video-pipeline

name	video-pipeline
description	Video production pipeline for creator brands — editing, quality review, intro/outro concat, publishing, and platform distribution. Use when user says "process video", "publish video", "video pipeline", "edit video", "quality review", "burn captions", "concat intro", "video auto-publish", or any video production activity.

Video Pipeline Skill

Complete end-to-end video production workflow for a reusable media production team. This skill documents the canonical pipeline from raw recording to multi-platform publish.

Pipeline Order (ALWAYS follow this sequence)

1. Edit Silence — Remove silent regions from raw video
2. Transcribe — Generate transcript from audio
3. Generate Captions — Create ASS/SRT subtitle file from transcript
4. Burn Captions — Hard-code captions into video
5. Quality Review — Automated quality check (MUST pass before proceeding)
6. Concat Intro/Outro — Prepend/append brand bumpers
7. Generate Variants — Create platform-specific aspect ratio versions
8. Publish — Upload and schedule across all platforms

Configuration

All pipeline config lives in: data/content/video-pipeline/config.json

Key settings:

• publishing.platforms — account IDs for each platform
• publishing.profileId — Late/Zernio profile: {{LATE_PROFILE_ID}}
• introOutro.sourceDir — {{VIDEO_ASSET_DIR}}
• qualityReview.maxRetries — 2 attempts before escalating to the operator

Step 1: Silence Removal

Tool: vidpipe-remove_silence
Parameters:
  videoPath: [input video path]
  output: [output path with "-edited" suffix]
  threshold: "-30dB"
  minDuration: 0.5

Rules:

• Add 50ms padding on each side to avoid clipping words
• Output file naming: {original-name}-edited.mp4

Step 2: Transcription

Use Gemini AI via analyze_video with prompt requesting word-level timestamps. Or use external transcription service. Output: JSON array of {start, end, text} segments.

Step 3: Caption Generation

Generate ASS subtitle file from transcript segments.

Caption Style Standards (default preference):

• Font: Arial Bold
• Size: 21pt (NEVER >24 for 720p vertical)
• Color: White text, black outline (2px), drop shadow
• Position: Bottom-center, MarginV=25+
• Max lines: 2 visible at once
• Word wrapping: Break at natural phrase boundaries

Platform-Specific Safe Zones:

Platform	Aspect	Caption Zone
TikTok/Reels/Shorts	9:16	Middle 70% vertically
Instagram Feed	1:1	Bottom 30%
YouTube Main	16:9	Bottom 10% (traditional)

Step 4: Burn Captions

Tool: vidpipe-burn_captions
Parameters:
  videoPath: [edited video]
  captionsFile: [ASS file path]
  output: [output with "-captioned" suffix]

Step 5: Quality Review (CRITICAL — MUST PASS)

Tool: analyze_video (Gemini AI)
Prompt: [use qualityReview.promptTemplate from config.json]

Mandatory Checks:

1. ✅ Captions stay in bottom 25% of frame (no overflow)
2. ✅ Face clearly visible throughout (not obstructed)
3. ✅ No bad editorial cuts (jump cuts, awkward transitions)
4. ✅ Audio quality (no clipping, appropriate volume)
5. ✅ Framing appropriate (face visible, not cut off)

Critical Lessons Learned (from data/content/video-pipeline/quality-checklist.md):

• FontSize=21 (not 36!), MarginV=25+ for 720×1280 vertical
• Face region (top 60% of vertical) must remain unobstructed
• After concat, verify output duration ≈ sum of inputs (±2s)
• Silence removal can clip word starts — use 50ms padding

Failure Protocol:

1. FAIL → identify issue → fix → re-review (retry 1)
2. Still FAIL → adjust approach → re-review (retry 2)
3. Still FAIL after 2 retries → STOP. Notify the operator. Do NOT publish.

Log all new lessons to data/content/video-pipeline/quality-checklist.md.

Step 6: Intro/Outro Concat

Rules:

• Main videos: intro + outro
• Shorts: outro only (no intro)
• Medium clips: intro + outro

Aspect Ratio Matching:

Video Ratio	Intro File	Outro File
16:9	{{VIDEO_ASSET_DIR}}\intro.mp4	{{VIDEO_ASSET_DIR}}\outro.mp4
9:16	{{VIDEO_ASSET_DIR}}\intro-portrait.mp4	{{VIDEO_ASSET_DIR}}\outro-portrait.mp4
1:1	{{VIDEO_ASSET_DIR}}\intro-square.mp4	{{VIDEO_ASSET_DIR}}\outro-square.mp4
4:5	{{VIDEO_ASSET_DIR}}\intro-feed.mp4	{{VIDEO_ASSET_DIR}}\outro-feed.mp4

Concat Command (ALWAYS re-encode — never -c copy due to time_base mismatch):

ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i filelist.txt -c:v libx264 -preset fast -crf 18 -c:a aac output.mp4

⚠️ CRITICAL: Caption-burned videos have time_base=1/3883000 from libx264, but bumpers have time_base=1/90000. Using -c copy produces multi-hour corrupted files. ALWAYS re-encode.

Post-concat validation: Check output duration ≈ sum of input durations (±2s). If wildly off → re-encode.

Step 7: Platform Variants

Tool: vidpipe-generate_variants
Parameters:
  videoPath: [final concatenated video]
  platforms: ["tiktok", "youtube", "instagram", "linkedin", "twitter"]
  outputDir: [run output directory]

Step 8: Upload & Publish

Upload Flow

1. Get presigned URL: late_presign_upload(filename, content_type="video/mp4")
2. PUT video to uploadUrl
3. Use publicUrl in media_items when creating posts

Create Posts

late_create_post(
  content: [platform-specific copy],
  platforms: [{"platform": "youtube", "accountId": "{{YOUTUBE_ACCOUNT_ID}}"}, ...],
  media_items: [{"type": "video", "url": "[publicUrl]"}],
  queue_id: "{{LATE_PROFILE_ID}}",
  timezone: "{{TIMEZONE}}"
)

Platform Account IDs

See late-publishing skill for the canonical account ID table. Key IDs for quick reference:

• Profile/Queue: {{LATE_PROFILE_ID}}
• YouTube: {{YOUTUBE_ACCOUNT_ID}}

Run ID & Output Structure

• Run ID format: video-YYYY-MM-DD-NNN
• Output path: data/content-editor-output/{run_id}/
• Context package: data/content-editor-output/{run_id}/context-package.json

Retry Policy (from config)

Stage	Max Retries	Failure Policy
Research	2	Continue with partial
Planning	1	Stop and notify
Editing	2	Stop and notify
Blog	2	Partial success (don't block video)
Social	2	Per-platform independence
Upload	3	Per-platform retry
Scheduling	1	Non-fatal

Orchestration Model

• Orchestrator: content-editor
• Parallel lanes: editing, blog, social
• Sequential prereqs: research → planning
• Notify on complete: Always (notify the operator)

Anti-Patterns

• ❌ Using -c copy for concat (time_base mismatch corruption)
• ❌ FontSize >24 for vertical video captions
• ❌ Publishing without quality review pass
• ❌ Blocking all platforms because one failed
• ❌ Generic "check out my video" social posts (must be specific to content)
• ❌ Missing cross-references to related articles and repos