# Build brief — a focused alternative to Tella

> **Verdict:** Yes, for personal use · **Buildability:** 76/100 · **Category:** Screen Recording
> **Source:** https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/tella
> Independent editorial assessment from Can It Be Vibe Coded? Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from Tella. Verify current pricing and capabilities before acting.

## Context

**Tella** — Simple screen and camera recording for polished async videos. It currently costs $13/mo.

For solo async clips, a recorder plus lightweight trimming and hosted share page can be vibecoded; the paid app wins on design polish and templates.

This brief describes a focused, single-operator replacement for the part of Tella that is genuinely reproducible. It is deliberately narrower than the product it replaces, and it says so in writing. Build the useful core; do not pretend to have rebuilt the rest.

## What you are building

Record screen/webcam, combine tracks, trim, render, upload, and generate a clean share page.

- Build a focused single-user workflow with real persistence, search, and export.
- A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.

## Requirements

### Functional

- Browser MediaRecorder or desktop capture.
- Ffmpeg for rendering.
- Object storage.
- Small hosted app.

### Non-functional

- Accessibility: semantic markup, labelled controls, visible focus, and reduced-motion support.
- Security: server-side secrets, validated input, and no credentials in the client bundle.
- Reliability: retries with backoff on external calls, and a clear failure state when a provider is down.
- Portability: the operator can export their data and leave without losing it.

## Implementation brief

Build me a screen recorder with share pages to replace Tella. Requirements:

- A local web page (Node + Express on localhost:4600) using getDisplayMedia +
  getUserMedia: record screen and webcam together, webcam as a circular overlay in
  the bottom-left, captured with MediaRecorder to webm.
- After recording, a trim step: set in/out points on a simple timeline, preview,
  then render the final 1080p H.264 MP4 with ffmpeg.
- One-click publish: rsync the MP4 to my VPS, where a tiny share app serves
  /v/<id>, a page with the player, title, and my name. Copy the URL to my clipboard.
- Share page extras: a poster frame extracted with ffmpeg for the og:image tag, and
  a view counter in SQLite. Nothing else on the page.
- Keep originals and renders in ~/Recordings/YYYY-MM-DD-<title>/.
- No accounts, no telemetry; the share pages are the only public surface.
- Out of scope: layout templates, zoom/pan effects, and a team library. Trim only,
  this is not an editor.
- README: browser screen-capture permissions, ffmpeg install, VPS + Caddy snippet
  for the share domain.

## Delivery standard

- Inspect the repository first, then write a short implementation plan before writing code.
- Deliver the smallest complete end-to-end workflow first; every primary control must work against persisted data.
- Use real validation and storage; never substitute fake dashboards, decorative controls, hard-coded success states, or mock integrations.
- Include responsive layouts plus genuine empty, loading, success, validation, and failure states.
- Keep secrets server-side in environment variables, provide .env.example, and never commit credentials or user data.
- Add structured logs around every external call and return actionable errors without leaking sensitive details.
- Write unit tests for the core logic and one automated test of the main user journey.
- Finish with a README covering setup, architecture, data location, backups, tests, deployment, and known limitations.

## Acceptance criteria

- [ ] A clean install starts the app using only the README and .env.example.
- [ ] The primary journey works from first visit through saved result, reload, edit, export, and deletion where applicable.
- [ ] Invalid input, missing configuration, provider failure, and an empty database each have a usable state.
- [ ] The interface works at 390px and 1440px, is keyboard navigable, and shows visible focus on every control.
- [ ] Tests, type checking, linting, and a production build all pass with no ignored failures.
- [ ] No part of the interface implies a live integration, security guarantee, or scale capability that was not actually built and verified.

## Non-goals

Do not build these, and do not claim to have replaced them:

- Beautiful layouts.
- Browser extension/native polish.
- Templates.
- Team sharing.
- The last 20 percent is sync, migration fidelity, speed, and edge cases.
- Reliability at the vendor's scale is an operations problem, not a prompt.

## What you still own after launch

- Run migrations, backups, restores, and dependency updates.
- Test the critical journey after every model, API, or hosting change.
- Monitor failures and fix the edge cases a first prompt will miss.

## Risk

**Operational risk.** The code is achievable; dependable data, integrations, and ongoing operations are the real cost.

Editorial confidence in this assessment: medium. No independent one-shot implementation is linked yet.

## Prior art

Working open-source software you can read, fork, or borrow from before starting:

- [OBS Studio](https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio) — Can cover the recording layer; a vibecoded clone would add opinionated hosting and layouts

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Generated by [Can It Be Vibe Coded?](https://www.canitbevibecoded.com) · Full report: https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/tella