Every rendering path starts with the same HyperFrames project. The difference is who operates Chrome and FFmpeg, how the request is submitted, and how much of the pipeline your application needs to control.

​
Local or CI: use the CLI

The CLI owns the complete normal pipeline: project loading, checks, browser capture, audio mixing, and encoding.
Start here unless an application—not a person or CI job—must initiate the render. See Rendering for the normal workflow and the complete CLI reference for automation flags.

​
A Node application: use Producer

@hyperframes/producer is the complete programmable render pipeline. It is the right layer for a backend that needs to provide project input, receive progress, cancel work, or control encoding without spawning the CLI.
Use Producer for its current configuration and exported API. Use Engine only when Producer performs work your application must replace.

​
Exact frame capture: use Engine

@hyperframes/engine opens a seekable composition and captures exact frames. It does not replace the complete Producer pipeline. Use it when building specialized capture, inspection, or rendering infrastructure. For an ordinary encoded video, stay with CLI or Producer. See Engine.

​
No infrastructure: use HyperFrames Cloud

Managed cloud rendering accepts a project, runs the render, and returns the finished file without requiring local Chrome or FFmpeg.
Authentication, variables, webhooks, and job management are covered in Cloud rendering.

​
Infrastructure you control

Use AWS Lambda or Google Cloud Run when renders must run inside your own cloud account. Both paths distribute work across workers and store intermediate and final media in the corresponding cloud storage. Use the hosted templates when the desired result is a small preview application plus a render API on Vercel, Cloudflare, or Modal—not a general distributed-rendering platform.

​
The decision

Choose the highest-level surface that completes the job:
Moving right gives an application more control and more pipeline responsibility. Managed Cloud, AWS Lambda, Cloud Run, and hosted templates decide where that pipeline runs.