---
title: Migrating to HyperFrames Lambda
description: "Side-by-side mapping for adopters coming to HyperFrames from another one-command-deploy video renderer."
---

If you're already running a different framework that deploys a serverless video renderer with one command, the muscle memory translates cleanly: a single `deploy` provisions the stack, a single `render` starts a render, a single `progress` polls it, and a single `destroy` tears the stack down. This page maps your existing concepts onto HyperFrames' equivalents so you can spend the migration on the parts that actually differ instead of relearning the workflow.

## Concept mapping

| In your current framework you call... | In HyperFrames you call... | Notes |
|--------------------------------------|----------------------------|-------|
| One-shot deploy command | `hyperframes lambda deploy` | Builds `packages/aws-lambda/dist/handler.zip` and runs `sam deploy`. Idempotent. |
| One-shot site upload | `hyperframes lambda sites create ./project` | Content-addressed S3 key — re-uploads of an unchanged tree are skipped via a HeadObject 200. |
| Trigger a render | `hyperframes lambda render ./project --width 1920 --height 1080` | Returns immediately with a `renderId`; add `--wait` to stream per-chunk progress. |
| Poll render progress | `hyperframes lambda progress <renderId>` | Includes accrued cost in the same response. |
| Tear down | `hyperframes lambda destroy` | The S3 bucket is `Retain`'d — documented in the deploy guide. |
| Print/validate IAM policy | `hyperframes lambda policies user`/`role`/`validate` | Wire `validate` into CI to catch policy drift before the next deploy fails. |

## Composition format

If your current framework is **React-based**, you write JSX components, register them in a `Composition`, and the renderer compiles them at render time.

In HyperFrames, **compositions are plain HTML files**. The `data-duration`, `data-width`, `data-height`, and `data-fps` attributes on the root element drive every render parameter. There is no JSX compilation step — what you write is what the browser renders.

```html
<!doctype html>
<html data-duration="10" data-width="1920" data-height="1080" data-fps="30">
  <body>
    <h1 style="animation: fade-in 1s">Hello</h1>
  </body>
</html>
```

For framework-agnostic animation, HyperFrames supports first-party adapters for GSAP, Anime.js, CSS keyframes, Lottie, Three.js, and the Web Animations API — covered in the [Concepts](/concepts) and per-skill docs.

## Render config

Most adopters' render config maps directly:

| Concept | HyperFrames equivalent | Where it lives |
|---------|------------------------|----------------|
| `fps` | `--fps=30` (CLI) or `config.fps` (SDK) | 24, 30, 60 only — non-integer NTSC rationals are an in-process-only feature. |
| `width` / `height` | `--width` / `--height` flags, or `config.width` / `config.height` | Even integers ≤ 7680 (yuv420p parity). |
| `codec: 'h264' / 'h265'` | `--codec=h264` or `--codec=h265` (mp4 only) | h265 uses libx265 with closed-GOP keyint params so chunked concat-copy round-trips losslessly. |
| Output format | `--format=mp4 / mov / webm / png-sequence` | webm uses libvpx-vp9 + closed-GOP concat-copy. Distributed mode still refuses HDR mp4 at plan time. |
| Quality preset | `--quality=draft / standard / high` | Maps onto ffmpeg encoder presets. |
| Chunk size in frames | `--chunk-size=240` (default 240) | ~8s at 30 fps; sized to fit Lambda's 15-min cap with headroom. |
| Max parallel chunks | `--max-parallel-chunks=16` (default 16) | Caps the Map state's fan-out. |
| Bitrate / CRF | `--bitrate=10M` or `--crf=18` | Mutually exclusive. |

## Variables (inputProps)

Render-time payloads — `inputProps` in some frameworks, `variables` in HyperFrames — are isomorphic. Declare the composition's variable shape on the root `<html>` element via `data-composition-variables`, then pass per-render values with `hyperframes render --variables '{...}'` locally or `hyperframes lambda render --variables` on the Lambda surface. The same 256 KiB execution-input cap and "URL your assets, don't inline base64" convention apply.

The full mapping — `defaultProps` → declarations, `useCurrentFrame()` + `props.<x>` → `__hyperframes.getVariables().<x>`, `renderMediaOnLambda({ inputProps })` → `renderToLambda({ config: { variables } })` — lives in [Templates on Lambda](/deploy/templates-on-lambda#migrating-from-remotion-lambda-inputprops).

## What HyperFrames does differently

A few areas where the contract is intentionally different from comparable frameworks. Surface them up front so the migration doesn't surprise you mid-deploy.

### Deterministic Chrome path is mandatory

HyperFrames refuses `data-gpu-mode="hardware"` in distributed mode — hardware GL is non-deterministic across chunk boundaries, and the per-chunk concat-copy assumes byte-level reproducibility. Compositions that opt into hardware GL in-process must drop it for Lambda renders. The Lambda handler trips a typed `BROWSER_GPU_NOT_SOFTWARE` non-retryable error on plan that's easy to catch in the progress output.

### Font fetching fails closed

`failClosedFontFetch` is default-on in distributed mode. A composition that references a `font-family` HyperFrames can't fetch will fail at plan time (`FONT_FETCH_FAILED`) rather than silently falling back to the OS default. If you currently lean on system-font fallbacks, list the fonts you need explicitly via `<link rel="stylesheet">` or `@fontsource/*` imports.

### No HDR (yet)

`hdrMode: 'force-hdr'` is rejected at plan time. The v1.5 backlog covers HDR mp4 via `-bsf:v hevc_metadata` re-application; for now, HDR renders use the in-process renderer outside Lambda.

### webm uses closed-GOP VP9

webm distributed renders go through libvpx-vp9 with `-g <chunkSize>`, `-keyint_min <chunkSize>`, `-auto-alt-ref 0`, and `-cpu-used 2`. The alt-ref disable is the load-bearing bit: libvpx-vp9's default non-displayable alt-ref frames can land anywhere in a GOP, which breaks concat-copy at chunk seams. Closed-GOP forces a keyframe at every chunk boundary so `ffmpeg -f concat -c copy` round-trips losslessly. Output is `yuva420p` to preserve alpha. Audio is muxed as Opus.

Distributed webm files are typically ~10-25% larger than the same composition rendered in-process at the same CRF, because closed-GOP forces more keyframes than the in-process single-pass would emit. Per-chunk encode is also slower than libvpx-vp9's default speed/quality tradeoff (`-cpu-used 2` is more conservative than the default for `-deadline good`). The single-machine in-process renderer remains the right choice for short webm renders; distributed pays for itself once a render's wall-clock exceeds what one machine delivers.

### State files are local by default

`hyperframes lambda deploy` writes `<cwd>/.hyperframes/lambda-stack-<name>.json` so subsequent verbs don't re-derive the bucket / state-machine ARN. Two worktrees produce two distinct state files. If you need a shared default location across CI workers, symlink the directory or pass `--stack-name` explicitly on every call.

### IAM policy is print-then-narrow

The default policy doc emitted by `hyperframes lambda policies user/role` uses `Resource: "*"` because the CloudFormation stack creates new ARNs on every adopter's first deploy. After your first successful deploy, narrow the `Resource` to the deployed ARNs — they're predictable from the CFN outputs. CI users typically check the narrowed policy into source and run `hyperframes lambda policies validate ./infra/policy.json` as a pre-deploy gate.

## Migration checklist

1. **Inventory** the compositions you want to migrate. Filter out anything that needs HDR — that stays on your current framework for now. webm renders distributed via closed-GOP VP9 + concat-copy (see the webm section above).
2. **Translate** each composition to plain HTML. The `[Concepts](/concepts)` page covers the data-attribute conventions; the `/hyperframes` skill (`npx skills add heygen-com/hyperframes`) makes Claude / Cursor / Codex aware of them too.
3. **Wire** the new composition into your build pipeline alongside the old one. HyperFrames doesn't need an external bundler — you can `npx hyperframes preview` against the HTML directly.
4. **Deploy** in a separate AWS account or with a `--stack-name=hyperframes-staging` first. Run a real render with `--wait`; verify the output bytes.
5. **Add the policy** to your CI. `hyperframes lambda policies user > infra/iam/hyperframes.json` then `hyperframes lambda policies validate infra/iam/hyperframes.json` on every PR.
6. **Cut over** by pointing your existing automation at the new render endpoint. Keep the old deployment alive until you've verified rolling renders for a release cycle, then `hyperframes lambda destroy` the staging stack and decommission the previous one.

## Non-Lambda runtimes

If you don't want Lambda specifically, the same `@hyperframes/producer/distributed` primitives run anywhere Node + Chrome + ffmpeg + S3 are available. A reference Dockerfile lives at `examples/k8s-jobs/Dockerfile.example` for adopters running on:

- Google Cloud Run Jobs
- Azure Container Apps Jobs
- AWS ECS Fargate
- Kubernetes Jobs / Argo Workflows
- Plain Docker on a beefy VM

Build it yourself — we don't publish a Docker image to a registry. The Dockerfile is documented inline and bakes Node 22 + chrome-headless-shell + ffmpeg + the producer at the version your checkout is on.
