pair-programmer

What is Pair Programmer?

Pair Programmer is a skill that lets your AI coding assistant see your screen and hear your voice while you work.

It captures:

• Your screen — errors, code, browser tabs, terminals, everything you see
• Your voice — ideas, questions, debugging thoughts, instructions
• Your system audio — YouTube tutorials, meeting calls, demos

Everything gets saved and becomes searchable. So instead of explaining what happened, just ask:

• What was on screen when the test failed?
• What did I say about the database issue?
• Summarize the last 10 minutes

It's like giving your AI eyes and ears.

Demo

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/65af0b7e-3af9-4d05-9f0a-1415b19b4e9a

Quickstart

1. Install

If you have an older version installed, remove it first before upgrading.

npx skills add video-db/pair-programmer

2. Setup

Get a free VideoDB API key from console.videodb.io (no credit card required) and set it:

export VIDEO_DB_API_KEY=your-key

Or add it to a .env file in your project root.

Note: Commands below (starting with /) are run inside your AI coding agent — Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, etc. The command prefix may vary by agent. For example, Codex uses $ instead of /.

Then run setup inside your agent:

/pair-programmer setup

3. Use

🟢 Go Live — start capturing your screen, mic, and system audio:

/pair-programmer record

A window will pop up so you can choose what to capture. Once started, a small overlay shows you're live.

🔍 Search — ask questions about what happened:

/pair-programmer search "what was I working on when I mentioned the auth bug?"

/pair-programmer search "what did I say in the last 5 minutes?"

🎤 Act — said something you want done? Let your AI act on it:

/pair-programmer act

📋 Summary — get a quick recap:

/pair-programmer what-happened

⏹️ Stop — stop when you're done:

/pair-programmer stop

Why use this?

Ever had to explain the same thing twice to your AI? Or copy-paste an error message it could have just seen? Pair Programmer fixes that.

Watch a YouTube tutorial together — your AI follows along without you explaining anything.

Brainstorm out loud — just talk through your ideas. Your AI hears and remembers everything.

Debug without repeating yourself — it already saw the error on your screen.

Get context from meetings — had a call about requirements? Your AI was listening.

Use it for:

• Debugging sessions
• Following along with tutorials
• Voice-first coding
• Meeting follow-ups
• Bug reproduction
• Architecture walkthroughs

Commands

The / prefix shown below is for Claude Code. Other agents may use a different prefix (e.g. $ for Codex).

| Command | What it does | |---------|--------------| | /pair-programmer record | Go live — start capturing screen, mic, and audio | | /pair-programmer stop | Stop capturing | | /pair-programmer search "<query>" | Search what happened using plain English | | /pair-programmer act | Act on something you said out loud | | /pair-programmer what-happened | Get a summary of recent activity | | /pair-programmer setup | Install dependencies and set things up | | /pair-programmer config | Change settings |

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• macOS 12+ or Windows
• VideoDB API key — free at console.videodb.io

Alternative installation

You can also install via the Claude Code plugin marketplace:

/plugin marketplace add video-db/pair-programmer
/plugin install pair-programmer@videodb

Community and support

Pair Programmer is open source. Use it, modify it, make it your own.

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Docs: docs.videodb.io
• Discord: Join the community