Clueso/video_skills

article-to-video

Turn written long-form content into a narrated explainer video: distill the text into a scene-by-scene script, compose each scene with native Clueso elements, narrate it, and export. Only Clueso MCP tools are used — the "intelligence" (reading, distilling, scripting) is yours, the media work is Clueso's.

Clueso MCP onlyNo API keys requiredVideo creationApache-2.0
$npx skills add desklamp-developers/skills --skill article-to-videoSource

Installs from desklamp-developers/skills · works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any agent that supports skills.

Requirements

  • Clueso MCP connected. Nothing else — no scrapers, no external APIs.

Inputs

One of:

  • Pasted text — the article body in the conversation.
  • A Clueso article — fetch it with get_article.
  • A file — ask the user to paste the content or attach it; do not reach for external fetching tools this skill doesn't require.

Plus: intended audience and target length if the user has one (default: 60-90s for a how-to, 30-45s for a changelog).

If the article contains images/screenshots the user can provide, collect them — real screenshots beat anything generated.

Workflow

1. Confirm the workspace

find(type='workspaces'); confirm with the user; switch_workspace if needed.

2. Distill — don't transcribe

An article read aloud is not a video script. Extract:

  • The one-sentence point of the article (this becomes the hook).
  • 3-6 steps or ideas, each collapsed to its action and its outcome. Cut caveats, edge cases, and anything parenthetical — the article remains the reference for those.
  • The payoff — what the viewer can now do.

Write the voiceover script: hook → steps/ideas in order → payoff. One scene per step. Conversational, second person, present tense ("Click Export and pick a format" not "The user may then choose to export"). Check pacing with estimate_duration; trim until it fits the target length.

Show the user the script before composing.

3. Pick the visual direction

find(type='clueprints', query='tutorial / explainer / changelog style') — if a strong match exists, offer it and follow its design. Otherwise get_design_guide, commit to a palette (workspace brand colors first if available), and follow the guide.

4. Build the project

  • create_project, then add_clips — one clip per scene, durations from the script.
  • get_element_schema before the first add_elements.

Scene composition by content type:

  • Step with a screenshot available → upload_file + check_uploads, place the image, then keyframe attention: a zoom toward the relevant region, a traveling highlight rectangle, or a callout that pops in on the key phrase of the narration.
  • Step without a screenshot → kinetic typography carrying the step's action words (animation_setting presets: masked_reveal, slide, typewriter; apply_to_unit: 'word' for emphasis beats), plus simple keyframed shapes (a rectangle standing in for a panel, a progress bar growing, a toggle flipping). Do NOT mock up the product's actual UI from imagination — abstract shapes, not fake screenshots.
  • Conceptual idea (non-UI) → consider generate_media(kind='animation') for a mechanism or chart, but only if a few keyframed rectangles genuinely can't carry it. Boxed, not full-canvas, when the scene also has text.
  • Lists in the article → reveal items one at a time synced to the voice, swapping or dimming previous items — never a static bullet wall.

5. Narrate and sync

  • set_voice (ask if the user has a preference), voiceover_batch for all scenes at once.
  • auto_sync, then add_sync_point wherever a reveal must land on a spoken word — in tutorials this matters most on UI-action words ("click", "select", "drag").

6. Verify and export

Render a mid-scene frame per clip with get_clip(render=true, timestamp=<middle>): legible at video scale, palette consistent, screenshots sharp, nothing static for more than a beat. Fix via update_elements/update_clips, then export_project and give the user the link.

If the source was a Clueso article and the user wants the video embedded alongside it, offer to attach the export via update_article / add_article_media.

Fallbacks

  • Article too long for one video → propose splitting into a short series (one video per section) instead of a 4-minute monolith; build the first, confirm, repeat.
  • No screenshots available for UI steps → abstract keyframed shapes + kinetic type; tell the user real screenshots would upgrade specific scenes and which ones.
  • get_article returns nothing / wrong article → ask the user to paste the text.
  • Voiceover pacing collides with a dense scene → split the clip (split_clip) and spread the reveals rather than speeding the voice.