Rdc CLI

 _____  _____   _____
|  __ \|  __ \ / ____|
| |__) | |  | | |
|  _  /| |  | | |
| | \ \| |__| | |____
|_|  \_\_____/ \_____|  cli

Turn RenderDoc captures into Unix text streams. rdc-cli does not replace RenderDoc — it makes .rdc file contents accessible to grep, awk, sort, diff, jq, and AI agents.

Full documentation →

rdc open scene.rdc
rdc draws | grep Shadow | sort -t$'\t' -k3 -rn | head -5   # top 5 shadow draws by tri count
rdc shader 142 ps | grep shadowMap                           # find shadow sampling in PS
rdc cat /draws/142/shader/ps/constants                       # inspect bound constants
rdc diff before.rdc after.rdc --draws | grep '~'             # what changed between two frames?
rdc close

Install

PyPI — Linux (recommended)

uv tool install rdc-cli               # or: pipx install rdc-cli
rdc setup-renderdoc                   # build renderdoc Python module from source
rdc doctor                            # verify everything works

PyPI — Windows (requires git, uv, Visual Studio Build Tools)

uv tool install rdc-cli               # or: pipx install rdc-cli
rdc setup-renderdoc                   # build renderdoc Python module from source
rdc doctor                            # verify everything works

PyPI — macOS (Split client only)

uv tool install rdc-cli               # or: pipx install rdc-cli
rdc doctor

AUR (Arch Linux — builds renderdoc automatically, no extra setup)

yay -S rdc-cli-git    # recommended: tracks latest master
# or
yay -S rdc-cli        # stable: tracks tagged releases

From source

git clone https://github.com/BANANASJIM/rdc-cli.git
cd rdc-cli
pixi install && pixi run sync
pixi run install                      # editable install + shell completions
pixi run setup-renderdoc              # build renderdoc (pixi installs toolchain on macOS)

Platform Support Matrix

Platform	Local capture/replay	Split client	Remote capture
Linux	✅	✅	✅
macOS	❌ (not supported yet)	✅ (recommended)	—
Windows	✅	✅	✅
Android	—	—	✅ capture + remote replay

RenderDoc bootstrap

After installing rdc-cli, build the renderdoc Python module:

rdc setup-renderdoc

If building from source, use the pixi wrapper instead: pixi run setup-renderdoc

Quickstart

Explore a capture like a filesystem:

rdc ls /                              # top-level: draws, passes, resources, shaders, ...
rdc ls /draws/142                     # what's inside this draw call?
rdc cat /draws/142/pipeline/blend      # color blend state
rdc tree /passes --depth 2            # pass structure at a glance

Shader debugging — no GUI needed:

rdc shader 142 ps                     # pixel shader disassembly
rdc shader 142 ps --constants         # current constant buffer values
rdc debug pixel 142 400 300 --trace   # step-by-step PS execution trace
rdc search "shadowMap"                # grep across all shaders in the frame

Export and scripting: