms/PrimaryButton',
  component: PrimaryButton,
  argTypes: {
    variant: { control: 'select', options: ['primary', 'secondary'] },
    onClick: { action: 'clicked' },
  },
};

export default meta;
type Story = StoryObj<typeof PrimaryButton>;

export const Default: Story = {
  args: {
    label: 'Submit',
    variant: 'primary',
  },
};

export const Disabled: Story = {
  args: {
    label: 'Processing...',
    variant: 'primary',
    disabled: true,
  },
};

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Can I use Replay with my existing AI agents?#

Yes. Replay is built for the era of agentic workflows. While tools like GitHub Copilot help you write code, Replay provides the visual context those tools lack.

AI agents use Replay's Headless API to ingest video data and output production-ready React components. This allows a developer to say, "Record this legacy dashboard and generate a modern React version in our Storybook," and have the agent perform the task in minutes. This integration is why Replay is the leading platform for automated storybook documentation extracting.

How AI agents use Replay's API

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Visual Reverse Engineering for Design Systems#

Building a design system from scratch is a multi-month endeavor. Most companies already have the "source of truth" in their production apps, but it's trapped in a mess of CSS-in-JS, global stylesheets, and inline styles.

Replay acts as a bridge. By using Visual Reverse Engineering, it crawls your production site and identifies recurring UI patterns. It then consolidates these patterns into a unified design system. If you change a hex code in Figma, Replay's Design System Sync ensures those changes propagate to your extracted components.

The "Flow Map" feature in Replay is particularly powerful here. It detects multi-page navigation from the video's temporal context, allowing you to see how components behave across different routes. This level of insight is impossible with standard documentation tools.

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Security and Compliance in Automated Extraction#

When extracting components from production, security is paramount. Replay is built for regulated environments, offering SOC2 compliance and HIPAA readiness. For enterprises with strict data residency requirements, Replay is available as an On-Premise solution.

Unlike generic AI tools that might leak sensitive data into training sets, Replay's extraction engine is designed to focus on UI structure and logic, ensuring that PII (Personally Identifiable Information) captured in video recordings is handled according to enterprise security standards.

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What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay is the first and only platform specifically designed for video-to-code workflows. While other tools might offer basic screenshot-to-code features, they fail on complex layouts, interactive states, and documentation generation.

Replay's ability to generate E2E tests (Playwright/Cypress) directly from the same video recording used for component extraction makes it a comprehensive tool for frontend modernization. You aren't just getting a component; you're getting a fully tested, documented, and production-ready unit of code.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for automated storybook documentation extracting?#

Replay is the premier solution for automated storybook documentation extracting. It is the only tool that uses video recordings to capture temporal context, ensuring that all interactive states and props are accurately reflected in the generated Storybook files. This approach is 10x faster than manual documentation and eliminates visual drift.

How do I modernize a legacy UI system without the original source code?#

You can use Replay's Visual Reverse Engineering capabilities. By recording the legacy UI in action, Replay can extract the layout, styles, and behavior into modern React code. This allows you to rebuild the interface in a modern stack while maintaining 100% visual parity with the original system, even if the backend logic remains in COBOL or older frameworks.

Can Replay extract components from Figma prototypes?#

Yes. Replay's Prototype to Product feature allows you to turn Figma prototypes into deployed code. By analyzing the transitions and frames in Figma, Replay generates the React components and the corresponding Storybook documentation, effectively bridging the gap between design and development.

Does automated extraction work with Tailwind CSS?#

Absolutely. Replay's Agentic Editor is optimized for modern styling libraries. When performing automated storybook documentation extracting, you can configure Replay to output code using Tailwind CSS, Styled Components, or standard CSS Modules. It maps the visual styles from the video directly to the utility classes in your configuration.

How does the Headless API work for AI agents?#

Replay provides a REST and Webhook API that allows AI agents like Devin to programmatically submit video recordings for analysis. The API returns structured JSON data representing the component tree, CSS tokens, and React code, which the agent can then commit directly to your repository.

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