| name | Caption Video |
| description | Render a video clip with captions overlaid, using the Remotion captioner at `/Users/jvincent/Projects/remotion-captioner/`. Use when user provides a video file and wants to add captions/subtitles, mentions "caption this video", "add captions", "burn in subtitles", or provides a video + SRT file pair. |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| dependencies | node, remotion-captioner |
| allowed-tools | ["Bash","Read"] |
Caption Video
Render a video clip with captions overlaid using the Remotion captioner project.
When to Apply
Use this skill when:
- User provides a video file and asks to add captions or subtitles
- User says "caption this", "add captions", "burn in subtitles", or similar
- User provides both a video file and an SRT file
- User wants to preview multiple caption styles on a video
- User has a video + SRT pair and wants styled caption output
Do NOT use this skill for:
- Transcribing audio to text (use voice-memo-transcriber instead)
- Splitting video into clips (use video-clipper instead)
- Uploading video (use wistia-uploader instead)
Inputs
- Video file path (required) — path to
.mp4 or other video file
- SRT file path (optional) — if not provided, look for one with the same basename
--variant <name> (optional) — caption animation style. Default: slide-up--end-seconds <n> (optional) — trim render to first N seconds (useful for previews)
Available Variants
fade, slide-up, spring-pop, blur-release, typewriter, underline-sweep
Default is slide-up (HubSpot orange pill, white text, rises 24px while fading in).
Instructions for Claude
Step 1: Resolve Inputs
- If the user gave both a video path and an SRT path, use them.
- If only a video path is given, look for an SRT with the same basename in the same folder (e.g.
clip.mp4 -> clip.srt). If not found, ask the user for the SRT path.
- If the user gave a folder path, look inside it for exactly one
.mp4 + one .srt pair and use them. If multiple pairs exist, list them and ask which.
Step 2: Run the Render
cd /Users/jvincent/Projects/remotion-captioner && node render.mjs "<video>" "<srt>" [--variant <name>] [--end-seconds <n>]
Use run_in_background: true — renders for a ~3min clip take ~1-2 minutes.
Only change the variant from slide-up if the user explicitly passes --variant <name>.
Step 3: Report
When done, print the output file path and file size. Don't re-explain the styling unless asked.
Output Naming
- Default style:
<video-basename>.captioned.mp4 alongside the source
- Non-default variant or trimmed:
<video-basename>.captioned.<variant>[.<Ns>].mp4
Previewing Multiple Styles
Pass --variant all --end-seconds 25 to render 25-second samples of every style.
Notes
- The
remotion-captioner project is at /Users/jvincent/Projects/remotion-captioner/ (outside Knowledge System repo)
- All processing is local — no external services
