Remotion Video

Turn a PR into a rendered short-form promo video with a hook, code moments, and CTA, using Remotion. Iterate with live preview in Remotion Studio, then render video.mp4 and poster.jpg for X/LinkedIn/social.

Unlike /video-script (which produces a textual script), this skill produces the actual video file.

Triggers

Invoke when the user says: "make a video for this PR", "remotion video", "render a promo video", "video for X/LinkedIn", or when selected from /marketing-pipeline.

Process Flow

Resolve input
  → Phase 1: Discovery
  → Phase 2: Configuration
  → Phase 3: Narrative planning
  → Phase 4: Scaffold
  → Phase 5: First draft + iterate
  → Phase 6: Render
  → Phase 7: Cleanup

Phases 1, 3, 5, and 7 have explicit approval gates. Phase 2 is an interactive Q&A. Phase 5 is a freeform iteration loop that can run many rounds.

"Use Sane Defaults" / "Don't Ask Questions" — What It Does and Doesn't Override

When the user invokes the skill with phrasing like "use sane defaults", "don't ask questions", "non-interactive", "just ship it", or any equivalent — interpret it precisely:

It DOES override (skip the prompt, pick the default):

• Q2.1 duration → derive from scope using the ladder in Q2.1 (still in the 15–60s window); pick the midpoint of the matched scope band and proceed without asking
• Q2.2 aspect ratio → 16:9 landscape
• Q2.3 project location → marketing/<feature-slug>/remotion/
• Q2.4 brand confirmation (the "use these / customize / provide your own?" question)
• Phase 1.4 scope confirmation
• Phase 3.0 motif confirmation
• Phase 3.1 story-pattern confirmation
• Phase 3.3 scene-plan approval
• Phase 5 freeform iteration loop (the "what would you like to change?" prompt)

It does NOT override (must always run regardless):

• Brand color/font/logo scanning (Q2.4 detection — see HARD-GATE in Q2.4). Hardcoding colors from training-data assumptions about a project is a forbidden shortcut.
• Phase 5 preview (Remotion Studio must start and the studio URL must be opened in the browser before the render runs). Even in fully unattended mode, the user can interrupt; the agent must not pre-decide for them.
• Phase 6 pre-render audits (storytelling, hook rules, motif presence, pacing variance, value-prop timing, contrast). These exist to prevent shipping a generic video.
• Phase 7 cleanup question (the user owns project disposition).

If you're tempted to skip a HARD-GATE because the user "said no questions" — re-read this section. The user said no questions, not no gates.

Input Resolution

Resolve the argument (if provided) in this order:

1. Path to a marketing brief (.md containing "Executive Summary" or "Key Messages") → marketing brief
2. Path to a blog post (.md with blog post structure) → blog post
3. Path to a changelog → changelog
4. GitHub PR URL or #\d+ pattern → PR
5. Matches <ref>..<ref> or <ref>...<ref> (alphanumeric + /, _, ., - on each side) → git ref range
6. Resolves to an existing file/directory → codebase feature
7. Otherwise → freeform text

If no argument is provided, ask: "What should the video be about? You can provide a PR URL/number, marketing brief, blog post, changelog, git ref range, file/directory path, or just describe the feature."

When invoked from the pipeline with a PR and upstream marketing-brief/blog-post paths, read both: PR for technical accuracy, upstream content for positioning/tone.

(Detailed phase specs begin below — see Phase 1.)

Phase 1: Discovery

Step 1.1 — Check remotion-best-practices availability

Attempt to invoke the remotion-best-practices skill via the Skill tool. If unavailable, present:

"The remotion-best-practices skill isn't installed. Options: a) proceed with baseline Remotion knowledge (quality may be reduced) b) wait while you install it c) cancel"

If the user picks (a), emit a warning in the final summary noting reduced quality.

Step 1.2 — Analyze input

Input type	What to read
Marketing brief	positioning, key messages, audience
Blog post	headline, narrative, examples
Changelog	highest-impact entry
PR	gh pr view <n> --json title,body,files,labels, diff (gh pr diff), commit messages, linked issues
Git refs	git diff <range> + git log <range> --oneline
Codebase path	read the specified files/directories
Freeform	parse the user's description

For PRs with 20+ files, filter to user-facing changes only — skip tests/, ci/, .github/, lockfile changes, dep bumps.

Error handling:

• gh not available → tell the user, ask for an alternative (diff file, freeform description)
• Invalid PR/ref → ask user to verify
• File not found → ask for the correct path

Step 1.2a — PR deep analysis (when input is a PR)

When the input is a PR, the brief table in Step 1.2 is not enough. PR bodies are routinely vague, outdated, or focused on implementation rather than user value, and a video built off the body alone tends to overclaim or miss the headline angle entirely. Before continuing to Step 1.3, run this structured analysis and produce a written PR analysis block that becomes the source of truth for Steps 1.4 (scope confirmation), Q2.1 (duration ladder), and Phase 3 (narrative planning).

Mandatory steps — do all of them:

1. Pull metadata and identify the base branch.

   gh pr view <n> --json number,title,body,baseRefName,headRefName,files,labels,commits,additions,deletions
   

   Record baseRefName (usually main / master / develop) — that is the diff reference. gh pr diff <n> automatically compares the PR head against this base.

2. Pull the full diff against the base.

   gh pr diff <n>
   

   For very large PRs (>500 lines or >20 files), also list changed files via gh pr view <n> --json files.

3. Filter to user-facing surfaces. Ignore (do not let these shape the headline angle): tests/, __tests__/, *.test.*, *.spec.*, __mocks__/, ci/, .github/, lockfiles, dep bumps without behavior change, generated/build artifacts (dist/, build/, .next/), and formatting-only diffs. What remains is the user-facing surface of the PR.

4. Enumerate the public-API delta. From the filtered diff, list every change a user could observe or write code against:

   • New, renamed, or removed exports (functions, types, components, hooks, classes, constants)
   • New CLI commands, flags, or environment variables
   • New routes, endpoints, or event names
   • New config keys or schema fields
   • Changed default values for existing public surfaces
   • Changed error messages, log shapes, or response shapes the user could rely on

   Grep the diff for added lines beginning with export , new top-level function/class/const in src/ / lib/ / packages/*/src/, new files in those trees, and changes to public type signatures. If you cannot point at a line in the diff for a claimed API, the claim is wrong — drop it.

5. Enumerate the behavior delta. Beyond API surfaces, list user-visible behavior changes: UI elements added/changed (with file references), CLI / network output that looks different, side effects firing under new conditions, removed limitations, performance characteristics that changed.

6. Write the before / after value statement. Exactly two sentences, both grounded in concrete diff evidence:

   • Before: "Before this PR, a user who wanted to ___ had to ___."
   • After: "After this PR, the same user can ___."

   The "had to" half must be a real prior workflow you can describe — copy-pasting an adapter from the docs, installing a second package, writing boilerplate, hitting an error, switching to a different tool. If the honest "Before" sentence is "they could already do this", the PR has no user-visible value delta — see step 8.

7. Cross-check the PR body against the diff. Walk the body's claims and the diff side-by-side:

   • Body claims a feature → does the diff confirm? If the body says "added X" and the diff has no public surface for X (only tests, only docs, only internal helpers), flag it: "PR body claims X but the diff doesn't expose X to users — should I shift the angle to ?"
   • Diff shows multiple distinct features → body emphasizes one? Flag the others as candidate angles: "The body emphasizes A, but the diff also adds B and C. Which is the headline angle?"
   • Body is empty / boilerplate / [BLANK]? Infer from the diff; make the inferred angle explicit and confirm with the user at Step 1.4.
   • List "surprises" — anything in the diff not mentioned in the body that affects user-visible behavior. Surprises are often the real story.

8. Bail-out check: is this PR actually user-visible? If after steps 4–6 you cannot name a single new thing the user can do or observe, the PR is not video-worthy as a feature launch. Stop and ask the user:

   "This PR looks like an internal refactor / test-only / dep-bump PR — I can't find a user-visible value delta. Options: a) shift to a performance / DX / cleanup angle if numbers support it b) pick a different PR or input c) cancel"

   Do not invent a feature angle to fill the gap. A confabulated angle wastes a full iteration round and destroys user trust on the very first draft.

9. Produce the PR analysis block. Write the result as a short structured block before continuing to Step 1.3. This block — not the PR body — is the source of truth for everything downstream:

   PR analysis — #1234 "Add fromZodSchema support"
   Base: main · Head: feature/zod-schema · Author: <login>
   User-facing files: 3 (packages/core/src/index.ts, packages/core/src/zod.ts, packages/core/src/types.ts)
   Filtered out: 5 test files, 2 doc files, lockfile
   
   Public-API delta:
     + export function fromZodSchema(schema: ZodSchema): StandardSchema
     + export type ZodCompatibleSchema
     ~ default error code for ZodError changed: 'invalid_type' → 'STANDARD/type'
   
   Behavior delta:
     - Users importing zod schemas no longer need a manual adapter.
     - Error messages from zod paths now use the StandardError shape.
   
   Before / after:
     Before: copy a 15-line adapter from the docs into every project that mixes zod with this library.
     After:  one import + one call.
   
   Surprises (in diff but not in PR body):
     - Default error shape change (above) — could be the headline angle for migration-aware audiences.
   
   Headline angle: "drop the 15-line adapter — one import, one call"
   Scope band for Q2.1: one idea (15–25s)
   

   The "Headline angle" line feeds Phase 3.0's motif derivation and Phase 3.3's hook copy. The "Scope band" line feeds Q2.1's scope-derived duration proposal.

10. Forbidden shortcuts (each is a fast path to a wrong video):

    • Writing the analysis block from the PR title alone — fail; you must read the diff.
    • Skipping the cross-check because the body "looks complete" — bodies often look complete and are wrong.
    • Treating the PR body as truth when it conflicts with the diff — the diff wins.
    • Filling in a plausible "Before" sentence when the diff doesn't support one — run the bail-out check instead.
    • Collapsing two genuinely distinct user-visible features into one "feature X" bullet to make the scope band look smaller — record both and pick a headline angle at Step 1.4.

For git-ref-range and codebase-path inputs, apply the same structure with the diff coming from git diff <range> / direct file reads in place of gh pr diff. Steps 4–9 (public-API delta → analysis block) are not PR-specific.

Step 1.3 — Read product context

Read if they exist: README.md, docs/, package.json. If nothing found, ask: "Can you briefly describe the product and who it's for?"

Step 1.4 — Present understanding + get scope confirmation

For PR inputs, the bullets and the compelling angle below must be derived from the PR analysis block written in Step 1.2a — not from the PR title or body. Quote the "Headline angle" line directly as the proposed story seed; turn the public-API delta and the before/after statement into the bullets. If the user added clarifying context after Step 1.2a, fold it in here.

For non-PR inputs, derive the bullets from the relevant entry in Step 1.2 (marketing brief positioning, blog headline, changelog highlight, codebase reading, freeform description).

Present:

"Here's what I'll base the video on:

• [feature summary bullet 1 — concrete, grounded in the diff / source]
• [feature summary bullet 2 — the before → after value, in one line]

The compelling angle: [proposed story seed — for PRs, the "Headline angle" from the analysis block]

Anything to add, remove, or correct?"

Do not proceed until the user confirms.

Step 1.5 — Sensitive content scan

Before continuing, scan for: security patches, internal pricing, credentials, unreleased roadmap items, content marked confidential. Flag anything questionable to the user.

Phase 2: Configuration

Ask these questions one at a time, in order.

Q2.1 — Duration (derived from scope, never offered as a menu)

Do not ask the user to pick a fixed length from a menu. A fixed number becomes a constraint, and the dominant failure mode is padding — freeze-frames, repeated beats, black or empty trailing frames, or filler bullets added solely to reach the chosen target. Instead, derive a duration from the scope of the change and present it as a proposal the user can confirm or override.

Allowed range: 15–60 seconds. Anything outside this window is wrong by default. Going under 15s means the story can't breathe; going over 60s means it's two videos.

Scope → duration ladder:

Scope of the PR / feature	Distinct payoff beats	Target
One idea (single API addition, single bug fix, one QoL win)	hook + 1 delivery + CTA	15–25s
Typical PR-sized feature (problem → solution → proof, or a multi-chapter code walk)	hook + 2–3 delivery + CTA	25–40s
Multi-faceted release (multiple distinct sub-features, or comparison needing problem + solution + proof beats)	hook + 3–4 delivery + CTA	40–60s

A distinct payoff beat is one new thing the viewer learns. Two scenes whose payoff sentences (see Phase 3.3 item 1) reduce to the same idea are one beat, not two.

Sanity check before proposing — do this silently first:

1. List the distinct payoff beats the video must contain.
2. Estimate: hook ≈ 3s, CTA ≈ 5–7s, each delivery beat ≈ 6–10s (longer if it contains a code chapter ladder).
3. Sum the floor and the ceiling. If the floor is under 15s, you're padding the beat list — cut beats or shrink the scope claim. If the ceiling is over 60s, you have two videos — pick one angle.

Propose to the user (no menu, no fixed lengths):

"Based on the scope of this PR, I'm targeting ~Xs (range Ys–Zs). Beats: . Confirm, or override with a different length anywhere in 15–60s."

Hard rule — story sets duration, never the other way around. If at any later phase a scene needs to be stretched, held on a static frame, repeated, backed by black/empty frames, or filled with filler bullets to reach the chosen target — stop, shorten the target, re-confirm with the user, and ship the shorter video. Padding to hit a number is the single behavior this rule exists to forbid. If a 30s scope honestly tells in 18s, ship 18s.

Breathing-room constraint. Whatever duration is chosen, it must allow every on-screen text element to (a) finish animating in, (b) dwell long enough to be read, and (c) settle for at least ~0.4s before the next scene begins. Cutting to a new scene the instant a line of text finishes appearing is forbidden. See Phase 3.3 (item 3) and the Phase 6 audit for the concrete dwell-time table.

Q2.2 — Aspect ratio

"Which aspect ratio?

1. 16:9 landscape (1920×1080, default) — desktop X/LinkedIn
2. 1:1 square (1080×1080) — mobile-friendly feed
3. 9:16 vertical (1080×1920) — Reels/Shorts/TikTok
4. Multi-format — render all three from the same story"

Frame rate is fixed at 30fps. The audit thresholds throughout this skill are expressed in absolute frame counts assuming 30fps; do NOT change fps in remotion.config.ts without simultaneously updating every frame-based threshold (Phase 6 pre-render audit, the dwell-time table, the breathing-room rules, chapters-required threshold).

Q2.3 — Remotion project location

"Where should the Remotion project live? Default: marketing/<feature-slug>/remotion/ (fresh per-video) Override: specify a path."

Q2.4 — Brand assets (auto-detect → confirm)

You MUST run the heuristics in brand-detection.md against the actual target repository — the source code that owns the feature, not the marketing/ output directory — before selecting any color, font, or logo.

Forbidden shortcuts (these produce wrong colors and waste an iteration):

• "I know this project — TanStack uses amber, Vercel uses black/white, Stripe uses purple" → No. Run the scan. Recall is unreliable; brand details drift between training data and now.
• "It's a dev tool, dark + neon green is fine" → No. Generic vibes ≠ this product's brand.
• "User said no questions, so I'll skip detection" → No. Detection is silent. Confirmation is what the "no questions" instruction skips.
• Picking from a palette in your head because it "fits the topic" → No. Read the repo's CSS/Tailwind/theme files.

The scan must produce a written record before any composition file is written. Output a short block listing, for each field: the source file checked, the value found (or not found), and the final value used. Example:

Brand scan — TanStack/ai
  Primary  : checked tailwind.config.* (none) · packages/*/styles.css (--brand: #0a3d2e) → #0a3d2e
  Accent   : checked theme.json (none) · brand.json (none) · derived from primary → #14b870
  Logo     : checked public/logo.svg → public/logo.svg (will be referenced from src/brand.ts)
  Font     : checked next/font (none) · @fontsource (none) · README ref → Inter (fallback)

If the scan finds nothing for a field, fall through to the neutral defaults below — but only after the scan ran and is recorded. Skipping the scan and going straight to defaults is the failure mode this gate exists to prevent.

If you cannot find a logo, ask the user — do NOT invent one. The same rule applies to any field where detection genuinely turned up nothing and no sensible neutral default exists.

The following are non-negotiable regardless of "no questions" mode:

• Brand identity (colors, font, logo) — detection always runs
• Asset locations (where the logo and any referenced media live)
• File output destination (the marketing/<feature-slug>/remotion/ path or override)
• Target audience (carried in from Phase 1's PR/brief analysis)

In interactive mode, present findings (the block above) and ask for confirmation. In non-interactive / "use sane defaults" mode, print the same block and proceed without asking — the record is required either way.

Present findings as:

"I found:

• Logo: public/logo.svg
• Primary: #0066ff (from tailwind.config.js)
• Font: Inter (from next/font)

Use these, customize some, or provide your own?"

Persistence: write chosen brand to marketing/<feature-slug>/remotion/.marketing/brand.json (mirrors the hyperframes-video location). On subsequent runs, ask:

"I loaded brand settings from marketing/<feature-slug>/remotion/.marketing/brand.json. Use saved, or re-detect?"

Fallback when nothing detected: ask explicitly with these neutral defaults. These are intentionally neutral — auto-detection of the project's actual brand is always preferred, and these values should only appear when detection turns up nothing.

• Primary: #3B82F6 (neutral blue)
• Accent: #8B5CF6 (neutral violet)
• Background: #0A0A0A (near-black, dark mode)
• Text: #FFFFFF (white)
• Muted: #9CA3AF
• Success: #22C55E
• Danger: #EF4444
• Font: Geist (loaded automatically via @remotion/google-fonts)
• Logo: none

Confirm with the user before scaffolding.

Note on fonts: The default scaffold loads Geist via @remotion/google-fonts and wires it into brand.font.family. To use a different Google Font, edit src/fonts.ts to import from a different @remotion/google-fonts/<Name> module. brand.font.googleFont is the display name used by the skill to decide which module to load. Non-Google fonts require manual wiring.

Phase 3: Narrative Planning

Step 3.0 — Derive the signature motif from context

Before picking a story pattern, identify the signature visual motif that will carry the narrative across scenes. This is the single most important call for not looking generic.

1. Finish this sentence in one verb: "This feature lets developers ___ something."
   • Examples: compose music, sync state, validate inputs, secure tokens, deploy functions, route requests.
2. Translate the verb into a physical / spatial metaphor: a waveform for audio composition, packets traveling edges for sync, squiggle underlines for type validation, a padlock for auth, a rocket/checkpoint line for deploy, a switchboard for routing.
3. Pick the state-change axis: the motif must visibly change between Problem and Solution scenes (broken ↔ unified, empty ↔ full, disconnected ↔ connected). Pick ONE axis and hold it across the video.
4. Look up the motif in references/visual-motifs.md — the catalog maps 20+ common verbs to motifs, state axes, and example custom elements. If the verb isn't listed, apply the heuristic in that file.

Confirm with user:

"The core verb is compose music, so I'll use an animated waveform as the signature motif — smooth/clean in the hook and solution, jagged/red in the problem. This thread will appear in scenes 1, 2, and 4. Approve, pick a different motif, or let me propose alternatives?"

Do NOT skip this step. A video without a derived motif defaults to generic bullet-list storytelling and fails the generic test (Storytelling Rule 10).

Step 3.1 — Detect story pattern

Scan the PR/input for signals and pick one of 5 patterns. See the detection signals table in patterns/README.md — that file is the single source of truth.

Load the matching pattern spec from patterns/<pattern>.md.

Confirm with user:

"This looks like an [API/Library feature] PR. I'll use that story template. Override? Options: api-library / ui / performance / bugfix / generic / describe a custom pattern"

Step 3.2 — Decide code sourcing (hybrid)

Per pattern:

• api-library-feature → synthesize realistic usage examples that show how developers will actually use the feature
• ui-feature → screenshots / mock components (no code block scenes)
• performance-win → metric cards + optional code
• bug-fix → before (broken) + after (working) snippets, synthesized if raw diff is noisy
• generic-fallback → bullet benefits, no code

Offer user override:

"For code snippets, I'll synthesize realistic usage examples rather than paste raw diff. Override: use-diff / synthesize / mix"

Step 3.2b — Ground synthesized code in the real library

Before synthesizing usage code for a PR, verify the library's actual public API. Do not invent method names, argument shapes, or import paths.