/video-podcast-maker

name: video-podcast-maker
description: Use when the user gives a topic and wants an automated topic-driven narrated explainer, podcast, or knowledge-summary video (Bilibili / YouTube / Xiaohongshu / Douyin / WeChat Channels), or asks to learn visual design patterns from a reference video/image. Trigger when the user mentions creating a knowledge video, narrated explainer, video podcast, or animated infographic-style video from a topic — even if they don't say "video podcast" explicitly. Also trigger when the user wants to regenerate, re-render, rebuild, update, or iterate on a narrated video this skill already produced — e.g. they edited the script/prompt, changed the visuals, or swapped the background music and want the final video remade (reuse the existing videos/{name}/ directory, never start a new project). Do NOT trigger for generic video editing, trimming, format conversion, color grading, or non-narrative video tasks. Produces 4K video via research → script → TTS → Remotion → MP4 + BGM.
argument-hint: "[topic]"
effort: high
author: Agents365-ai
category: Content Creation
version: 5.3.0
created: 2025-01-27
updated: 2026-07-30
permissions:
  - env
  - file_read
  - file_write
  - network
  - shell
bilibili: https://space.bilibili.com/441831884
github: https://github.com/Agents365-ai/video-podcast-maker
# Required component skills. TTS is local (edge/azure) — see Bootstrap.
dependencies:
  - remotion-best-practices
# Optional asset producers — probed at runtime by scripts/components.py,
# the pipeline degrades gracefully when they are absent.
optional-dependencies:
  - assetseeker
  - imagencn
  - videogencn
metadata:
  openclaw:
    requires:
      bins: [python3, ffmpeg, node, npx]
      env: [AZURE_SPEECH_KEY, AZURE_SPEECH_REGION]
    emoji: "🎬"
    homepage: https://github.com/Agents365-ai/video-podcast-maker
    os: ["macos", "linux"]
    install:
      - kind: brew
        formula: ffmpeg
        bins: [ffmpeg]

> **Recommended: Load Remotion Best Practices** > > This skill benefits from `remotion-best-practices` (not bundled) for the full > Remotion pattern library. It is optional — minimum rules are below if absent. > > - **Pi**: read the loaded skill at `remotion-best-practices` (listed in available skills). > - **Claude Code**: invoke `remotion-best-practices` skill/tool before proceeding. > > Not installed? Get it from [remotion-dev/skills](https://github.com/remotion-dev/skills) (docs: [remotion.dev/docs/ai/skills](https://www.remotion.dev/docs/ai/skills)). > > If `remotion-best-practices` is not installed, minimum rules: chromium must be available, always wrap 4K content in `<Scale4K>`, use `<TransitionSeries>` with `linearTiming`, and treat audio as the master clock.

Video Podcast Maker

Automated pipeline for **4K Bilibili horizontal knowledge videos** from a topic. Coding agent + TTS backend + Remotion + FFmpeg.

Contents

• [Bootstrap](#bootstrap) — prerequisites (run before Step 1)
• [Execution Modes](#execution-modes) — Auto vs Interactive → [references/workflow-script.md](references/workflow-script.md)
• [Regenerating an Existing Video](#regenerating-an-existing-video) — iterate on a finished video
• [Workflow](#workflow) — the 11-step pipeline + phase-file pointers + mandatory stops
• [Hard Rules](#hard-rules) — non-negotiable production constraints
• [Audio-Master Clock & Sync](#audio-master-clock--sync)
• [Per-Video Layout](#per-video-layout)
• [Additional Resources](#additional-resources) — when to load each `references/` file
• [User Preferences](#user-preferences)
• [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting)

---

Bootstrap

Resolve `SKILL_DIR` to the directory containing this `SKILL.md`:

• **Pi**: the agent knows the skill path from the loaded skill list — set `SKILL_DIR` to that directory before running commands.
• **Claude Code**: `${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}` is auto-populated.

SKILL_DIR="${SKILL_DIR:-${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}}"

# Prerequisites (CLIs + backend env vars)
python3 "${SKILL_DIR}/scripts/check_prereqs.py"

Updates flow through the skills CLI (`npx skills update video-podcast-maker -g`); direct git-clone installs use `git pull` per the README. This skill performs no update checks.

**Prereqs failures** — see README.md for setup. The check is backend-aware (resolves `TTS_BACKEND` env → `user_prefs.json` `global.tts.backend` → `edge` default), so only env vars required by the active backend are validated.

**First video in a new project?** Prefer reusing an existing Remotion project with `node_modules/` already installed — creating a fresh project downloads ~2.2 GB of npm packages plus a 90 MB Chrome headless shell (one-time per project). If the user has a project from a previous video, use it. If a fresh project is necessary, run `npm install` in the background while you do Steps 1-4 (topic research and script writing).

**All rendering goes into `videos/{name}/`** — every `output.mp4`, `final_video.mp4`, and `thumbnail_*.png` lands directly in the per-video directory. Never render to an `out/` or `dist/` directory; the `--public-dir videos/{name}/` convention keeps everything self-contained.

**TTS engine** — two local backends, no external skill:

• `edge` (default) — free, no key, via edge-tts.
• `azure` — needs `AZURE_SPEECH_KEY` + `AZURE_SPEECH_REGION` (Microsoft Speech SDK).

Each synthesizes in-house (`scripts/tts/backends/native.py`) — pronunciation (display → spoken → back to display for subtitles) and phoneme application are built in. `check_prereqs.py` validates the active backend's env vars.

> **Multi-platform TTS?** The former ttscn component skill that provided the > 9-backend matrix is no longer a dependency of this skill. If you want those > platforms, install [Agents365-ai/ttsCN](https://github.com/Agents365-ai/ttsCN) > separately and call it directly — this skill ships only edge + azure.

> **Design Learning shortcut**: If the user provides a reference video/image or asks to save/list/delete style profiles, see [