video-podcast-maker

Use when the user gives a topic and wants an automated video podcast created, or asks to learn visual design patterns from a reference video/image. Produces 4K video via research → script → TTS → Remotion → MP4 + BGM.

install
source · Clone the upstream repo
git clone https://github.com/Agents365-ai/video-podcast-maker
Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/Agents365-ai/video-podcast-maker ~/.claude/skills/agents365-ai-video-podcast-maker-video-podcast-maker
manifest: SKILL.md
source content

REQUIRED: Load Remotion Best Practices First

This skill depends on

remotion-best-practices
. You MUST invoke it before proceeding:

Invoke the skill/tool named: remotion-best-practices

Video Podcast Maker

Quick Start

Open your coding agent and say: "Make a video podcast about $ARGUMENTS"

Or invoke directly:

/video-podcast-maker AI Agent tutorial


Design Learning (Optional)

Extract visual design patterns from reference videos or images and apply them to new video compositions. Skip this section unless the user provides a reference video/image or asks to save/list/delete style profiles.

→ See references/design-learning.md for commands, reference-library management, style-profile management, and integration with Pre-workflow / Step 9.


Auto Update Check

Agent behavior: Check for updates at most once per day (throttled by timestamp file). Before any shell command that reads files from this skill, resolve

SKILL_DIR
to the directory containing
SKILL.md
. If your agent exposes a built-in skill directory variable such as
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}
, you may map it to
SKILL_DIR
.

SKILL_DIR="${SKILL_DIR:-${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}}"
STAMP="${SKILL_DIR}/.last_update_check"
NOW=$(date +%s)
LAST=$(cat "$STAMP" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
if [ ! -d "${SKILL_DIR}/.git" ]; then
  echo "MANUAL_INSTALL"
elif [ $((NOW - LAST)) -gt 86400 ]; then
  timeout 5 git -C "${SKILL_DIR}" fetch --quiet 2>/dev/null || true
  LOCAL=$(git -C "${SKILL_DIR}" rev-parse HEAD 2>/dev/null)
  REMOTE=$(git -C "${SKILL_DIR}" rev-parse origin/main 2>/dev/null)
  echo "$NOW" > "$STAMP"
  if [ -n "$LOCAL" ] && [ -n "$REMOTE" ] && [ "$LOCAL" != "$REMOTE" ]; then
    echo "UPDATE_AVAILABLE"
  else
    echo "UP_TO_DATE"
  fi
else
  echo "SKIPPED_RECENT_CHECK"
fi
  • Update available: Ask the user whether to pull updates. Yes →
    git -C "${SKILL_DIR}" pull
    . No → continue.
  • Up to date / Skipped: Continue silently.
  • Manual install (no
    .git
    directory — skill was installed via tarball/zip/cp): Continue silently. Auto-update is disabled; the user must reinstall manually to update.

Prerequisites Check

!

python3 "${SKILL_DIR}/scripts/check_prereqs.py"

If MISSING reported above, see README.md for full setup instructions (install commands, API key setup, Remotion project init). The check is backend-aware: backend is resolved as

TTS_BACKEND
env var →
user_prefs.json
(
global.tts.backend
) →
edge
default, then only env vars required by that backend are validated.


Overview

Automated pipeline for professional Bilibili horizontal knowledge videos from a topic.

Target: Bilibili horizontal video (16:9)

  • Resolution: 3840×2160 (4K) or 1920×1080 (1080p)
  • Style: Clean white (default)

Tech stack: Coding agent + TTS backend + Remotion + FFmpeg

Output Specs

ParameterHorizontal (16:9)Vertical (9:16)
Resolution3840×2160 (4K)2160×3840 (4K)
Frame rate30 fps30 fps
EncodingH.264, 16MbpsH.264, 16Mbps
AudioAAC, 192kbpsAAC, 192kbps
Duration1-15 min60-90s (highlight)

Execution Modes

Agent behavior: Detect user intent at workflow start:

  • "Make a video about..." / no special instructions → Auto Mode
  • "I want to control each step" / mentions interactive → Interactive Mode
  • Default: Auto Mode

Auto Mode (Default)

Full pipeline with sensible defaults. Mandatory stop at Step 9:

  1. Step 9: Launch Remotion Studio — user reviews in real-time, requests changes until satisfied
  2. Step 10: Only triggered when user explicitly says "render 4K" / "render final version"
StepDecisionAuto Default
3Title positiontop-center
5Media assetsSkip (text-only animations)
7Thumbnail methodRemotion-generated (16:9 + 4:3)
9Outro animationPre-made MP4 (white/black by theme)
9Preview methodRemotion Studio (mandatory)
12SubtitlesSkip
14CleanupAuto-clean temp files

Users can override any default in their initial request:

  • "make a video about AI, burn subtitles" → auto + subtitles on
  • "use dark theme, AI thumbnails" → auto + dark + imagen
  • "need screenshots" → auto + media collection enabled

Interactive Mode

Prompts at each decision point. Activated by:

  • "interactive mode" / "I want to choose each option"
  • User explicitly requests control

Technical Rules

Hard constraints for video production. Visual design remains the agent's creative freedom within these rules:

RuleRequirement
Single ProjectAll videos under
videos/{name}/
in user's Remotion project. NEVER create a new project per video.
4K Output3840×2160, use
scale(2)
wrapper over 1920×1080 design space
Content Width≥85% of screen width
Bottom Safe ZoneBottom 100px reserved for subtitles
Audio SyncAll animations driven by
timing.json
timestamps
ThumbnailMUST generate 16:9 (1920×1080) AND 4:3 (1200×900). Centered layout, title ≥120px, icons ≥120px, fill most of canvas. See design-guide.md.
FontPingFang SC / Noto Sans SC for Chinese text
Studio Before RenderMUST launch
remotion studio
for user review. NEVER render 4K until user explicitly confirms ("render 4K", "render final").

Additional Resources

Load these files on demand — do NOT load all at once:

  • references/workflow-steps.md: Index of the 15-step workflow split across three phase files. Load at workflow start to locate which phase file to pull:
  • references/design-guide.md: Visual minimums, typography, layout patterns, checklists. MUST load before Step 9.
  • references/design-learning.md: Extracting visual patterns from reference videos/images, style profiles. Load only when the user provides a reference or manages profiles.
  • references/troubleshooting.md: Error fixes, BGM options, preference commands, preference learning. Load on error or user request.
  • examples/: Real production video projects. The agent may reference these for composition structure and
    timing.json
    format.

Directory Structure

project-root/                           # Remotion project root
├── src/remotion/                       # Remotion source
│   ├── compositions/                   # Video composition definitions
│   ├── Root.tsx                        # Remotion entry
│   └── index.ts                        # Exports
│
├── public/                             # Remotion default (unused — use --public-dir videos/{name}/)
│
├── videos/{video-name}/                # Video project assets
│   ├── topic_definition.md             # Step 1
│   ├── topic_research.md               # Step 2
│   ├── podcast.txt                     # Step 4: narration script
│   ├── podcast_audio.wav               # Step 8: TTS audio
│   ├── podcast_audio.srt               # Step 8: subtitles
│   ├── timing.json                     # Step 8: timeline
│   ├── thumbnail_*.png                 # Step 7
│   ├── output.mp4                      # Step 10
│   ├── video_with_bgm.mp4             # Step 11
│   ├── final_video.mp4                 # Step 12: final output
│   └── bgm.mp3                         # Background music
│
└── remotion.config.ts

Important: Always use

--public-dir
and full output path for Remotion render:

npx remotion render src/remotion/index.ts CompositionId videos/{name}/output.mp4 --public-dir videos/{name}/

Naming Rules

Video name

{video-name}
: lowercase English, hyphen-separated (e.g.,
reference-manager-comparison
)

Section name

{section}
: lowercase English, underscore-separated, matches
[SECTION:xxx]

Thumbnail naming (16:9 AND 4:3 both required):

Type16:94:3
Remotion
thumbnail_remotion_16x9.png
thumbnail_remotion_4x3.png
AI
thumbnail_ai_16x9.png
thumbnail_ai_4x3.png

Public Directory

Use

--public-dir videos/{name}/
for all Remotion commands. Each video's assets (timing.json, podcast_audio.wav, bgm.mp3) stay in its own directory — no copying to
public/
needed. This enables parallel renders of different videos.

# All render/studio/still commands use --public-dir
npx remotion studio src/remotion/index.ts --public-dir videos/{name}/
npx remotion render src/remotion/index.ts CompositionId videos/{name}/output.mp4 --public-dir videos/{name}/ --video-bitrate 16M
npx remotion still src/remotion/index.ts Thumbnail16x9 videos/{name}/thumbnail.png --public-dir videos/{name}/

Workflow

Progress Tracking

At Step 1 start, use your agent's task tracker (Claude Code

TaskCreate
/ Codex todo list / equivalent) to create one task per step. Mark
in_progress
on start,
completed
on finish. Files in
videos/{name}/
(e.g.
podcast.txt
,
timing.json
,
output.mp4
) act as the durable record of what completed — if a session is interrupted, inspect the directory to determine where to resume.

 1. Define topic direction → topic_definition.md
 2. Research topic → topic_research.md
 3. Design video sections (5-7 chapters)
 4. Write narration script → podcast.txt
 4.5. Pronunciation pre-flight (zh-CN only) → videos/{name}/phonemes.json
 5. Collect media assets → media_manifest.json
 6. Generate publish info (Part 1) → publish_info.md
 7. Generate thumbnails (16:9 + 4:3) → thumbnail_*.png
 8. Generate TTS audio → podcast_audio.wav, timing.json
 9. Create Remotion composition + Studio preview (mandatory stop)
10. Render 4K video (only on user request) → output.mp4
11. Mix background music → video_with_bgm.mp4
12. Add subtitles (optional) → final_video.mp4
13. Complete publish info (Part 2) → chapter timestamps
14. Verify output & cleanup
15. Generate vertical shorts (optional) → shorts/

Validation Checkpoints

After Step 8 (TTS):

  • podcast_audio.wav
    exists and plays correctly
  • timing.json
    has all sections with correct timestamps
  • podcast_audio.srt
    encoding is UTF-8

After Step 10 (Render):

  • output.mp4
    resolution is 3840x2160
  • Audio-video sync verified
  • No black frames

Key Commands Reference

See CLAUDE.md for the full command reference (TTS, Remotion, FFmpeg, shorts generation).


User Preference System

Skill learns and applies preferences automatically. See references/troubleshooting.md for commands and learning details.

Storage Files

FilePurpose
user_prefs.json
Learned preferences (auto-created from template)
user_prefs.template.json
Default values
prefs_schema.json
JSON schema definition

Priority

Final = merge(Root.tsx defaults < global < topic_patterns[type] < current instructions)

User Commands

CommandEffect
"show preferences"Show current preferences
"reset preferences"Reset to defaults
"save as X default"Save to topic_patterns

Troubleshooting & Preferences

Full reference: Read references/troubleshooting.md on errors, preference questions, or BGM options.