commit-haiku

name	commit-haiku
description	Turn a git commit into a short dramatic video — read the full diff, write a 5-7-5 haiku capturing the change, then call Google's Veo (via the Gemini API; see SKILL.md for key setup) to generate a dramatized reading with visuals and audio. Use when the user says "haiku my commit", "make a commit haiku", "/commit-haiku", or similar.

Commit Haiku

Distill a git commit into a haiku, then render it as a short cinematic video with a dramatic spoken reading via Google's Veo model (Gemini API).

Trigger

Phrases like: "haiku my last commit", "make a commit haiku", "/commit-haiku", "/commit-haiku HEAD~2", "haiku commit abc1234".

Inputs

• Optional commit ref (SHA, branch, HEAD~N, tag). Default: HEAD.
• Optional model: if the user asks for "higher quality", pass --model veo-3.0-generate-001. Otherwise the helper defaults to veo-3.0-fast-generate-001.
• API key: resolved by the helper in this order — --api-key flag, --api-key-file flag, $GEMINI_API_KEY, $GOOGLE_API_KEY, ~/.claude/skills/commit-haiku/.api-key, then legacy ./gemini.txt. If none are set, the helper exits with a clear setup message — relay it verbatim.

API key setup (one-time)

If the helper reports a missing key, pick one of these and re-run:

# Recommended: persisted user env var
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("GEMINI_API_KEY", "<KEY>", "User")

# OR a user-level file (no shell restart needed)
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\skills\commit-haiku" | Out-Null
"<KEY>" | Out-File -Encoding ascii -NoNewline "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\skills\commit-haiku\.api-key"

./gemini.txt in the project root still works for back-compat but is deprecated — it has to be re-created in every repo and is easy to accidentally commit.

Steps

1. Resolve the commit

Run git rev-parse --verify <ref> (default HEAD). If it fails, ask the user for a valid ref and stop.

Also capture the short SHA via git rev-parse --short <ref> — used in the output filename.

2. Gather diff context

Run these in parallel:

• git show --stat --no-color <ref> — message + file summary.
• git show --no-color <ref> — full patch.

If the full diff is larger than ~50 KB, take only the first 50 KB and note the truncation in your haiku-writing reasoning. Weight the commit message and --stat summary more heavily in that case.

3. Write the haiku

Compose a 5-7-5 haiku that captures the essence of the change. Rules:

• One concrete image. Not abstract jargon like "refactor utilities". Find the thing being moved, fixed, born, or killed and put it on the page.
• Why over what when the commit message reveals motivation. A bug fix has a victim and a culprit — name them.
• Counted syllables: 5 / 7 / 5. Count them.
• No code identifiers in the haiku itself unless they're truly central — a haiku that says "WebGPU" is fine; one that says "renderPassDescriptor" is not.

Show the haiku to the user before kicking off the video. Format:

Line one of five
Line two with seven beats here
Final five beats

4. Compose the Veo prompt

Build a single prompt string under ~500 words with these elements:

• Scene: one dramatic visual — subject, setting, lighting, camera. Mood matches the haiku. Example openers: "A weathered lighthouse keeper at dawn...", "Slow dolly across a neon-lit server room at 3am...", "Lone figure in a snowfield, backlit...".
• Style: "cinematic, 24fps, shallow depth of field" unless the haiku suggests otherwise (e.g. a haiku about chaos could be "handheld, kinetic").
• Audio / dialogue: include the haiku as spoken dialogue, in quotes. Veo 3 reads quoted text verbatim. Example:

  A weathered narrator with a gravelly voice speaks slowly, with reverence: "Line one of five. Line two with seven beats here. Final five beats."

• Audio ambience (optional): one line about background sound matching the scene ("low wind, distant gulls" / "soft hum of cooling fans").

Print the full prompt to the user before calling the helper.

5. Run the helper

Call the helper script in the background — generation takes 1–6 minutes.

python C:\Users\joeed\.claude\skills\commit-haiku\generate_video.py `
  --prompt "<the composed prompt>" `
  --output ".\commit-haiku-<shortsha>.mp4"

• Add --model veo-3.0-generate-001 only if the user asked for higher quality.
• Use Bash with run_in_background: true (or PowerShell -AsJob) so you can keep talking while it renders. The script prints poll progress lines like [t=30s] still generating... to stdout.
• The script resolves the API key from $GEMINI_API_KEY / $GOOGLE_API_KEY / ~/.claude/skills/commit-haiku/.api-key / legacy ./gemini.txt. If none are set, it exits with a clear setup message — relay it verbatim.

6. Report

When the script finishes, show the user:

1. The final MP4 path (absolute).
2. The haiku, again.
3. The full Veo prompt that was used — so they can tweak and re-run.

If the script exited non-zero, surface its stderr verbatim. Common cases:

• Safety / policy block from Veo → tell the user what tripped (the error text usually says), suggest a rephrased prompt.
• API key missing → relay the script's error verbatim; it lists every location checked and the two fix commands.
• API key invalid (HTTP 400/403) → tell the user the resolved source rejected the key, and to update whichever one is highest-precedence (env var > user-level file > legacy ./gemini.txt).
• Timeout → re-run; Veo occasionally takes longer than the 15-minute default.

What NOT to do

• Don't invoke Veo without showing the haiku and prompt first — the user might want to iterate on text before spending the API call.
• Don't hardcode the API key into the prompt or any file. The helper reads ./gemini.txt at run time.
• Don't try to summarize the diff for the user — they wrote it. Just produce the haiku.
• Don't pad the haiku with filler syllables to hit 5-7-5. Rewrite the line.