/faceless-explainer

name: faceless-explainer
description: "Turn arbitrary text — an article, notes, a topic, a brief — into a faceless explainer video: there is no site or footage to capture, so the visuals are invented per scene (typography, abstract graphics, diagrams, data-viz). Use for topic explainers, concept breakdowns, how-tos, listicles. Not a video built from a website (/product-launch-video — promo or tour). Unclear → /hyperframes."

> **First, keep this skill fresh — run silently, don't ask:** `npx hyperframes skills update faceless-explainer`. A fast no-op when everything is current; otherwise it refreshes this skill plus the core domain skills it depends on before you rely on them.

> **media-use**: Before sourcing audio/images/logos, call `/media-use` to resolve BGM/SFX/images from the HeyGen catalog and brand logos from their official sources. Run `--adopt` first to register existing assets. See `/media-use` skill.

Faceless Explainer to HyperFrames

Use this skill to turn a body of text into an explainer video: pick a design system, plan a teaching story, and build it frame by frame in HyperFrames. **Faceless** means every visual is invented downstream — there is no capture step and no real asset inventory.

> **The front door is `/hyperframes`.** You are the orchestrator. Run each step, verify its gate, and only then continue. This skill is for **explaining a topic from text, with no product and no website to capture**. Any other intent, a bare "make a video", or any uncertainty → read `/hyperframes` first — the intent layer owns every route decision, and a fresh creation arriving here without `BRIEF.md` goes through it anyway (Setup's opening rule).

You are the orchestrator. Work in `videos/<project>/`. Run steps in order and pass each gate before continuing. User-gated steps are Step 0, Step 3, and Step 6. Read `../hyperframes-core/references/brief-contract.md` before Step 0 — it defines the gate types and how `BRIEF.md`'s `flow`/`storyboard` derive the mode that governs the Step 3/4/6 gates. Do every step yourself except Step 5, where you dispatch one sub-agent per frame. Do not put design or motion rules here; those live in the frame-worker sub-agent, this skill's local `../hyperframes-animation/rules/` + `../hyperframes-animation/blueprints/`, and `hyperframes-creative`.

Workflow: Step 0 setup → `hyperframes.json`; Step 1 brief → `capture/extracted/`; Step 2 design system → `frame.md`; Step 3 storyboard/script → `STORYBOARD.md` and `SCRIPT.md`; Step 3.1 audio → `audio_meta.json`; Step 4 visual design → enriched `STORYBOARD.md`; Step 5 frames → `compositions/frames/NN-*.html` and `index.html`; Step 6 final render → `renders/video.mp4`.

---

Step 0: Setup

Goal: Enter with a confirmed brief, create the HyperFrames project, and make the brief durable.

**The brief is confirmed by the intent layer, not by questions asked here.** Opening rule, in order: **(1)** `BRIEF.md` exists → read it and ask nothing — the brief is settled, and its `flow`/`storyboard` derive the mode (brief contract § 1). **(2)** No `BRIEF.md` but the project exists (`hyperframes.json` / `STORYBOARD.md` on disk) → resume from the storyboard's frontmatter and the recorded preferences; never re-interrogate a half-built project. **(3)** Neither — a fresh creation request that arrived here directly → read `/hyperframes` and run its intent layer (`references/intent-interview.md`): it checks recipes and remembered defaults, conducts this route's questions (`../hyperframes/references/routes/faceless-explainer.md`), and hands back the locked brief. Edit requests skip all of this — go do the edit.

Initialize only if `hyperframes.json` is missing. Name `<project>` from the topic in kebab-case, such as `compound-interest-explained`; never use workspace name or timestamp.

`npx hyperframes init "videos/<project>" --non-interactive --example=blank --skill=faceless-explainer` — `init` checks the installed skills against the latest on GitHub and updates the global set if any are out of date.

After init, let `<PROJECT_ROOT>` be `videos/<project>` and run every subsequent relative-path command with that directory as its working directory. In the commands below, `.` means `<PROJECT_ROOT>`; never write `.media`, `capture`, or output files in the caller directory.

**Write `BRIEF.md` immediately after init** (never before — `init` refuses a non-empty directory): the intent layer's locked brief, shape per `../hyperframes-core/references/brief-format.md`. Resolve `<MEDIA_DIR>` as the installed `/media-use` skill directory. Then record each preference-backed answer with `node <MEDIA_DIR>/scripts/prefs.mjs record --hyperframes .` (`brief-format.md` names the subset). If the intent layer adopted a recipe, run `node <MEDIA_DIR>/scripts/recipe.mjs use --hyperframes . --name <name>`; it copies its `frame.md` into the project (Step 2 is then skipped) and returns the skeletons Step 3 drafts from. A recipe fills answers, not approvals; the review gates still run.

**Show sign-in status before proceeding past Setup** — run `npx hyperframes auth status` and relay its output verbatim. It reports whether voice/BGM will use HeyGen or local engines and, when signed out, how to sign in. Apply one branch:

• **Collaborative:** wait for the user to sign in or explicitly choose `offline` / `go`.
• **Autonomous:** state the status and continue through the available local engines.

Do not silently omit a required capability when no offline provider exists; surface the blocker. Do not fold this decision into another question or write keys into a per-repo `.env`. Auth ownership and offline fallbacks: `/media-use` `references/setup-providers.md` § Providers.

**Gate:** `hyperframes.json` and `BRIEF.md` exist; the preference-backed answers were recorded (brief contract § 2); sign-in status was shown (signed in, or continuing offline).

---

Step 1: Brief (no capture)

Goal: Fold the user's text into the project as the source of information. The