civilwar-letterifier

name	civilwar-letterifier
description	Rewrite any text as a solemn, slightly absurd 19th-century Civil War field dispatch (Ken Burns documentary voice), then optionally turn it into a multimodal video — period narration via ElevenLabs, the letter in fancy script on aged parchment, a mournful music bed, and a slow Ken Burns pan/zoom of the letter being read. Use when the user types /civilwar, asks to "civil-war-ify" or "Ken Burns" some text, or asks for a documentary-style letter video.
license	Complete terms in LICENSE

Civil War Letterifier

Two layers. Use only what the user asks for.

1. Letterify (text → letter). Rewrite the user's text as a mournful field dispatch. This is the default and is just prose — no tools needed.
2. Letterify the multimodal extravaganza (letter → documentary clip). Narrated, scored, written in script on parchment, with a Ken Burns drift over the page. Triggered when the user wants audio/video ("make the video", "with the voice and music", "the full Ken Burns thing").

---

Layer 1 — The /civilwar command

When the user types /civilwar <text> (or asks to civil-war-ify / Ken-Burns something), rewrite that text as a solemn, slightly absurd Civil War-era letter or documentary narration.

Inviolable rules:

• Preserve the original meaning, names, facts, dates, numbers, requests, and logistics exactly. A blocked Jira ticket stays a blocked Jira ticket.
• Do not invent facts. Period-flavored metaphor is welcome; new commitments, dates, or details are not.
• Mournful field-dispatch register: read over banjo, fiddle, and candlelight. Address a recipient ("My dear colleagues"), sign off as an obedient, beleaguered servant.
• Keep professional messages still usable — the manager must learn the actual status.

Modes

Mode	Trigger	Length & tone
standard	/civilwar <text>	Default. One sepia paragraph or two. Tasteful tragedy.
field-note	/civilwar field-note <text>	One or two sentences — short enough for Slack/SMS.
full	/civilwar full <text>	Maximum banjo, maximum plague. Open with a stage cue (*faint fiddle over distant thunder*). HR is concerned.
executive	/civilwar executive <text>	Grave dispatch from Antietam that still conveys the Jira ticket, the blocker, and the ask. Safe to send to a manager.

See references/letter-style-guide.md for the full register, devices, and worked examples. Read it before writing if you want the voice exactly right.

Quick example

/civilwar full I can't make the meeting today because my stomach is wrecked and I need to lie down.

faint fiddle over the low murmur of distant thunder

My dear colleagues,

I regret to report that I shall be unable to attend our appointed council this day. A most grievous rebellion has commenced within my own constitution, and I have been compelled to retire from the field and take refuge upon the nearest horizontal surface.

Pray proceed without me, and know that I remain, though diminished, devoted to the cause.

Your obedient and intestinally besieged servant, J.

---

Layer 2 — The multimodal extravaganza

Goal: a documentary clip where the letter, in elegant script on candlelit parchment, drifts slowly under the camera (Ken Burns) while a weathered period voice reads it over a mournful fiddle-and-banjo bed.

Pipeline (all local; renders on the user's machine):

user text
   │  Layer 1 — YOU write the period prose (the only creative/agentic step)
   ▼
the note ──► scripts/build.mjs ──► out/letter.mp4
               │  1. ElevenLabs narration (hardcoded voice) → remotion/public/narration.mp3
               │  2. music bed (drop-in or auto-generated, optional)
               │  2b. ambient bed (assets/sfx, always-on atmosphere)
               │  3. props.json  (date auto-generated; signature/title fixed)
               └─ 4. Remotion render (parchment + script + Ken Burns + audio)

Three audio layers stack in the render: the narration (voice), the optional music bed, and an always-on ambient bed (field atmosphere) underneath both.

The only thing you produce is the note text. Everything else — narrator voice, date line, signature, title, music, ambient, render — is deterministic and handled by build.mjs. Don't write a date or signature; the script supplies them (today's date as "From the Encampment, this Nth day of <Month>", plus a fixed signature and title).

Step 1 — Write the note

Letterify the text (Layer 1). That period prose is the note — a salutation, a body, and a closing line (no signature; the script appends one). Pass it straight to the build as text, or save it to a .txt file. \n\n separates paragraphs; keep it to a slow read (roughly ≤ 200 words for a tight clip).

Step 2 — Render

# Prereqs: Node 18+, ffmpeg, and ELEVENLABS_API_KEY in env or .env.local
export ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=sk_...

# Pass the note inline (voice + music + ambient are all automatic):
node scripts/build.mjs --text "My dear colleagues, ...the period prose... Pray proceed without me." --out out/letter.mp4

# Or from a file:
node scripts/build.mjs --file note.txt --out out/letter.mp4

# Auto-generate a mournful music bed instead of using assets/music:
node scripts/build.mjs --file note.txt --auto-music

# Use a specific period track you dropped in:
node scripts/build.mjs --file note.txt --music assets/music/your-track.mp3

# Printed-dispatch typeface instead of script (config, not creative):
node scripts/build.mjs --file note.txt --font dispatch

First run installs the Remotion deps under remotion/ automatically. The clip auto-lengths to the narration plus a title card and a fade-out. (--spec letter.json is still accepted for back-compat, but only its letterText is read.)

Voice

The narrator is hardcoded — the custom "Civil War Veteran" voice (HvjKMFO0rjuPaM2f997g), set as VOICE_ID in scripts/narrate.mjs. There is no --voice flag and no env override: one note, one narrator. To change narrators, design a new voice (see references/voice-and-music.md) and replace that single constant.

Music

Pick one; defaults to voice-only if you skip it:

• --music <file> — a track you supply (recommended for the real thing). Drop files in assets/music/.
• --auto-music — synthesize an original mournful fiddle/banjo bed via ElevenLabs (no licensing worries, looped under the voice).

Licensing matters: the actual Ken Burns theme ("Ashokan Farewell") is copyrighted — do not bundle it. references/voice-and-music.md lists public-domain period tunes and royalty-free sources.

Ambient bed

A separate, always-on atmosphere layer (crickets, wind, a distant camp) that plays beneath the voice and music for the entire film — it is not an alternative to the music bed; both stack. Drop an audio file in assets/sfx/ (a file named ambient.* is preferred; otherwise the first/random track is used) and it is picked up automatically. Overrides:

• --ambient <file> — use a specific ambient track.
• --ambient-volume <0..1> — peak level of the bed (default 0.16; it sits below the music's 0.22 so it never competes with the narration).

If assets/sfx/ is empty and no --ambient is given, the layer is simply skipped.

Tuning the look

The composition lives in remotion/src/CivilWarLetter.tsx. Preview and tweak live with:

cd remotion && npm install && npm run studio

references/composition-guide.md documents every knob (parchment, sepia grade, candle flicker, pan distance, fonts, pads).

---

Defaults this skill was built with

• Music: drop-in track if present, else auto-generated bed (so the pipeline always finishes).
• Ambient: always-on bed from assets/sfx/ (skipped only if that folder is empty), layered under voice + music at 0.16.
• Voice: hardcoded custom "Civil War Veteran" (HvjKMFO0rjuPaM2f997g in narrate.mjs); not parameterized.
• Date line / signature / title: deterministic (date from today; signature + title fixed). The note text is the only creative input.
• Output: 1920×1080, 30fps, h264 MP4.