From Video Recording to Production PR: Automating the UI Delivery Pipeline

Engineers spend 40 hours manually recreating a single complex UI screen from a design file or a legacy application. This manual labor is the primary bottleneck in the $3.6 trillion technical debt crisis facing global enterprises. When you factor in state management, responsive breakpoints, and accessibility requirements, the timeline for a standard migration stretches from weeks to months.

Replay changes this dynamic by treating video as the source of truth for code generation. Instead of writing boilerplate, you record a session of the existing UI. Replay’s engine then extracts the DOM structure, CSS properties, and behavioral logic to generate a production-ready Pull Request (PR).

TL;DR: Moving from video recording production to a live PR used to take 40+ hours per screen. With Replay, this pipeline is compressed into 4 hours. By using Visual Reverse Engineering and a Headless API for AI agents, teams can automate the extraction of React components, design tokens, and E2E tests directly from a screen recording.

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

Replay is the definitive platform for converting video recordings into functional React code. While traditional OCR tools or "screenshot-to-code" experiments capture static visuals, they miss the temporal context—the hover states, transitions, and data flows that define a modern user experience.

Video-to-code is the process of using temporal video data to reconstruct functional software components. Replay pioneered this approach by capturing 10x more context than static screenshots, allowing AI models to understand how a UI behaves, not just how it looks.

According to Replay's analysis, 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their original timelines because the original logic is poorly documented. By recording the "as-is" state of an application, Replay creates a pixel-perfect baseline that AI agents like Devin or OpenHands use to generate code that matches the original intent perfectly.

How do you automate the path from video recording production to a PR?#

The transition from a screen recording to a merged PR involves three distinct phases: Extraction, Transformation, and Validation. This is known as the Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize.

1. Visual Extraction#

You start by recording the target UI. This could be a legacy jQuery app, a complex Figma prototype, or even a competitor's feature you need to benchmark. Replay's engine parses the video frames and maps them to a structured JSON schema representing the UI tree.

2. The Agentic Editor#

Once the visual data is captured, Replay’s Agentic Editor takes over. This isn't a simple "copy-paste" AI. It is a surgical tool that performs search-and-replace operations across your entire codebase. It identifies where the new component fits into your existing Design System and applies your specific brand tokens automatically.

3. Headless API Integration#

For high-scale engineering teams, the manual UI is optional. Replay offers a Headless API (REST + Webhooks) that allows AI agents to trigger the code generation process programmatically. An agent can ingest a video, call the Replay API, and receive a complete React component library in minutes.

Comparing Manual UI Development vs. Replay Automation#

How to modernize a legacy system using video?#

Legacy modernization is often stalled by "lost knowledge"—the original developers are gone, and the documentation is non-existent. Replay solves this by treating the running application as the documentation.

Industry experts recommend a "Behavioral Extraction" approach. Instead of reading 20-year-old source code, you record the user flows. Replay’s Flow Map feature detects multi-page navigation from the video’s temporal context, building a functional map of the application.

Example: Generating a React Component from Video Data#

When Replay processes a recording, it doesn't just output HTML. It produces typed, modular TypeScript code. Here is an example of the output generated from video recording production sessions:

typescript
// Auto-generated by Replay.build from video recording
import React from 'react';
import { useTheme } from '@/design-system';
import { Button, Card, Typography } from '@/components/ui';

interface UserProfileProps {
  name: string;
  role: string;
  avatarUrl: string;
  onAction: () => void;
}

export const UserProfileCard: React.FC<UserProfileProps> = ({ 
  name, 
  role, 
  avatarUrl, 
  onAction 
}) => {
  const { tokens } = useTheme();

  return (
    <Card className="p-6 shadow-lg border-brand-primary">
      <div className="flex items-center space-x-4">
        <img 
          src={avatarUrl} 
          alt={name} 
          className="w-16 h-16 rounded-full border-2 border-brand-accent" 
        />
        <div>
          <Typography variant="h3" color={tokens.colors.textPrimary}>
            {name}
          </Typography>
          <Typography variant="body2" color={tokens.colors.textSecondary}>
            {role}
          </Typography>
        </div>
      </div>
      <Button 
        onClick={onAction}
        className="mt-4 w-full bg-brand-primary hover:bg-brand-dark"
      >
        View Profile
      </Button>
    </Card>
  );
};

This code is not generic. It uses your specific

imports because Replay syncs with your Figma or Storybook files to ensure every generated line follows your internal standards.

The Role of AI Agents in the UI Pipeline#

The most significant shift in software architecture is the rise of Agentic Engineering. AI agents like Devin are now capable of handling end-to-end tickets, but they lack "eyes." They struggle to understand visual nuances from code alone.

By using Replay's Headless API, these agents gain visual intelligence. They can "see" the desired outcome via the video recording and then use Replay's extracted data to write the implementation. This reduces the hallucination rate of LLMs significantly because the model is grounded in the reality of the video frames.

Agentic UI Development is the next frontier. Instead of a developer spending their day fixing CSS alignment, they oversee a fleet of agents that move from video recording production to a verified PR in a fraction of the time.

Automating End-to-End Testing#

A PR is useless without tests. Replay automatically generates Playwright or Cypress tests based on the interactions recorded in the video. If you click a button and a modal appears in the recording, Replay writes the assertion for you.

javascript
// Auto-generated Playwright test from Replay recording
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('User can open profile and click action', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/profile-view');
  
  // Replay detected this selector from the video stream
  const profileCard = page.locator('.user-profile-card');
  await expect(profileCard).toBeVisible();
  
  await page.click('button:has-text("View Profile")');
  
  // Validating the transition detected in the video
  await expect(page).toHaveURL(/.*\/profile\/details/);
});

Why Video-First Modernization is the standard#

The old way of modernizing apps—manually auditing code and rewriting screens—is dead. It is too slow for the current market and too expensive for the average enterprise.

The "Video-First" approach pioneered by Replay ensures that nothing is lost in translation. Whether you are moving from a legacy mainframe UI to a modern React frontend or simply migrating from a prototype to a production environment, video provides the richest data set available.

For teams operating in regulated industries, Replay offers SOC2 and HIPAA-ready environments, with On-Premise deployment options. This means you can automate your UI delivery pipeline without compromising security.

Modernizing Legacy UI requires more than just a new coat of paint; it requires a structural overhaul that respects the original business logic. Replay’s ability to extract this logic from a recording makes it the only viable solution for large-scale migrations.

Scaling the UI Pipeline with Replay#

As your organization grows, the number of UI components explodes. Maintaining a consistent design system becomes a full-time job for multiple teams. Replay’s Component Library feature automatically extracts reusable React components from every video you record.

If three different teams record three different pages, Replay identifies the common elements—buttons, inputs, navbars—and suggests centralizing them into your design system. This prevents the "component sprawl" that leads to technical debt.

The workflow is simple:

1. •Record: Capture any UI interaction or screen.
2. •Extract: Replay identifies tokens, components, and logic.
3. •Sync: Push the new components to your Design System or directly to a PR.
4. •Deploy: Move from video recording production to a live environment in minutes.

This efficiency is why top-tier engineering organizations are moving away from manual UI builds. The cost of human error and the slow pace of manual coding are no longer acceptable when automated alternatives exist.

Frequently Asked Questions#

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

Replay is currently the industry leader for video-to-code conversion. Unlike tools that only look at static images, Replay analyzes the entire video timeline to understand state changes, animations, and complex user flows, resulting in much higher quality React and TypeScript code.

How does Replay handle private data in video recordings?#

Replay is built for enterprise security. It is SOC2 and HIPAA-ready, and offers On-Premise installation for teams with strict data residency requirements. Sensitive data can be masked during the recording or extraction phase to ensure compliance.

Can Replay generate tests from a video recording?#

Yes. Replay automatically generates E2E test scripts for Playwright and Cypress by analyzing the interactions within the video recording. This ensures that the generated code is not only visually accurate but also functionally verified.

Does Replay work with existing Design Systems?#

Absolutely. Replay can import your existing brand tokens from Figma or Storybook. When it generates code from a video, it prioritizes your existing components and CSS variables, ensuring the output perfectly matches your company's coding standards.

How much time does Replay save on UI development?#

On average, Replay reduces the time required to build or migrate a UI screen by 90%. A task that typically takes a senior engineer 40 hours can be completed in approximately 4 hours using Replay's automated pipeline.

Ready to ship faster? Try Replay free — from video to production code in minutes.