// Builds a contact sheet from a video clip — evenly spaced frames laid out in a single grid image, each with its hh:mm:ss timestamp burned in. Use when the user asks for a "contact sheet", "grid", "film strip", or wants a one-image overview of part of a clip.
Skill for processing footage (video clips, sounds, photos, etc). Use this when creating a new library, adding new footage (videos) to an existing library, or resuming processing on an existing library.
Build a cut from a library — scene, selects, roughcut, or custom task. Starts by asking what kind of cut the user wants, then works with them to determine what they want to create. Always exports a file for Final Cut, Premiere, or Resolve at the end. Use when the user asks for a "roughcut", "sequence", "scene", "selects", or any other cut-shaped output.
Full footage analysis pipeline — audio transcripts, contact sheets, and Sonnet-written summaries. Produces every artifact the cut skill reads. Orchestrated from the main thread.
Backs up user libraries and all their contents (external video excluded). This skill can also be useful when you need to restore a library.
Exports all dialogue from every clip in a library into a single text file. One clip per block — filename, then its spoken words. Use when the user asks for a "full transcript", "full script", or wants all the dialogue from a library in one place.
Reset a library's visual analysis (contact sheets, summaries, legacy visual_transcripts) and re-run the current analyze-video pipeline on it. Keeps audio transcripts, cuts, plans, and library metadata. Use when a library was processed under the older pipeline and the user wants to bring it onto the contact-sheet-based one.
| name | contact-sheet |
| description | Builds a contact sheet from a video clip — evenly spaced frames laid out in a single grid image, each with its hh:mm:ss timestamp burned in. Use when the user asks for a "contact sheet", "grid", "film strip", or wants a one-image overview of part of a clip. |
Builds a contact sheet from a slice of a video clip: 16 evenly spaced frames laid out in a 4x4 grid, each annotated with its hh:mm:ss timestamp.
This skill burns timestamps onto frames with ffmpeg's drawtext filter. The stock Homebrew ffmpeg formula frequently ships without it — runs fail with No such filter: 'drawtext'. If you hit that error, or want to check up front:
ffmpeg -hide_banner -filters 2>/dev/null | grep ' drawtext '
If nothing prints, replace ffmpeg with the full build from the homebrew-ffmpeg/ffmpeg tap so it becomes the only ffmpeg on the machine through brew:
brew list ffmpeg >/dev/null 2>&1 && brew uninstall --ignore-dependencies ffmpeg || true
brew tap homebrew-ffmpeg/ffmpeg
brew install homebrew-ffmpeg/ffmpeg/ffmpeg
brew link --overwrite homebrew-ffmpeg/ffmpeg/ffmpeg
Re-run the grep above to confirm drawtext is present, then retry the contact sheet.
When the clip belongs to a library, always pass --library so the output lands in the standard place:
# Whole clip
ruby lib/buttercut/contact_sheet.rb <video-path> --library libraries/<lib>
# From <start> to the end of the clip
ruby lib/buttercut/contact_sheet.rb <video-path> <start> --library libraries/<lib>
# Explicit range
ruby lib/buttercut/contact_sheet.rb <video-path> <start> <end> --library libraries/<lib>
<start> and <end> accept seconds (e.g. 12.5) or HH:MM:SS / MM:SS.
Options: --library DIR, --output PATH (exact path; overrides --library).
Frame count is chosen automatically: 16 frames in a 4x4 grid for clips longer than 10 seconds, 4 frames in a 2x2 grid for clips of 10 seconds or less (avoids duplicates).
Portrait clips (iPhone, etc.) are auto-rotated using the source's container rotation metadata so timestamps land right-side-up. Variable-frame-rate sources (screen recordings, some action cams) are detected and routed through the slower seek-and-grab path automatically.
--library DIR: saved to <library>/contact_sheets/<clipname>_<descriptor>.jpg.
<descriptor> is full when covering the whole clip, otherwise HH-MM-SS_to_HH-MM-SS (dashes instead of colons).contact_sheets/DJI_20251126164651_0278_D_full.jpg, contact_sheets/DJI_20251126164651_0278_D_00-00-30_to_00-01-00.jpg.contact_sheets/ directory is created automatically if missing.--library (and no --output): saved next to the source video with the same _<descriptor> suffix. Fine for quick one-off testing, but library work should always pass --library.Share the output path as a clickable link so the user can open it directly.