Use when the user wants to generate a rendered promotional video (not just a script) for a PR, feature, or product change — produces a Remotion project, iterates with preview, and outputs mp4 + poster for X/LinkedIn/social.
Installation
Install with Codex or Claude Copy this prompt, paste it into Codex, Claude, or another assistant, and let it review the skill page and install it for you.
This SKILL.md is very large, so SkillsMP previews the first section here.View on GitHub
name
remotion-video
description
Use when the user wants to generate a rendered promotional video (not just a script) for a PR, feature, or product change — produces a Remotion project, iterates with preview, and outputs mp4 + poster for X/LinkedIn/social.
Remotion Video
Turn a PR into a rendered short-form promo video with a hook, code moments, and CTA, using Remotion. Iterate with live preview in Remotion Studio, then render video.mp4 and poster.jpg for X/LinkedIn/social.
Unlike /video-script (which produces a textual script), this skill produces the actual video file.
Triggers
Invoke when the user says: "make a video for this PR", "remotion video", "render a promo video", "video for X/LinkedIn", or when selected from /marketing-pipeline.
Phases 1, 3, 5, and 7 have explicit approval gates. Phase 2 is an interactive Q&A. Phase 5 is a freeform iteration loop that can run many rounds.
"Use Sane Defaults" / "Don't Ask Questions" — What It Does and Doesn't Override
When the user invokes the skill with phrasing like "use sane defaults", "don't ask questions", "non-interactive", "just ship it", or any equivalent — interpret it precisely:
It DOES override (skip the prompt, pick the default):
Q2.1 duration → derive from scope using the ladder in Q2.1 (still in the 15–60s window); pick the midpoint of the matched scope band and proceed without asking
Q2.4 brand confirmation (the "use these / customize / provide your own?" question)
Phase 1.4 scope confirmation
Phase 3.0 motif confirmation
Phase 3.1 story-pattern confirmation
Phase 3.3 scene-plan approval
Phase 5 freeform iteration loop (the "what would you like to change?" prompt)
It does NOT override (must always run regardless):
Brand color/font/logo scanning (Q2.4 detection — see HARD-GATE in Q2.4). Hardcoding colors from training-data assumptions about a project is a forbidden shortcut.
Phase 5 preview (Remotion Studio must start and the studio URL must be opened in the browser before the render runs). Even in fully unattended mode, the user can interrupt; the agent must not pre-decide for them.
Phase 6 pre-render audits (storytelling, hook rules, motif presence, pacing variance, value-prop timing, contrast). These exist to prevent shipping a generic video.
Phase 7 cleanup question (the user owns project disposition).
If you're tempted to skip a HARD-GATE because the user "said no questions" — re-read this section. The user said no questions, not no gates.
Input Resolution
Resolve the argument (if provided) in this order:
Path to a marketing brief (.md containing "Executive Summary" or "Key Messages") → marketing brief
Path to a blog post (.md with blog post structure) → blog post
Path to a changelog → changelog
GitHub PR URL or #\d+ pattern → PR
Matches <ref>..<ref> or <ref>...<ref> (alphanumeric + /, _, ., - on each side) → git ref range
Resolves to an existing file/directory → codebase feature
Otherwise → freeform text
If no argument is provided, ask: "What should the video be about? You can provide a PR URL/number, marketing brief, blog post, changelog, git ref range, file/directory path, or just describe the feature."
When invoked from the pipeline with a PR and upstream marketing-brief/blog-post paths, read both: PR for technical accuracy, upstream content for positioning/tone.
Attempt to invoke the remotion-best-practices skill via the Skill tool. If unavailable, present:
"The remotion-best-practices skill isn't installed. Options:
a) proceed with baseline Remotion knowledge (quality may be reduced)
b) wait while you install it
c) cancel"
If the user picks (a), emit a warning in the final summary noting reduced quality.
For PRs with 20+ files, filter to user-facing changes only — skip tests/, ci/, .github/, lockfile changes, dep bumps.
Error handling:
gh not available → tell the user, ask for an alternative (diff file, freeform description)
Invalid PR/ref → ask user to verify
File not found → ask for the correct path
Step 1.2a — PR deep analysis (when input is a PR)
When the input is a PR, the brief table in Step 1.2 is not enough. PR bodies are routinely vague, outdated, or focused on implementation rather than user value, and a video built off the body alone tends to overclaim or miss the headline angle entirely. Before continuing to Step 1.3, run this structured analysis and produce a written PR analysis block that becomes the source of truth for Steps 1.4 (scope confirmation), Q2.1 (duration ladder), and Phase 3 (narrative planning).
Record baseRefName (usually main / master / develop) — that is the diff reference. gh pr diff <n> automatically compares the PR head against this base.
Pull the full diff against the base.
gh pr diff <n>
For very large PRs (>500 lines or >20 files), also list changed files via gh pr view <n> --json files.
Filter to user-facing surfaces. Ignore (do not let these shape the headline angle): tests/, __tests__/, *.test.*, *.spec.*, __mocks__/, ci/, .github/, lockfiles, dep bumps without behavior change, generated/build artifacts (dist/, build/, .next/), and formatting-only diffs. What remains is the user-facing surface of the PR.
Enumerate the public-API delta. From the filtered diff, list every change a user could observe or write code against:
Changed default values for existing public surfaces
Changed error messages, log shapes, or response shapes the user could rely on
Grep the diff for added lines beginning with export , new top-level function/class/const in src/ / lib/ / packages/*/src/, new files in those trees, and changes to public type signatures. If you cannot point at a line in the diff for a claimed API, the claim is wrong — drop it.
Enumerate the behavior delta. Beyond API surfaces, list user-visible behavior changes: UI elements added/changed (with file references), CLI / network output that looks different, side effects firing under new conditions, removed limitations, performance characteristics that changed.
Write the before / after value statement. Exactly two sentences, both grounded in concrete diff evidence:
Before:"Before this PR, a user who wanted to ___ had to ___."
After:"After this PR, the same user can ___."
The "had to" half must be a real prior workflow you can describe — copy-pasting an adapter from the docs, installing a second package, writing boilerplate, hitting an error, switching to a different tool. If the honest "Before" sentence is "they could already do this", the PR has no user-visible value delta — see step 8.
Cross-check the PR body against the diff. Walk the body's claims and the diff side-by-side:
Body claims a feature → does the diff confirm? If the body says "added X" and the diff has no public surface for X (only tests, only docs, only internal helpers), flag it: "PR body claims X but the diff doesn't expose X to users — should I shift the angle to ?"
Diff shows multiple distinct features → body emphasizes one? Flag the others as candidate angles: "The body emphasizes A, but the diff also adds B and C. Which is the headline angle?"
Body is empty / boilerplate / [BLANK]? Infer from the diff; make the inferred angle explicit and confirm with the user at Step 1.4.
List "surprises" — anything in the diff not mentioned in the body that affects user-visible behavior. Surprises are often the real story.
Bail-out check: is this PR actually user-visible? If after steps 4–6 you cannot name a single new thing the user can do or observe, the PR is not video-worthy as a feature launch. Stop and ask the user:
"This PR looks like an internal refactor / test-only / dep-bump PR — I can't find a user-visible value delta. Options:
a) shift to a performance / DX / cleanup angle if numbers support it
b) pick a different PR or input
c) cancel"
Do not invent a feature angle to fill the gap. A confabulated angle wastes a full iteration round and destroys user trust on the very first draft.
Produce the PR analysis block. Write the result as a short structured block before continuing to Step 1.3. This block — not the PR body — is the source of truth for everything downstream:
PR analysis — #1234 "Add fromZodSchema support"
Base: main · Head: feature/zod-schema · Author: <login>
User-facing files: 3 (packages/core/src/index.ts, packages/core/src/zod.ts, packages/core/src/types.ts)
Filtered out: 5 test files, 2 doc files, lockfile
Public-API delta:
+ export function fromZodSchema(schema: ZodSchema): StandardSchema
+ export type ZodCompatibleSchema
~ default error code for ZodError changed: 'invalid_type' → 'STANDARD/type'
Behavior delta:
- Users importing zod schemas no longer need a manual adapter.
- Error messages from zod paths now use the StandardError shape.
Before / after:
Before: copy a 15-line adapter from the docs into every project that mixes zod with this library.
After: one import + one call.
Surprises (in diff but not in PR body):
- Default error shape change (above) — could be the headline angle for migration-aware audiences.
Headline angle: "drop the 15-line adapter — one import, one call"
Scope band for Q2.1: one idea (15–25s)
The "Headline angle" line feeds Phase 3.0's motif derivation and Phase 3.3's hook copy. The "Scope band" line feeds Q2.1's scope-derived duration proposal.
Forbidden shortcuts (each is a fast path to a wrong video):
Writing the analysis block from the PR title alone — fail; you must read the diff.
Skipping the cross-check because the body "looks complete" — bodies often look complete and are wrong.
Treating the PR body as truth when it conflicts with the diff — the diff wins.
Filling in a plausible "Before" sentence when the diff doesn't support one — run the bail-out check instead.
Collapsing two genuinely distinct user-visible features into one "feature X" bullet to make the scope band look smaller — record both and pick a headline angle at Step 1.4.
For git-ref-range and codebase-path inputs, apply the same structure with the diff coming from git diff <range> / direct file reads in place of gh pr diff. Steps 4–9 (public-API delta → analysis block) are not PR-specific.
Step 1.3 — Read product context
Read if they exist: README.md, docs/, package.json. If nothing found, ask: "Can you briefly describe the product and who it's for?"
Step 1.4 — Present understanding + get scope confirmation
For PR inputs, the bullets and the compelling angle below must be derived from the PR analysis block written in Step 1.2a — not from the PR title or body. Quote the "Headline angle" line directly as the proposed story seed; turn the public-API delta and the before/after statement into the bullets. If the user added clarifying context after Step 1.2a, fold it in here.
For non-PR inputs, derive the bullets from the relevant entry in Step 1.2 (marketing brief positioning, blog headline, changelog highlight, codebase reading, freeform description).
Present:
"Here's what I'll base the video on:
[feature summary bullet 1 — concrete, grounded in the diff / source]
[feature summary bullet 2 — the before → after value, in one line]
The compelling angle: [proposed story seed — for PRs, the "Headline angle" from the analysis block]
Anything to add, remove, or correct?"
Do not proceed until the user confirms.
Step 1.5 — Sensitive content scan
Before continuing, scan for: security patches, internal pricing, credentials, unreleased roadmap items, content marked confidential. Flag anything questionable to the user.
Phase 2: Configuration
Ask these questions one at a time, in order.
Q2.1 — Duration (derived from scope, never offered as a menu)
Do not ask the user to pick a fixed length from a menu. A fixed number becomes a constraint, and the dominant failure mode is padding — freeze-frames, repeated beats, black or empty trailing frames, or filler bullets added solely to reach the chosen target. Instead, derive a duration from the scope of the change and present it as a proposal the user can confirm or override.
Allowed range: 15–60 seconds. Anything outside this window is wrong by default. Going under 15s means the story can't breathe; going over 60s means it's two videos.
Scope → duration ladder:
Scope of the PR / feature
Distinct payoff beats
Target
One idea (single API addition, single bug fix, one QoL win)
hook + 1 delivery + CTA
15–25s
Typical PR-sized feature (problem → solution → proof, or a multi-chapter code walk)
hook + 2–3 delivery + CTA
25–40s
Multi-faceted release (multiple distinct sub-features, or comparison needing problem + solution + proof beats)
hook + 3–4 delivery + CTA
40–60s
A distinct payoff beat is one new thing the viewer learns. Two scenes whose payoff sentences (see Phase 3.3 item 1) reduce to the same idea are one beat, not two.
Sanity check before proposing — do this silently first:
List the distinct payoff beats the video must contain.
Estimate: hook ≈ 3s, CTA ≈ 5–7s, each delivery beat ≈ 6–10s (longer if it contains a code chapter ladder).
Sum the floor and the ceiling. If the floor is under 15s, you're padding the beat list — cut beats or shrink the scope claim. If the ceiling is over 60s, you have two videos — pick one angle.
Propose to the user (no menu, no fixed lengths):
"Based on the scope of this PR, I'm targeting ~Xs (range Ys–Zs). Beats: . Confirm, or override with a different length anywhere in 15–60s."
Hard rule — story sets duration, never the other way around. If at any later phase a scene needs to be stretched, held on a static frame, repeated, backed by black/empty frames, or filled with filler bullets to reach the chosen target — stop, shorten the target, re-confirm with the user, and ship the shorter video. Padding to hit a number is the single behavior this rule exists to forbid. If a 30s scope honestly tells in 18s, ship 18s.
Breathing-room constraint. Whatever duration is chosen, it must allow every on-screen text element to (a) finish animating in, (b) dwell long enough to be read, and (c) settle for at least ~0.4s before the next scene begins. Cutting to a new scene the instant a line of text finishes appearing is forbidden. See Phase 3.3 (item 3) and the Phase 6 audit for the concrete dwell-time table.
Multi-format — render all three from the same story"
Frame rate is fixed at 30fps. The audit thresholds throughout this skill are expressed in absolute frame counts assuming 30fps; do NOT change fps in remotion.config.ts without simultaneously updating every frame-based threshold (Phase 6 pre-render audit, the dwell-time table, the breathing-room rules, chapters-required threshold).
Q2.3 — Remotion project location
"Where should the Remotion project live?
Default: marketing/<feature-slug>/remotion/ (fresh per-video)
Override: specify a path."
Q2.4 — Brand assets (auto-detect → confirm)
**The brand scan is mandatory. It is not skippable under any user instruction — including "use sane defaults", "don't ask questions", "just ship it", or "non-interactive". Those instructions affect interactive *confirmation*; they do NOT affect *detection*.**
You MUST run the heuristics in brand-detection.md against the actual target repository — the source code that owns the feature, not the marketing/ output directory — before selecting any color, font, or logo.
Forbidden shortcuts (these produce wrong colors and waste an iteration):
"I know this project — TanStack uses amber, Vercel uses black/white, Stripe uses purple" → No. Run the scan. Recall is unreliable; brand details drift between training data and now.
"It's a dev tool, dark + neon green is fine" → No. Generic vibes ≠ this product's brand.
"User said no questions, so I'll skip detection" → No. Detection is silent. Confirmation is what the "no questions" instruction skips.
Picking from a palette in your head because it "fits the topic" → No. Read the repo's CSS/Tailwind/theme files.
The scan must produce a written record before any composition file is written. Output a short block listing, for each field: the source file checked, the value found (or not found), and the final value used. Example:
Brand scan — TanStack/ai
Primary : checked tailwind.config.* (none) · packages/*/styles.css (--brand: #0a3d2e) → #0a3d2e
Accent : checked theme.json (none) · brand.json (none) · derived from primary → #14b870
Logo : checked public/logo.svg → public/logo.svg (will be referenced from src/brand.ts)
Font : checked next/font (none) · @fontsource (none) · README ref → Inter (fallback)
If the scan finds nothing for a field, fall through to the neutral defaults below — but only after the scan ran and is recorded. Skipping the scan and going straight to defaults is the failure mode this gate exists to prevent.
If you cannot find a logo, ask the user — do NOT invent one. The same rule applies to any field where detection genuinely turned up nothing and no sensible neutral default exists.
The following are non-negotiable regardless of "no questions" mode:
Asset locations (where the logo and any referenced media live)
File output destination (the marketing/<feature-slug>/remotion/ path or override)
Target audience (carried in from Phase 1's PR/brief analysis)
In interactive mode, present findings (the block above) and ask for confirmation. In non-interactive / "use sane defaults" mode, print the same block and proceed without asking — the record is required either way.
Present findings as:
"I found:
Logo: public/logo.svg
Primary: #0066ff (from tailwind.config.js)
Font: Inter (from next/font)
Use these, customize some, or provide your own?"
Persistence: write chosen brand to marketing/<feature-slug>/remotion/.marketing/brand.json (mirrors the hyperframes-video location). On subsequent runs, ask:
"I loaded brand settings from marketing/<feature-slug>/remotion/.marketing/brand.json. Use saved, or re-detect?"
Fallback when nothing detected: ask explicitly with these neutral defaults. These are intentionally neutral — auto-detection of the project's actual brand is always preferred, and these values should only appear when detection turns up nothing.
Primary: #3B82F6 (neutral blue)
Accent: #8B5CF6 (neutral violet)
Background: #0A0A0A (near-black, dark mode)
Text: #FFFFFF (white)
Muted: #9CA3AF
Success: #22C55E
Danger: #EF4444
Font: Geist (loaded automatically via @remotion/google-fonts)
Logo: none
Confirm with the user before scaffolding.
Note on fonts: The default scaffold loads Geist via @remotion/google-fonts and wires it into brand.font.family. To use a different Google Font, edit src/fonts.ts to import from a different @remotion/google-fonts/<Name> module. brand.font.googleFont is the display name used by the skill to decide which module to load. Non-Google fonts require manual wiring.
Phase 3: Narrative Planning
Step 3.0 — Derive the signature motif from context
Before picking a story pattern, identify the signature visual motif that will carry the narrative across scenes. This is the single most important call for not looking generic.
Finish this sentence in one verb: "This feature lets developers ___ something."
Translate the verb into a physical / spatial metaphor: a waveform for audio composition, packets traveling edges for sync, squiggle underlines for type validation, a padlock for auth, a rocket/checkpoint line for deploy, a switchboard for routing.
Pick the state-change axis: the motif must visibly change between Problem and Solution scenes (broken ↔ unified, empty ↔ full, disconnected ↔ connected). Pick ONE axis and hold it across the video.
Look up the motif in references/visual-motifs.md — the catalog maps 20+ common verbs to motifs, state axes, and example custom elements. If the verb isn't listed, apply the heuristic in that file.
Confirm with user:
"The core verb is compose music, so I'll use an animated waveform as the signature motif — smooth/clean in the hook and solution, jagged/red in the problem. This thread will appear in scenes 1, 2, and 4. Approve, pick a different motif, or let me propose alternatives?"
Do NOT skip this step. A video without a derived motif defaults to generic bullet-list storytelling and fails the generic test (Storytelling Rule 10).
Step 3.1 — Detect story pattern
Scan the PR/input for signals and pick one of 5 patterns. See the detection signals table in patterns/README.md — that file is the single source of truth.
Load the matching pattern spec from patterns/<pattern>.md.
Confirm with user:
"This looks like an [API/Library feature] PR. I'll use that story template. Override? Options: api-library / ui / performance / bugfix / generic / describe a custom pattern"
Step 3.2 — Decide code sourcing (hybrid)
Per pattern:
api-library-feature → synthesize realistic usage examples that show how developers will actually use the feature
ui-feature → screenshots / mock components (no code block scenes)
performance-win → metric cards + optional code
bug-fix → before (broken) + after (working) snippets, synthesized if raw diff is noisy
generic-fallback → bullet benefits, no code
Offer user override:
"For code snippets, I'll synthesize realistic usage examples rather than paste raw diff. Override: use-diff / synthesize / mix"
Step 3.2b — Ground synthesized code in the real library
Before synthesizing usage code for a PR, verify the library's actual public API. Do not invent method names, argument shapes, or import paths.
For each snippet the skill plans to include:
Locate the real library code locally (e.g., packages/<name>/src/index.ts, docs examples in docs/, test fixtures in tests/).
Confirm every imported name exists as exported.
Confirm every method/function signature matches (argument names, shape, async vs sync).
Prefer patterns from the library's own docs over inferred shapes.
If the library isn't available locally and the skill can't verify, ask the user before synthesizing. A wrong API in the first draft destroys user trust and wastes a full iteration round.
Step 3.3 — Self-improve the draft, then present for approval
This step has two parts: a silent self-improvement loop that you run before the user sees anything, and the user-facing approval gate that follows.
Do not show the user the first thing you wrote. The first version of a scene plan is almost always weaker than the second. The agent's job here is to hand the user the strongest plan it can build given the rules in this skill, not the first draft.
Self-improvement loop (silent — run before presenting)
After drafting an initial scene plan, run a deliberate improvement pass against the rule sections listed below. Iterate at least twice. Stop only when one full pass produces zero further changes — the draft has stabilized.
On every pass, for each scene and for the plan as a whole, ask:"Does this satisfy this rule? If not, can I rewrite, merge, drop, split, or reorder a scene to fix it?" Apply the fix in-place, then continue the pass.
The five Core checks below must be satisfied — every plan, no exceptions. On top of those, scan against the broader rule sections at the end of this step.
Core checks (every plan must satisfy all five):
Per-scene payoff: for each scene, write one sentence of the form "The new thing a viewer knows at the end of this scene is ___." If two scenes produce the same sentence, one is redundant — merge or cut. If a scene's sentence is vague (e.g., "the product is good"), the scene is filler — redesign.
Pacing variance: scene durations must reflect cognitive load, not a uniform slice. Reference shape for a 30s target — scale proportionally for shorter (15–25s) or longer (40–60s) videos:
Hook: ~10–12% of total (≈3s @ 30s; ≈1.8s @ 15s; ≈6s @ 60s) — a single punch
Problem / setup: ~15–20% (≈5s @ 30s) — enough to land one concrete claim
Delivery (code / swap / comparison): ~45–55%, with internal chapters if the beat exceeds ~8s (>240 frames at 30fps)
CTA: ~18–25%, never below 4s (120 frames at 30fps) regardless of total — the CTA always breathes and never rushes
Reject plans where the shortest and longest scene differ by less than ~2×. Equal-slice plans are the single strongest "AI-generated" tell. Reject plans where the CTA is under 4s — a rushed CTA destroys the conversion the rest of the video bought.
Breathing room (no rush-cuts on text): a scene must not transition out while a text element is still being read. Minimum on-screen dwell time, measured from the moment the element finishes animating in to the moment the scene begins transitioning out:
Element
Minimum dwell
Short headline / one phrase (≤6 words)
≥ 1.5s (≥45 frames at 30fps)
Long headline / single sentence (7–14 words)
≥ 2.5s (≥75 frames)
Two-line text / short paragraph (15–30 words)
≥ 3.5s (≥105 frames)
Code chapter (per chapter, after focus lands)
≥ 3s (≥90 frames)
CTA URL / handle (must be clearly readable)
≥ 3s (≥90 frames)
Every scene must also include a ~0.4s settle hold (≥12 frames at 30fps) between the last animation completing and the scene transitioning out. Cutting on the same frame an animation finishes is forbidden — the eye needs a beat to confirm what it saw, and transitions that arrive on the resolve-frame feel cluttered and amateur. If the proposed durationFrames cannot accommodate these minima, shorten the beat list, do not shrink the dwell times.
Value prop by ~t=8s (or by ~25–30% of total duration, whichever is earlier): by the end of scene 2, the viewer must know what the feature does, who it's for, and why it matters. If that's not true with the current plan, restructure before scaffolding. Do NOT bury the value in the delivery scene.
Motif presence and state-change: the signature motif chosen in Phase 3.0 must appear in at least 2 scenes (typically 3: hook + problem + CTA) and visibly change state between at least one adjacent pair (e.g., clean → glitchy → clean again).
Broader rule sections to scan on every improvement pass. Search this file (or the linked file) for each section heading and walk it against the current draft:
Hook enforcement (hooks/hook-rules.md) — applied to the HookTitle scene. If it fails any check, rewrite the headline; don't just record the failure.
Storytelling & Visual Uniqueness Rules (the numbered "Rule N" sections later in this file) — generic-test, no plain bullet lists, signature motif as load-bearing element, anti-clickbait, side-by-side contrasts, insight tagline, counter-expectation beat, pattern-interrupt vs information, first-10s value prop, et al.
Code Scene Rules — chapters mandatory for ≥5s code beats (>150 frames at 30fps), synchronized per-chapter narration, per-chapter dwell (~3s, ~90 frames), line-length per scene type, diagnostic-comment color, elide unimportant config with /*…*/, pre-break long imports.
Layout Rules — single alignment per scene, foreground readability over decoration, no accidental overlap, hero-text size on aspect changes.
Visual Cognition Rules — ≤4 visual chunks per frame, one pre-attentive cue per focal element, reading-flow matched to scene type, reading-saccade limits.
Anti-padding rule (Q2.1) — if any scene exists solely to fill time, cut it and shorten the target. Do not carry it forward.
Pattern spec loaded in Step 3.1 (patterns/<pattern>.md) — the scene sequence and payoffs should be coherent with the template; deviations must have a clear justification.
Step 3.0 motif & Step 3.2b grounded code — verify motif state-change still applies and any synthesized code still maps to real exports/signatures after the rewrites.
Improvements you may apply silently during the loop (no user question needed):
Rewrite headlines, payoff sentences, captions, and CTA copy for stronger hook discipline and clearer payoff
Merge two scenes whose payoff sentences collapse to the same idea
Drop a scene whose only function is to fill time, and shorten the target accordingly
Split a delivery scene into chaptered sub-beats when a single block exceeds ~8s (>240 frames at 30fps)
Re-assign motif state per scene to produce a visible state-change between at least one adjacent pair
Reorder scenes to move the value prop earlier
Adjust per-scene durationFrames to satisfy pacing variance and breathing-room minima — only by trimming, never by stretching or padding
Replace generic bullets with concrete artifacts (real API shapes, real error messages, real metrics) drawn from the input
Changes that must wait for the user — flag them, do not apply silently:
Moving the target duration outside the ±20% band confirmed at Q2.1
Changing the signature motif chosen at Step 3.0
Changing the story pattern chosen at Step 3.1
Adding or removing major scenes that alter the headline narrative claim
Stop condition. End the loop when one full pass over all rule sections (Core checks + broader sections) produces zero changes. If you hit five passes without stabilizing, you have a structural problem the loop can't fix — stop and ask the user for guidance instead of churning.
Present the (already-improved) scene plan for approval
When presenting to the user, include a brief "Self-review notes" line near the top of the response so the user can see the improvement work was actually done. List the 2–5 most material changes the loop applied. Example:
Self-review notes: tightened the hook line from "Add validation easily" to "Swap validation libs with one line"; merged a redundant "why it matters" scene into the problem setup; trimmed delivery 14s → 11s so the CTA dwells ≥4s.
If the loop produced no material changes (rare — usually means the first draft was already strong, or the agent isn't pushing hard enough), say so explicitly: "Self-review notes: draft was stable on first pass; no rewrites needed."
Example output:
"Here's the plan (30s target):
HookTitle (0–3s, 90f) — "Swap validation libs with one line"
— payoff: there's one line that replaces N SDKs
ProblemSetup (3–8s, 150f) — three evidence cards with concrete conflicting API shapes
— payoff: viewer sees the real API-shape conflict they live with today
LibrarySwap (8–22s, 420f) — shared Standard Schema code, import line cycles zod → valibot → arktype
— payoff: viewer sees the "one line change" literally happen on screen
CTAEndScreen (22–30s, 240f) — "Ship it" + link to standardschema.dev
— payoff: viewer knows exactly where to go next
Pacing: hook 3s / problem 5s / delivery 14s / CTA 8s (ratio ~4.7×) — passes variance check.
Motif: schema-interop glyph (interlocking rings) appears in scenes 1, 2, 4; rings are disconnected in scene 2, unified in 1 and 4.
Approve or adjust any section?"
Do not scaffold until the user approves the scene plan.
See patterns/README.md for how patterns map to scene plans.
Step 3.4 — Plan scene transitions (match-cuts)
Hard cuts between scenes are acceptable; match-cuts are what make a video feel crafted. When the signature motif (Phase 3.0) appears in adjacent scenes, the motif must carry over as a match-cut, not restart from zero.
Rules:
When the same motif component appears in scene N and scene N+1, render it in the last ~8 frames of scene N with the entering state of scene N+1 already beginning. The motif's position, scale, and core geometry must be continuous across the cut — only its state (color, amplitude, opacity, shape) changes.
When adjacent scenes use different motifs, a text/background element may bridge them: e.g., the last word of scene N's tagline becomes the first word of scene N+1's caption, kept at the same position during the transition.
When scenes have NO common element, use a directional motion cue — a brand-primary bar sweeping left-to-right that covers the cut — never a generic fade-to-black.
SceneBackground variant must change between adjacent scenes (no two adjacent scenes share a variant). This is enforced at pre-render.
Write the planned transitions into the scene plan before scaffolding:
Transition 1→2: waveform carries over at the same position; color fades from brand.primary → brand.danger; amplitude jitters from smooth to glitchy over 8 frames.
Transition 2→3: glitch waveform contracts into a flat line → that line becomes the top border of the code card in scene 3.
Transition 3→4: active-provider pill in scene 3 slides down and morphs into the URL pill of the CTA.
Step 3.5 — UI moment (when a UI surface exists)
If the feature has a visible UI surface — a generated image, a rendered audio player, a dashboard, a settings toggle, a diff view — the video must include at least one beat that shows that surface. Research on product-launch video is consistent: "show the product in action" is the strongest single predictor of viewer recall.
Options (in order of preference):
Real screen capture: a short 2–3s clip of the feature running in the example app. Embedded via <Video src={...}/> in a Custom scene.
Static screenshot with kinetic overlay: a high-res shot of the UI with brand-primary-tinted call-out boxes or arrows animating in. Easiest to author; works for any UI.
Mock UI rendered in React: a stylized recreation of the UI inside the scene — buttons, progress bars, output previews — using only the scene's brand palette. Preferred when no screen capture is available and the UI is simple enough to fake convincingly.
Place the UI moment in the delivery scene (Scene 3 in the default structure), ideally at its midpoint so the viewer gets code-plus-result. A code-only delivery feels like a reference doc; code-plus-UI feels like a demo.
Skip this step only if the feature is purely API-level with no user-visible surface (a parser, a compiler pass, a type-level utility).
When the user picked option 4 (Multi-format) in Q2.2, the skill must plan per-aspect narrative variants — a 9:16 vertical video is not just a cropped 16:9.
Rule 0 (the load-bearing one): Fill the canvas. Don't just shrink content.
The most common failure mode when porting a 16:9 layout to 1:1 or 9:16: the agent keeps the original element sizes, only changes Compositionwidth and height, and ships a video where content occupies ~50% of the new canvas with huge dead margins on top/bottom (vertical) or sides (square).
The right move is the opposite of intuition: when the canvas gets smaller in one axis, the content's per-element size needs to get bigger, not smaller. Less competing content = each element earns more visual space.
Concrete defaults when porting from 1920×1080 (landscape) to other aspects:
Hero text (hook/CTA headlines): same px size or +10–25%. A 132px landscape headline becomes ~116–144px on 1:1 and ~140–160px on 9:16. Going down to 88px is wrong.
Body text & captions: +20–40% for 9:16 (a 22px caption → 28–32px). On 1:1, hold or grow slightly.
Padding & margins: increase scene padding 1.5–2× to consume edge space. A 32px landscape scene padding becomes ~70px on 1:1 and ~140–200px on 9:16 (especially top/bottom on 9:16).
Inter-element gaps: the Stack-style flex gap of 56px on landscape becomes ~80px on 9:16. Whitespace is doing brand work — keep it generous.
Element heights / min-heights: code-card mount-card heights, browser-mock chat min-height — all should grow on 9:16 to use the tall canvas.
Code font: code that was 18px on landscape often goes to ~17–18px on 1:1 (less width to spare) but bigger on 9:16 where there's less content competing — 16–20px is fine.
Implementation pattern in Remotion: read the current aspect from useVideoConfig() (or a context) inside each scene/Panel and switch sizing values via a small byAspect({ landscape, square, vertical }) helper, instead of hardcoding pixel sizes. The same Story data drives all three compositions; only the per-aspect sizing layer differs.
Run the fill check mentally before rendering and as a hard pre-render audit:
At the hero frame (peak content) of every scene at every aspect, the bounding box of the foreground content reaches within ~80–100px of every canvas edge. If any scene at any aspect has more than ~120px of dead margin on either axis, the per-aspect sizing is wrong — the content is undersized.
If you're tempted to keep all the landscape sizes "since they look fine on landscape" — stop. They look fine on landscape because they fill landscape. They will not fill a different aspect at the same sizes.
Layout-shape adjustments
Horizontal-heavy scenes: side-by-side BeforeAfter, multi-pill pill rows, and wide LibrarySwap layouts must switch to stacked (top/bottom) or single-item-at-a-time layouts on 9:16. Mark these scenes with an aspectOverrides hint during scene planning, and branch the JSX in the scene component on useVideoConfig().width / height ratio.
Multi-column grids: a 6-col framework grid becomes 4-col on 1:1, 3-col on 9:16. A 5-card mount row becomes a 3-col grid (with 2 wrapping to a second row) on 1:1, or a 2-col grid (with the 5th wrapping) on 9:16.
Motif sizing: waveform/thread widths should scale with composition width, not be hardcoded. Review any reusable motif component for responsive sizing before scaffolding.
Pacing: vertical-first platforms (Reels, TikTok) favor a faster cut rhythm than desktop X/LinkedIn. Consider shaving 3–5s from a 30s landscape plan when producing the 9:16 variant.
CTA URL placement: URL pills are harder to scan on narrow aspects — consider shortening the URL shown (e.g., tanstack.com/ai instead of https://tanstack.com/ai/audio-generation) for 9:16.
Write the per-aspect deltas into the scene plan as a short section, even if most scenes render identically. Example:
9:16 deltas: Scene 3 LibrarySwap stacks the code card above the provider pills (same content, vertical flow). Headline 132px → 144px (kept large). Padding 32px → 200px top/bottom. Code font 18px → 18px (held). Total duration shaved to 26s (hook 2.5s / problem 4s / delivery 12s / CTA 7.5s).
Skip this step if the user picked a single aspect.
(Caption emphasis syntax, text alignment, background variants, and code-block theming are governed by the Layout and Typography Rules section below.)
Phase 4: Scaffold
Step 4.1 — Create the project skeleton
At the location chosen in Q2.3 (default marketing/<feature-slug>/remotion/):
<project-root>/
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
├── remotion.config.ts
├── src/
│ ├── index.ts # Entry point: registerRoot + font side-effect
│ ├── Root.tsx # Composition registry
│ ├── Main.tsx # Scene dispatcher
│ ├── story.ts # Typed story JSON (written by skill from scene plan)
│ ├── story-types.ts # Scene union type (source of truth)
│ ├── brand.ts # Brand tokens (extended palette: primary/accent/background/text/muted/success/danger)
│ ├── fonts.ts # Loads Geist via @remotion/google-fonts — default font
│ ├── highlight.tsx # <Highlight text="**word**" /> component for caption emphasis
│ ├── highlighted-code.tsx # Shiki-based code highlighter
│ ├── scenes/ # Copied from templates/scenes/
│ └── assets/ # Copied logo, intro/outro if any
Copy files from skills/remotion-video/templates/project/ (stripping the .template suffix):
package.json.template → package.json
tsconfig.json.template → tsconfig.json
remotion.config.ts.template → remotion.config.ts
index.ts.template → src/index.ts (entry point — calls registerRoot and imports ./fonts for side-effect)
Root.tsx.template → src/Root.tsx
brand.ts.template → src/brand.ts (then populate with Q2.4 values)
story-types.ts.template → src/story-types.ts (scene union type — single source of truth)
fonts.ts.template → src/fonts.ts (loads Geist by default via @remotion/google-fonts/Geist)
Populate from the approved scene plan. The Story and Scene types are defined in src/story-types.ts (copied from templates/project/story-types.ts.template). See that file for the full type definitions.
Step 4.3b — Extend src/Main.tsx for Custom scenes
The skill copies Main.tsx.template → src/Main.tsx in Step 4.1. That base file dispatches all 9 bundled scene types. Whenever a story plan uses a Custom scene, the skill must extend the renderScene switch in src/Main.tsx: add the import for the custom component and a case for its componentName that renders it with its props (instead of throwing). The base template throws on Custom so missing dispatch is loud, not silent.
UIShowcase note: When a UIShowcase scene references a mockComponent (instead of or in addition to mediaSrc), the skill must extend the UIShowcase dispatch case in Main.tsx to resolve the component name to an actual React element and pass it as the mockComponentNode prop. The default dispatch only handles mediaSrc (image/video files). Mock-component UI mocks follow the same "skill extends the switch" pattern as Custom scenes.
Step 4.3c — Multi-format registration
When the user picked option 4 (Multi-format) in Q2.2, the skill modifies src/Root.tsx to register three compositions instead of one, each passing the same Main component with a different width/height:
MainLandscape — 1920×1080
MainSquare — 1080×1080
MainVertical — 1080×1920
All three share the same durationInFrames and fps from story.meta. The base Root.tsx.template ships with a single Main composition by default; the skill replaces that block with the three-composition block when multi-format is selected.
Step 4.4 — Custom scene extension slot
When the story plan calls for a scene shape the 9 bundled templates can't express, generate a custom scene under src/scenes/custom/<Name>.tsx.
Rules (enforced by the skill):
Only a React component exporting a default function
May import only from: remotion, shiki, react, ../../highlighted-code, ../../scene-background, and ../../brand
Must typecheck (tsc --noEmit) before render — skill runs typecheck and self-corrects up to 2 times on failure
Must use interpolate / spring for animations (no setTimeout, no external animation libs)
Must respect durationFrames from its Scene entry
Must be registered in src/Root.tsx alongside the bundled scenes
Use remotion-best-practices skill when available for guidance. Fallback to baseline Remotion docs patterns.
Phase 5: First Draft + Iterate
Step 5.1 — Start Remotion Studio
Run as a background process, invoking the scaffolded project via --dir:
pnpm --dir marketing/<feature-slug>/remotion exec remotion studio --port 3000
(Fall back: try 3001, 3002, 3003 if 3000 is in use. Fail loud if all taken.)
Capture the URL and present to the user:
"Studio is running at http://localhost:3000. Open it in your browser and review the first draft.
What do you want to change? (freeform — 'make the hook punchier', 'swap scenes 2 and 3', 'use arktype instead of yup', 'drop the problem scene', 'longer pause on the code', anything you want.)"
If typecheck fails, self-correct (up to 2 attempts) before telling the user
Remotion Studio HMR reloads automatically — no manual refresh needed
Re-prompt:
"Saved. Studio should have refreshed. Next change, or ready to render?"
Step 5.3 — Loop until approved
User signals "ready to render", "looks good", "ship it", "render", "done", or similar → move to Phase 6.
Step 5.4 — Drift guard
Each iteration stores a snapshot of src/story.ts content in an in-memory session history. If the iteration loop hits 10 rounds without approval:
"We've iterated 10 times. Options:
Reset to an earlier draft (I'll show the history)
Keep going
Render the current draft as-is"
If the user picks (1), show a numbered list of snapshot summaries (hook text of each draft) and let them pick.
Phase 6: Render
Render quality is not optional
The Studio preview is pristine; the render pipeline must preserve that.
Two structural problems ruin h264 output of otherwise-perfect React scenes:
Chroma subsampling (YUV 4:2:0) halves color resolution. Pink text
on dark backgrounds, thin colored lines, and subpixel anti-aliasing get
blurred. The fix is supersampling: render at 2x composition
dimensions (--scale 2) so ffmpeg downsamples from a sharper source.
8-bit quantization gives only 256 luminance steps — gradients band.
The fix must be at the source, not at the codec: SceneBackground
ships a subtle SVG noise overlay (NoiseDither) that dithers the
quantization below perception. 8-bit h264 encoding is the only format
that plays reliably across Windows 11 Films & TV, Discord, browsers,
VLC, and social upload pipelines. Do NOT default to 10-bit
(yuv420p10le) — consumer GPU decoders often skip h264 high10 without
falling back to software, producing black frames on Win11/Discord.
Defaults ship: --scale 2 + --image-format png + --crf 14 +
--pixel-format yuv420p. A 30-40s 1080p video lands around 6-15 MB.
Edge case — 10-bit opt-in: the render:10bit npm script exists for
creators who verified their end-to-end pipeline supports h264 high10
profile (e.g., shipping to a known YouTube upload that always transcodes,
or to a target audience on mpv/VLC only). Never use as a default.
Never render with --image-format jpeg for a final. The JPEG
quality-80 intermediate blurs text independently of anything else.
How NoiseDither works: an overlay layer inside SceneBackground
renders an SVG feTurbulence fractalNoise filter at ~4% opacity in
overlay blend mode. The noise breaks up the 8-bit gradient-quantization
step boundaries perceptually, turning visible bands into faint grain.
This is the same technique Figma and export pipelines use.
Step 6.1 — Pre-render checks (fail loud)
Before rendering, all of these must pass. If any fail, report exactly what and where, and do not render.
Technical checks:
pnpm exec tsc --noEmit passes
Sum of scenes[].durationFrames / meta.fps is within the 15–60s window AND within ±20% of the scope-derived target proposed in Q2.1 (or matches an explicit user override). If the natural story comes in shorter than the proposed target, the target was wrong — re-derive from scope, do not pad.
No padding scenes: no scene exists solely to extend duration. A scene fails this check if any of: its payoff sentence (Phase 3.3 item 1) is blank, vague, or duplicates another scene's; the composition contains trailing black/empty/freeze frames after the last animation resolves; any scene holds a static frame with no on-screen change for more than 1.5s (45 frames at 30fps) without a narrative reason captured in the scene plan
Dwell-time per text element met: every text element on every scene satisfies the minimum dwell times in the Breathing Room table (Phase 3.3 item 3), measured from animate-in completion to scene-transition start. Every scene includes a ≥0.4s (≥12 frames at 30fps) settle hold before its outgoing transition begins. Verify by walking each scene's frame-driven animations and checking the gap between the last interpolation's resolve frame and the scene's durationFrames end
Every scene with code renders without shiki errors (test by invoking the shiki highlighter on each snippet)
Every brand asset referenced in src/brand.ts exists on disk
Render flags include --scale 2 --pixel-format yuv420p (or remotion.config.ts sets both). 10-bit (yuv420p10le) is opt-in only; it breaks Win11 Films & TV and Discord inline playback.
Storytelling audit (refuse to render if any fail — report to user and ask for a fix before proceeding):
Hook enforcement rules (see hooks/hook-rules.md) pass on the HookTitle scene's text
Motif presence: the signature motif from Phase 3.0 appears in ≥2 scenes (check by grepping the motif component's import across src/scenes/)
State-change observed: the motif's visual state (color, amplitude, geometry, opacity) differs between at least one adjacent scene pair — not identical across the whole deck
Value prop by ~t=8s: sum of the first two scenes' durations is ≤ 0.30 × total duration. If more than 30% of the video elapses before scene 3 begins, the value prop is buried.
No adjacent-scene background repeat: consecutive scenes must use different SceneBackground variants (prevents the "same color for 15 seconds" flatness)
UI moment when applicable: if the feature has a user-visible surface, at least one scene must include a UI showcase (screen capture, screenshot with overlay, or mock UI). See Phase 3.5.
Per-scene payoff: every scene has a recorded payoff sentence from Phase 3.3. If any is missing, blank, or duplicates another, refuse.
Anti-clickbait: the hook's promise is delivered by at least one non-hook scene (existing rule).
Transitions planned: for each adjacent scene pair sharing a motif, a match-cut is described in the scene plan (Phase 3.4).
Single alignment per scene: every scene's text elements share ONE alignment (centered / left / right). Mixed alignments within a scene (or within one column of a two-column scene) fail this check. See Layout Rule 2.
Foreground readability over decoration: every scene with background decoration (streaming feeds, ambient motion, low-opacity logos) renders the foreground text at WCAG AA contrast. If decoration effective opacity exceeds ~0.25 anywhere behind hero text, a local scrim (zIndex=1 between bg and fg) must exist. See Layout Rule 6.
No accidental overlap: at the hero frame of every scene, no focal element's bounding box overlaps a non-foreground element by more than ~10% without an explicit zIndex declaration. Verify any newly-added decorations against the rendered hero frame in Remotion Studio, not frame 0. See Layout Rule 7.
Code beats ≥5s have chapters: any scene with code visible for >5 seconds (>150 frames at 30fps) defines chapters[]. Static emphasizedLines-only code dumps fail this check. See Code Scene Rules — Tell a story with chapters.
Every chapter has a synchronized title: any scene with chapters[] MUST have a per-chapter caption / title that swaps in lockstep with the focusLines change. A code highlight without a synchronized title saying why we're looking at it fails this check. See Code Scene Rules — Synchronized chapter narration.
Per-aspect canvas fill (when multi-format selected in Q2.2): for each aspect (1:1, 9:16) at every scene's hero frame, the bounding box of foreground content reaches within ~80–100px of every canvas edge. If any scene leaves >120px of dead margin on either axis, the per-aspect sizing is wrong — content is undersized for the aspect. See Step 3.6 — Fill the canvas.
Visual chunk cap (≤4 per frame): every scene's hero frame contains ≤4 distinct visual chunks (where a chunk is a Gestalt group, not a single element). Counts: title, motif, code card, trace tree = 4 chunks. Adding an attribute chip row pushes to 5 — must merge via similarity (chips and tree share color/font) or split scene. See Visual Cognition Rule A.
One pre-attentive cue per focal element: each focal element is marked by exactly one dominant cue (color OR size OR motion OR orientation), not multiple. Two or more competing cues force conjunction search and double parse time. See Visual Cognition Rule B.
Reading flow matches scene type: hero/sparse scenes lay out for Z-pattern, code-heavy scenes for F-pattern, multi-card scenes for layer-cake. Misplaced elements (e.g. CTA URL in top-left of a sparse scene, code caption far from the focused line) fail this check. See Visual Cognition Rule C.
Step 6.2 — Render mp4 + poster
Stop the Remotion Studio background process first.
Ask the user what to do with the scaffolded Remotion project:
"Video is ready. What do you want to do with the Remotion project at marketing/<feature-slug>/remotion/?
Keep it — useful for re-rendering or variants later
Delete it — keep only the mp4 and poster
Archive — move to marketing/<feature-slug>/remotion.zip and delete the folder"
Execute the chosen action. End.
Storytelling & Visual Uniqueness Rules
The default failure mode of an AI-generated promo video is generic: a hook, three bullet points, a code block, a CTA. Every scene stacked vertically, same rhythm, same layout language as ten thousand other "new feature launch" reels. Viewers scroll past in under 2 seconds. Technically correct ≠ memorable.
These rules exist to push back against that default.
Rule 1: No plain bullet lists
A vertical stack of bullet points with icons is the most overused and forgettable scene shape in dev-marketing video. When the story asks for a "list of pains / benefits / reasons", the skill MUST transform the list into a structure that visualizes what it's saying:
Fragmented APIs? Tilted "evidence cards" with real conflicting property names, connected by broken-chain glyphs (≠, ↯).
Slow-vs-fast? A physical race lane with two markers at different frame-sync'd positions.
Many → one? Scattered inputs flying inward into a single funnel.
Three providers compete? Provider logos or name pills with active-state indicators and crossfade swaps.
Every beat should ideally have a form that only makes sense for that beat. If the same bullet shape could hold "our five pillars of happiness" or "three reasons our API is fast", it is too generic — redesign it.
Rule 2: Build a signature visual thread
Every promo video should have one recurring visual element tied to the subject matter — a "thread" that appears in 2–4 scenes (typically hook, problem, and CTA) and carries the theme.
The motif is derived in Phase 3.0 from the product's core verb. See references/visual-motifs.md for the full catalog (20+ verb → motif mappings) and the heuristic for deriving a motif when the verb isn't listed.
Key principles (full detail in the catalog):
The motif should be the physical / spatial metaphor for what the product does, not a decorative element. Stripe's gradients = money flowing. Linear's lines = motion. The test: would this motif make sense on an unrelated product? If yes, it's generic.
The motif must change state between scenes to do narrative work. A clean magenta waveform in the hook becoming a jagged red glitch-wave in ProblemSetup, then resolving back to a confident unified wave in the CTA, delivers a complete three-act arc without a single caption.
Motif reappearance with a new state is the oldest trick in cinematic storytelling (stairs in Parasite, mirrors in Black Swan). Same element, different meaning each time.
When scaffolding, create a reusable component (e.g., src/audio-waveform.tsx, src/speed-streak.tsx, src/packet-flow.tsx) in the project root and import it into each relevant scene. Never rebuild the thread scene-by-scene.
Rule 3: Custom scenes over bundled, when it matters
The 9 bundled scenes (HookTitle, ProblemSetup, CodeSnippet, LibrarySwap, BeforeAfter, MetricCompare, BulletList, CTAEndScreen, UIShowcase) cover ~80% of cases and should be used when the story fits. They should NOT be the excuse for a lazy story.
If a beat's visual shape would be unique and memorable, create a Custom scene under src/scenes/custom/<Name>.tsx rather than bending a bundled scene into something it isn't. Examples that warrant Custom scenes:
A split-screen showing two API shapes side by side with a rotating "≠" between them
A synchronized pair of animations where one depends on the other (input → output pipeline)
A physics-driven element (spring-chained cards falling into place, orbiting nodes)
A kinetic-typography moment (words swapping in place, letters re-arranging)
The rule of thumb: if your first instinct is "I'll just use BulletList" and the content is interesting, stop. Either upgrade to a Custom scene or upgrade the bundled scene's internal storytelling (tilts, connection glyphs, staggered physics, per-item glyph variation).
Rule 4: Replace abstract prose with concrete evidence
Inside any scene that describes a pain or a benefit, prefer real, verifiable detail over abstract claims. This makes the video technically credible and visually unique because the evidence IS the design element.
Abstract (generic)
Concrete (unique + credible)
"Every provider is different"
music_length_ms vs seconds_total vs duration shown side-by-side
"Our SDK is type-safe"
A screenshot-like TS diagnostic with red squiggles on the bad line
"10× faster"
Two progress bars racing, finishing at t=500ms and t=50ms
"Works anywhere"
Animated pills of the supported runtimes lighting up in sequence
When pulling evidence from a PR or codebase, quote the actual symbol names, parameter names, or model ids that appear in the source. If a viewer who uses those libraries recognizes the exact string you're showing, you've won credibility and memorability in the same frame.
Rule 5: Animate with intent, not with defaults
Every animation should deliver information, not just "look animated". If removing an animation would not change what the viewer understands, it is decoration and should be reconsidered.
Good:
Text fades in AFTER the headline lands → tells the viewer "the headline is the promise; what follows delivers it"
Cards stagger-enter at different tilts → creates a "chaos / fragmentation" feel that matches the message
Waveform amplitude rises when a provider pill becomes active → shows "this one is now playing"
Bad:
All elements fade in together with identical timing (no narrative layer)
Arbitrary bounces on every text element (dilutes emphasis)
Continuous looping animations on every background element (fatigues the viewer)
Rule 6: Fly-in taglines as insight delivery
After any multi-beat scene (evidence wall, problem pile-up, comparison), the viewer needs a one-line synthesis to carry forward. Reserve the last 25–35% of a scene's duration for a fly-in tagline that states the insight:
After "three conflicting APIs" → "Same goal. Different shapes."
After "three slow steps" → "That's a full coffee break."
After "five different SDKs" → "Five SDKs to learn. Or one."
The tagline should:
Land AFTER all the evidence has arrived (don't overlap with stagger-in)
Use distinct styling from the beats (different font weight or color — typically lower saturation so it reads as "narrator voice, not beat")
Be ≤ 6 words per half, ≤ 2 halves
This is the single biggest lever for turning "nice visual" into "actually communicates a point".
Rule 7: Motion with a payload — kinetic type restraint
Research on high-performing kinetic typography and motion graphics is consistent: text moves only when motion adds clarity, never because there's a 3-second hole to fill. Motion without a payload is the single biggest "looks AI-generated" tell.
Good motion choices:
A word scales up because it's the answer the previous scene teed up
Letters slide in one-by-one because the sequence is the message ("M · U · S · I · C" on a music feature)
A headline morphs into a different headline because the topic shifted
Bad motion choices (generic):
Every headline bouncing into place with the same ease on every scene
Continuous shimmer/pulse/loop on every text layer (visual fatigue, no signal)
Emoji or icon wobble without a narrative reason
Every letter fading in one-by-one on every text element — reserve that for the one letter-by-letter beat of the video
Counter-expectation is underused: when the default register is fast-and-loud, going still-and-soft for one beat can land harder than any spring animation. If the surrounding scenes are busy, let the insight tagline (see Rule 6) sit dead-still for 1.5 seconds.
Rule 8: Color script — emotion across scenes, not palette within one
The brand palette is static; a color script is the scene-to-scene emotional arc layered on top. Individual scenes should feel different from each other along a temperature or saturation dimension:
CTA — return to warm, saturated, resolved (variant="primary-glow" again)
The arc should support the narrative ("confident → tense → resolved"). A problem scene that uses the same warm glow as the hook robs the narrative of its tension beat. A CTA that stays cool/red reads as unresolved.
Implementation: the existing SceneBackground variants are the lightweight color-script surface. For a more cinematic arc, nudge the hexToRgba alphas, add a brand.colors.danger-tinted overlay in Problem scenes, or add a subtle saturation boost in the CTA.
Rule 9: First-10-seconds value prop
By the ~10-second mark, the viewer must know (a) what this feature does, (b) who it's for, (c) why it matters. This is a research finding from every major product-launch-video study: the single strongest predictor of completion rate is value clarity before the ~10s mark.
Mapping to the standard 30s structure:
Hook (0–3s): promises the value
ProblemSetup (3–8s): reveals the stakes / gives the "why"
LibrarySwap or CodeSnippet (8–22s): delivers the "how"
CTA (22–30s): converts
During Phase 3.3 (scene-plan approval), explicitly self-check: "By the end of scene 2 (around t=8s), does the viewer know what the product does and why?" If no, the scene plan is wrong — restructure before scaffolding. Don't bury the value in the LibrarySwap.
Rule 10: The generic test
Before rendering, run this self-check against every scene. If the answer to ANY is "no", the scene is generic and should be redesigned:
Could I swap the topic from "audio generation" to "image generation" and this scene would look identical?
Does every visual element in this scene have a reason to exist that ties to THIS story?
Is there at least one element per scene a viewer would remember 10 minutes later?
If a scene fails the test, the fix is rarely "change the copy". It's a layout or visual-element change: add a signature thread appearance, introduce a domain-specific glyph, replace a bullet with a concrete evidence card, pull a real symbol name from the source.
Hook Enforcement Rules
Hard rules applied whenever the skill writes or edits HookTitle scene text. See hooks/hook-rules.md and hooks/hook-patterns.md for details.
Max 7 words on the hook caption (string length check)
Blocked openings — reject if the hook starts with any blocked phrase. See the full list in hooks/hook-rules.md (Rule 2).
Required pattern — the hook must match one of: Result, Mistake, Secret, Comparison, Pattern-interrupt, Curiosity-gap, or Visual-hook (see hooks/hook-patterns.md)
Visual reinforces text — the HookTitle scene's visual field (pattern-interrupt / curiosity-gap / social-proof) must align with the text (checked at scene-plan approval in Phase 3.3)
Anti-clickbait check — before render, verify the hook's promise is delivered by at least one non-hook scene. If not, refuse to render and ask the user to adjust.
If any rule fails, the skill proposes up to 3 alternative hooks that comply.
Layout and Typography Rules
Applied whenever the skill generates or edits any scene.
Backgrounds: every scene uses <SceneBackground variant="…">. Flat background fills are banned — if a scene absolutely needs one, document why in a code comment and pass variant="flat" explicitly. Variants: primary-glow (radial glow of the brand primary at top-left), vignette (dark vignette around the edges for focus scenes), diagonal (subtle accent→primary linear gradient), flat (no overlay).
Text alignment — pick ONE per scene, never mix. A single scene must use ONE text alignment for every text element it contains. Mixing alignments inside a scene (e.g., left-aligned headline + centered tagline + left-aligned caption) reads as broken — the eye has no anchor to track and the layout looks like assembled fragments rather than a designed scene.
Centered scenes: hooks, titles, CTAs, emphatic one-liners — every text element in the scene is centered, including any sub-captions or taglines that follow the headline.
Left-aligned scenes: lists, prose paragraphs, side-by-side panels, code-card scenes — every text element is left-aligned, including the section captions above each panel.
Right-aligned scenes: rare; only for intentional "log feed" / "right-rail" treatments where every element is right-aligned.
Justify only when there's a strong reason; otherwise left or center.
In two-column scenes (left = code, right = trace tree, or before/after panels), each column is its own alignment context, but each column must be internally consistent — a column's caption, body, and tagline all share one alignment. Never have the right column centered while the left column is left-aligned. The pre-render audit (Phase 6.1) flags scenes with mixed alignments inside one column.
Emphasis: in any text, caption, headline, or other string field passed to a scene, wrap key words in **word** so <Highlight> renders them in brand.colors.primary. Limit 1–2 emphasized runs per caption. Example: "Mix providers wrong — **ship a landmine**."
Code blocks: always render with <HighlightedCode>. The default theme is brandShikiTheme (from src/shiki-theme.ts) — a theme derived from brand.ts colors so syntax tokens match the rest of the presentation (keywords in brand.primary, strings in brand.accent, comments in brand.muted, background transparent). Do NOT fall back to vitesse-dark, github-dark, or any other stock theme unless the brand is explicitly monochrome. If the brand palette shifts, regenerate — never hardcode #0d1117 or any GitHub-dark-derived color. Container background = rgba(255,255,255,0.04) with 1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.08) border and a brand-primary-tinted boxShadow.
Spacing rhythm — harmony, not extremes: follow a single consistent scale across every scene so the eye doesn't have to relearn the layout. Defaults that work:
Scene padding: 80–100px outer
Title → next element: 72–80px (titles always get breathing room; never ≤48px gap — text crowds into the thing below)
Peer content elements (cards, code block and pills, caption and content): 40–56px
Tight pairs (glyph+text, number+label): 16–24px
Ambient decorations (waveforms, background particles): position absolutely with ≥70px edge inset and low opacity (≤0.5); never place them within ~100px of a focal element
If a layout feels "too airy", the gap is probably ≥120px between peers — tighten to the 40–56px band. If a title feels "stuck to" what's below, the gap is ≤48px — push to 72+. When in doubt, pick ONE scale and use it everywhere; inconsistent gaps look more "generic AI slideshow" than any single choice.
Background-versus-foreground readability — load-bearing contrast. Whenever decorative elements sit behind a focal text element (streaming background traces, ambient particles, low-opacity logos, looping motion threads), the foreground text MUST remain unambiguously readable. Defaults that work:
Background decoration opacity: ≤0.22 against a brand-background near #0A0A0A. Above 0.25 it competes with foreground; above 0.4 it actively obscures.
Local scrim behind hero text: when a decoration must run across the whole canvas (e.g., a streaming event feed in the CTA), add a centered radial-gradient scrim (hexToRgba(brand.colors.background, 0.78) at the center, fading to transparent at ~70% radius) on a z-layer between the decoration and the text. Keeps decoration visible at the edges, keeps text on a clean dark base.
Test by squinting: if you squint at the scene and the text shape disappears into the background, contrast is insufficient. The viewer scrolling past on mobile is squinting.
Never reduce text contrast to "balance" the bg: foreground text must always meet WCAG AA (4.5:1 for body, 3:1 for ≥24px display). If the bg is too busy, fix the bg, not the foreground.
Z-stack discipline — no unintended overlap. Every focal element (headline, code line, span row, attribute chip, CTA button) must be either fully visible or intentionally and obviously layered. The failure modes this rule exists to catch:
A decoration positioned with negative offsets or overlapping bounds that visually clips a focal element ("the chips appear half behind the trace tree"). Verify the rendered position of decorative elements at the hero frame in Remotion Studio, not just frame 0.
A foreground element whose bounding box happens to land underneath a higher-z-index ambient layer ("the redaction overlay covers half the title"). Background elements get zIndex: 0; scrims/vignettes get zIndex: 1; foreground content gets zIndex: 2+. Stick to a known scale; don't sprinkle ad-hoc zIndex values.
Streaming elements that overshoot their container, partially exiting the visible canvas mid-animation. Either clip them (overflow: 'hidden' on the container) or constrain their travel distance to stay inside.
Layout intent vs. layout accident: a logo deliberately framed behind a CTA URL pill is intentional (z-stack, transparency, designed). The same logo crashing into the URL pill at an unintended position is an accident. The pre-render audit (Phase 6.1) flags any focal element whose bounding box overlaps a non-foreground element by more than ~10% of its area without an explicit zIndex declaration.
Visual Cognition & Attention Rules
These rules are grounded in established research on how the human visual system actually digests information: Cowan on working memory capacity, Treisman's Feature Integration Theory on pre-attentive processing, Nielsen Norman Group eye-tracking studies on scanning patterns, Gestalt principles of perceptual grouping, and Rayner's reading-saccade research. They explain why certain layouts feel intuitive and others feel like "AI-generated noise," and they are checked at scene-plan approval (Phase 3.3) and pre-render (Phase 6.1).
Rule A: ≤ 4 distinct visual chunks per frame
Visual working memory tops out at about 3–4 chunks (Cowan, refining Miller's 7±2). When a frame shows 5+ distinct elements (icons, cards, badges, numbers, captions, motifs), the viewer cannot hold them simultaneously — the eye samples 3–4 and drops the rest.
A "chunk" is one visual unit a viewer parses as a single thing. A row of 6 evenly-spaced provider logos that share color and size is ONE chunk (parsed as a group via Gestalt similarity), not 6.
Showcase scenes: max 4 distinct foreground chunks. A trace tree with 5–7 rows that share bar geometry counts as ONE chunk; an attribute chip row is a second chunk; a code card is a third.
If a scene plan has 5+ chunks that don't merge via similarity/proximity, restructure before scaffolding — re-group with shared color/size/shape, or split into two scenes.
Rule B: One pre-attentive cue marks the focal element per frame
Pre-attentive processing (Treisman, Feature Integration Theory) detects color, motion, orientation, and size in parallel and unconsciously within ~200 ms. A single pre-attentive feature is found in constant time regardless of distractor count; conjunctions of features require slow serial attention.
Pick ONE cue per frame to mark "look here":
Brand-primary color on a near-black canvas = strong attention magnet (color cue)
Largest text on the frame = anchor (size cue)
The only moving element while everything else is still (motion cue)
Sole vertical element among horizontals (orientation cue)
If two or more pre-attentive cues compete (a primary-colored button AND a moving particle AND the largest text), the eye stalls in conjunction search and parse time doubles. Pick one focal cue. Supporting elements get secondary cues (smaller size, lower saturation, no motion).
The redaction safety beat is the canonical example: the entire chart goes still (background motion stops), the redaction card slides in (sole motion), AND the content is danger-red (single discrete color shift). Three cues align on one element — viewer's attention locks instantly.
Rule C: Reading flow — Z for hero, F for code, layer-cake for lists
