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Video Essay Maker

Turns an argument or blog post into a narrated, rendered video essay with visuals

Source Download skill
Repository
danielmiessler/LifeOS
Stars
19,682
Licence
MIT
Files
15 files

What it does

Once installed, the agent can take a piece of content plus a stance (or a blog post) and produce a short narrated video essay: it writes an argument first, breaks it into scripted scenes and visuals, narrates it, renders an mp4 and checks the render by reading it back. Voice mode can instead build a video of your own blog post, scrolling the page with each sentence highlighted as your recording or a voice clone reads it. Runs stop in review and nothing is published by this skill.

Great for

  • Creators who want a narrated explainer or response video from a written post
  • Writers who have recorded their own reading of a post and want a video version
  • Developers already using the LifeOS framework and its Bun-based tools

Skip it if

  • Editing your own camera footage or clips, which is a different skill (Video) (wrong tool for the job)
  • Quick one-off animations, better served by HyperFrames directly
  • Anyone without Bun, the render toolchain, and a configured fonts/config setup, since tools stop until setup is complete

Try asking

  • “Make a 3-minute video essay arguing against this article: [pasted text]”
  • “Turn my latest blog post into a 2-minute explainer video”
  • “I recorded myself reading this post, make a video from my audio”
  • “Respond to this interview in a video essay with my stance on it”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Video Essay MakerInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 15 original files, the MIT licence and an attribution note.

    VideoEssay.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip VideoEssay.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip VideoEssay.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Run setup first (Setup.md and Setup.ts --check) so fonts and config are present; missing fonts are errors, not silent fallbacks
  • Review the Essay.md checkpoint before rendering, since text is cheap to change and renders are not
  • Check the output's verify results and the reviewed essay yourself, because argument quality and factual accuracy are manual checks

What's inside

  • Intents/Argue.md
  • Intents/Explainer.md
  • Intents/Full.md
  • Intents/Produce.md
  • Intents/Script.md
  • Intents/Voice.md
  • References/ScriptSchema.md
  • References/Style.md
  • References/Tools.md
  • Setup.md
  • SKILL.md
  • Tools/Align.ts
  • Tools/Build.ts
  • Tools/Clean.ts
  • Tools/Compose.ts

Redistributed unmodified from danielmiessler/LifeOS under the MIT licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.