RenderDoc CLI Skill

Headless command-line analysis of RenderDoc GPU frame captures (.rdc files).

Capabilities

• Capture inspection: metadata, sections, thumbnails, format conversion
• Action tree: list/search/filter draw calls, clears, dispatches, markers
• Texture operations: list, inspect, export (PNG/JPG/DDS/HDR/EXR), pixel picking
• Pipeline state: full shader/RT/viewport state at any event
• Shader analysis: export shader in human-readable form (HLSL/GLSL/disasm), constant buffer readback
• Resource inspection: buffer/texture enumeration, raw data reading
• Mesh data: vertex shader input/output decoding
• GPU counters: enumerate and fetch hardware performance counters

Command Groups

capture

cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc capture info          # Metadata + sections
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc capture thumb -o t.png # Extract thumbnail
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc capture convert -o out.rdc --format rdc

actions

cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc actions list           # All actions
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc actions list --draws-only  # Draw calls only
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc actions summary        # Counts by type
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc actions find "Shadow"  # Search by name
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc actions get 42         # Single action

textures

cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc textures list
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc textures get <id>
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc textures save <id> -o out.png --format png
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc textures save-outputs 42 -o ./renders/
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc textures pick <id> 100 200

pipeline

cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc pipeline state 42

# Export shader in human-readable form
# Text shaders (GLSL/HLSL) → saved directly
# Binary shaders (DXBC/SPIR-V) → embedded source (HLSL/GLSL) or disassembly
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc pipeline shader-export 42 --stage Fragment
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc pipeline shader-export 42 --stage Vertex -o ./shaders/

cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc pipeline cbuffer 42 --stage Vertex --index 0

# Compare pipeline state between two events
# Default output: same directory as the capture file  ;  use -o to override
cli-anything-renderdoc -c a.rdc pipeline diff 100 200 -b b.rdc
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc pipeline diff 100 200              # same capture
cli-anything-renderdoc -c a.rdc pipeline diff 100 200 -b b.rdc -o result.json
cli-anything-renderdoc -c a.rdc pipeline diff 100 200 -b b.rdc --no-compact

resources

cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc resources list
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc resources buffers
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc resources read-buffer <id> --format float32

mesh

cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc mesh inputs 42 --max-vertices 10
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc mesh outputs 42

counters

cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc counters list
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc counters fetch --ids 1,2,3

Preview Bundles

RenderDoc preview support is for truthful capture inspection rather than live creative preview.

# List preview recipes
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc --json preview recipes

# Capture a preview bundle for the active capture or a specific event
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc --json preview capture --recipe quick --event-id 42

# Capture a diff preview bundle for two events or captures
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc --json preview diff 100 200
cli-anything-renderdoc -c a.rdc --json preview diff 100 200 --capture-b b.rdc

# Return the latest existing bundle for the capture
cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc --json preview latest --recipe quick

Typical preview bundle contents:

• capture thumbnail
• output-target images
• pipeline_state.json
• action_summary.json

Diff bundles additionally include:

• A/B thumbnails
• A/B output-target images
• pipeline_diff.json

RenderDoc does not currently expose live preview sessions. Instead, each capture/diff bundle appends to a stable recipe-level trajectory.json.

Viewer commands:

cli-hub previews inspect /path/to/bundle
cli-hub previews html /path/to/bundle -o page.html
cli-hub previews open /path/to/bundle

JSON Mode

All commands support --json for machine-readable output:

cli-anything-renderdoc -c frame.rdc --json actions summary

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
RENDERDOC_CAPTURE	Default capture file path
PYTHONPATH	Must include RenderDoc path

Agent Usage Notes

• Use pipeline shader-export to extract shaders — for binary shaders (DXBC/SPIR-V) it auto-exports embedded HLSL/GLSL source or falls back to disassembly; for text shaders (GLSL/HLSL) it saves the raw source directly
• Shader formats by capture API:
  • D3D11 → DXBC binary, exported as embedded HLSL source (.hlsl) or bytecode asm (.dxbc.asm)
  • OpenGL/GLES → GLSL source text (.glsl), already human-readable
  • Vulkan → SPIR-V binary, exported as embedded GLSL source (.glsl) or SPIR-V asm (.spv.asm)
• Use pipeline diff to compare two events — it writes a JSON file and prints only the path; use -b for a second capture
• Always specify --json for programmatic consumption
• Use actions summary first to understand capture complexity
• Use actions list --draws-only to focus on actual rendering
• Use preview capture or preview diff when the agent needs a portable, honest inspection bundle rather than raw replay calls alone
• Read _trajectory_path from preview JSON if you need persistent capture/diff history
• Use cli-hub previews ... only to inspect/open already-generated bundles
• Pipeline state requires an event ID from the action list
• Texture save supports: png, jpg, bmp, tga, hdr, exr, dds
• Buffer data can be decoded as hex, float32, uint32, or raw bytes