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.
Standardmäßig ist der Prompt ausgewählt, der zuerst die Quelle prüft. Sie können zu einem direkten Befehl wechseln oder eine lokale Kopie herunterladen.
Quelldateien prüfen
Lesen Sie SKILL.md und alle von SkillsMP angezeigten Begleitdateien, bevor Sie sich für eine Installation entscheiden.
Mit Codex oder Claude installieren Kopieren Sie diesen Prompt, fügen Sie ihn in Codex, Claude oder einen anderen Assistant ein und lassen Sie die Skill-Seite prüfen und installieren.
Ein direkter Befehl überspringt den Prüf-Prompt. Prüfen Sie die Quelle, bevor Sie ihn ausführen.
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.
Letterify (text → letter). Rewrite the user's text as a mournful field dispatch. This is the default and is just prose — no tools needed.
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.localexport 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.
