claude-hedra

name

claude-hedra

description

Hedra Character-3 lip-synced talking-head video for the AgentCompanies portfolio. Trigger when a video needs a real character delivering VO on-camera — intro hooks, presenter beats, outro CTAs, anywhere a viewer benefits from seeing a face speak the line. Generates from a single portrait reference + an audio clip; ~$0.50-1.00 per 8s clip. When NOT to use this skill: - Atmospheric / cinematic scenes without a named character → fal Sora 2 / Kling 3 Pro - Animated info-design (charts, timelines, money-flow) → claude-remotion - Real political figures (Trump, Obama, Adelson, etc.) → Wikimedia photo + ken-burns Canonical CR narrator portrait: companies/campaign-receipts/brand/betsy-portrait.png

claude-hedra — Lip-synced talking-head pipeline

Hedra Character-3 (API: https://api.hedra.com/web-app/public) generates ~8-second lip-synced talking-head clips from a single portrait reference

• an audio file. This is the "viral production value" upgrade — it's what makes CR look like a show with a host, not a slideshow with AI voice.

When to trigger

A storyboard clip should use Hedra (vendor: "hedra-character3") when:

• A named recurring character delivers a VO line on-camera
• The viewer's retention depends on seeing a face (first 8 seconds of any video — Hedra intro hook is non-negotiable for the CR channel)
• The line is a "pivot moment" — donor reveal, verdict announcement, CTA — that needs more weight than a static photo + VO can provide

For CR specifically, the four canonical Hedra beats per long-form:

1. Intro hook (0:00-0:08) — Betsy delivers the headline shock
2. Mid-1 (~30-40% mark) — Betsy reveals the donor / culprit
3. Mid-2 (~60-70% mark) — Betsy delivers the verdict line
4. Outro CTA (last 5-8s) — Betsy points viewer to sealed2016.com

API contract (driver invocation)

The produce-from-storyboard.py driver supports vendor: "hedra-character3" storyboard clips with these required fields:

{
  "id": "s1-01-hook",
  "vendor": "hedra-character3",
  "duration_s": 8,
  "portrait": "companies/campaign-receipts/brand/betsy-portrait.png",
  "audio": "_build/<slug>/vo-hook.mp3",
  "aspect": "16:9"
}

The audio chunk must be pre-extracted from the long-form vo.mp3 via ffmpeg so Hedra has just the VO segment for this beat (Hedra derives output duration from audio length).

Standalone CLI

python3 companies/campaign-receipts/scripts/pipeline/hedra-character3.py \
  --portrait companies/campaign-receipts/brand/betsy-portrait.png \
  --audio _build/<slug>/vo-hook.mp3 \
  --duration 8 \
  --out _build/<slug>/clips/betsy-hook.mp4 \
  --aspect 16:9

Writes the mp4 + a .hedra.json sidecar with the generation_id for cost tracking.

Auth

Reads HEDRA_API_KEY from /Applications/DrAntoniou Projects/AgentCompanies/.env. Falls back to legacy NT_HEDRA_API_KEY (same key, shared portfolio-wide). Never commit the key — .env is gitignored.

House-style rules (CR brand)

• Portrait is canonical. For CR, always use brand/betsy-portrait.png. Never re-roll a new portrait per video. Brand consistency across all 145 promise videos depends on Betsy looking like the same person every time.
• No campaign-rally aesthetic. Hedra's text_prompt should describe subtle delivery: "warm conversational, slight head movement, eye contact, natural micro-expressions." Avoid: theatrical gestures, dramatic emphasis, anchor-stiff posture.
• Speed matches storytelling cadence. The audio chunk should be ElevenLabs Bella at teacher-cadence settings (stability=0.55, similarity=0.75, style=0.15, speed=0.93).

Cost discipline

• ~$0.50-1.00 per 8s clip (Hedra credits, rough estimate)
• Per long-form video: 4 Hedra beats × $0.80 = ~$3.20
• Per promise video budget: ≤$5 Hedra spend (the other clips are free Remotion + ken-burns Wikimedia)
• Hard cap: $13/promise video total
• $500/company cumulative cap (portfolio rule)

Skill location

Canonical: shared/skills/claude-hedra/ in the monorepo (travels with the repo). Mirror: ~/.claude/skills/claude-hedra/ for harness auto-discovery.

If you edit the skill, edit the repo copy and cp -R to ~/.claude/skills/.