feat: add screencast fps option

Author: mturac

README.md

@@ -663,6 +663,11 @@ The Chrome DevTools MCP server supports the following configuration option:
   - **Type:** string
   - **Default:** `false`
 
+- **`--experimentalScreencastFps`/ `--experimental-screencast-fps`**
+  Frames per second to use for screencast recording. Lower values can reduce memory pressure on pages that produce frames faster than ffmpeg can encode them.
+  - **Type:** number
+  - **Default:** Uses Puppeteer's screencast default.
+
 - **`--categoryExperimentalWebmcp`/ `--category-experimental-webmcp`**
   Set to true to enable debugging WebMCP tools. Requires Chrome 149+ with the following flags: `--enable-features=WebMCP,DevToolsWebMCPSupport`
   - **Type:** boolean

src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.ts

@@ -208,6 +208,23 @@ export const cliOptions = {
     describe: 'Path to ffmpeg executable for screencast recording.',
     implies: 'experimentalScreencast',
   },
+  experimentalScreencastFps: {
+    type: 'number',
+    describe:
+      'Frames per second to use for screencast recording. Lower values can reduce memory pressure on pages that produce frames faster than ffmpeg can encode them.',
+    implies: 'experimentalScreencast',
+    coerce: (value: number | undefined) => {
+      if (value === undefined) {
+        return;
+      }
+      if (!Number.isInteger(value) || value <= 0) {
+        throw new Error(
+          `Invalid experimentalScreencastFps ${value}. Expected a positive integer.`,
+        );
+      }
+      return value;
+    },
+  },
   categoryExperimentalWebmcp: {
     type: 'boolean',
     describe:

src/telemetry/flag_usage_metrics.json

@@ -369,5 +369,9 @@
   {
     "name": "allow_unrestricted_paths",
     "flagType": "boolean"
+  },
+  {
+    "name": "experimental_screencast_fps_present",
+    "flagType": "boolean"
   }
 ]

src/tools/screencast.ts

@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ export const startScreencast = definePageTool(args => ({
         path: resolvedPath,
         format: format,
         ffmpegPath: args?.experimentalFfmpegPath,
+        fps: args?.experimentalScreencastFps,
       });
     } catch (err) {
       // If we generated a temporary directory for this recording, remove it so

tests/cli.test.ts

@@ -7,7 +7,10 @@
 import assert from 'node:assert';
 import {describe, it} from 'node:test';
 
-import {parseArguments} from '../src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.js';
+import {
+  cliOptions,
+  parseArguments,
+} from '../src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.js';
 
 describe('cli args parsing', () => {
   const defaultArgs = {
@@ -278,6 +281,21 @@ describe('cli args parsing', () => {
     });
   });
 
+  it('rejects invalid screencast fps values', async () => {
+    const coerce = cliOptions.experimentalScreencastFps.coerce;
+    assert.ok(coerce);
+
+    assert.strictEqual(coerce(undefined), undefined);
+    assert.strictEqual(coerce(10), 10);
+
+    for (const value of [0, -1, 10.5, Number.NaN]) {
+      assert.throws(
+        () => coerce(value),
+        /Invalid experimentalScreencastFps .* Expected a positive integer\./,
+      );
+    }
+  });
+
   it('parses usage statistics flag', async () => {
     // Test default (should be true).
     const defaultArgs = parseArguments('1.0.0', ['node', 'main.js'], {});

tests/tools/screencast.test.ts

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ import {describe, it, afterEach} from 'node:test';
 
 import sinon from 'sinon';
 
-import type {ParsedArguments} from '../../src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.js';
+import {parseArguments} from '../../src/bin/chrome-devtools-mcp-cli-options.js';
 import {startScreencast, stopScreencast} from '../../src/tools/screencast.js';
 import {withMcpContext} from '../utils.js';
 
@@ -209,9 +209,13 @@ describe('screencast', () => {
           .resolves(mockRecorder as never);
 
         const experimentalFfmpegPath = '/custom/path/to/ffmpeg';
-        await startScreencast({
-          experimentalFfmpegPath,
-        } as ParsedArguments).handler(
+        const args = parseArguments('test', [
+          'node',
+          'test',
+          '--experimental-screencast',
+          `--experimental-ffmpeg-path=${experimentalFfmpegPath}`,
+        ]);
+        await startScreencast(args).handler(
           {params: {}, page: context.getSelectedMcpPage()},
           response,
           context,
@@ -222,6 +226,32 @@ describe('screencast', () => {
         assert.strictEqual(callArgs?.ffmpegPath, experimentalFfmpegPath);
       });
     });
+
+    it('passes screencast fps from args to puppeteer', async () => {
+      await withMcpContext(async (response, context) => {
+        const mockRecorder = createMockRecorder();
+        const selectedPage = context.getSelectedPptrPage();
+        const screencastStub = sinon
+          .stub(selectedPage, 'screencast')
+          .resolves(mockRecorder as never);
+
+        const args = parseArguments('test', [
+          'node',
+          'test',
+          '--experimental-screencast',
+          '--experimental-screencast-fps=10',
+        ]);
+        await startScreencast(args).handler(
+          {params: {}, page: context.getSelectedMcpPage()},
+          response,
+          context,
+        );
+
+        sinon.assert.calledOnce(screencastStub);
+        const callArgs = screencastStub.firstCall.args[0];
+        assert.strictEqual(callArgs?.fps, 10);
+      });
+    });
   });
 
   describe('screencast_stop', () => {