| name | make-gif |
| description | This skill should be used when the user asks to "make a GIF", "convert to GIF", "create a GIF from this video", "export as GIF", "turn this clip into a GIF", "make an animated GIF", or "gif this".
|
| allowed-tools | ["Bash(ffprobe:*)","Bash(ffmpeg:*)","AskUserQuestion"] |
Video GIF
Convert a video clip to a high-quality GIF using the mandatory 2-pass palette workflow.
Single-pass GIF always produces banding and color artifacts. The palettegen → paletteuse pipeline analyzes the actual clip to build an optimal 256-color palette, then renders with it. Never skip this.
Process
1. Gather parameters
Ask for any not already provided in the request:
- Start time — default
0
- Duration or end time — required; warn if >30s (file size grows rapidly)
- Width — default
480px; height auto-calculated to preserve aspect ratio
- FPS — default
15; higher = smoother + larger file
If the user asks about aspect ratio or the source has unusual dimensions, probe first:
ffprobe -v quiet -print_format json -show_streams "$INPUT" | \
python3 -c "import json,sys; s=[s for s in json.load(sys.stdin)['streams'] if s['codec_type']=='video'][0]; print(s['width'], 'x', s['height'])"
2. Build the 2-pass command
Pass 1 — generate optimized palette:
ffmpeg -ss $START -t $DURATION -i "$INPUT" \
-vf "fps=$FPS,scale=$WIDTH:-1:flags=lanczos,palettegen=stats_mode=full" \
/tmp/palette_$$.png -y
Pass 2 — render GIF using palette:
ffmpeg -ss $START -t $DURATION -i "$INPUT" -i /tmp/palette_$$.png \
-lavfi "fps=$FPS,scale=$WIDTH:-1:flags=lanczos [x]; [x][1:v] paletteuse=dither=bayer:bayer_scale=5" \
"$OUTPUT" -y
Use $$ (shell PID) in the palette temp path to avoid collisions with concurrent runs.
3. Confirm before running
Show the full 2-pass command and estimated output path. Add a size warning if duration × fps is large (rough heuristic: >20s at 15fps at 480px → likely >10MB).
4. Run both passes, then clean up
rm -f /tmp/palette_$$.png
Report output path and file size.
Key Decisions
stats_mode=full on palettegen analyzes the entire clip — not just the first frame — for better palette coverage across motion.dither=bayer:bayer_scale=5 is the sweet spot for photographic content. Use dither=none for flat-color content (illustrations, slides, screen recordings with solid backgrounds).-ss placed before -i uses container-level fast seek. Apply to both passes for consistent start points and dramatically faster seeks on long source files.flags=lanczos on scale gives sharper downsampling than the default bilinear.- To control loop count, add
-loop $N to pass 2: 0 = infinite, 1 = play once, 2 = play twice.
