/plan-video

name: plan-video
description: "Create a complete YouTube video plan with title options, thumbnail concepts, hooks, and content outline. Use when planning a new video, creating title/thumbnail/hook options, or when the user says 'plan a video', 'video plan', 'plan my next YouTube video', or 'I want to make a video about'."

Plan Video

Overview

This orchestrator sequences foundation skills to produce a complete video plan: researched titles, thumbnail concepts, hook strategies, and a content outline. It manages the user selection workflow between steps but delegates all content generation to specialized skills.

**Core Principle**: This is a thin orchestrator. All content generation goes through foundation skills — that's where the proven patterns, formulas, and quality logic live. This skill manages workflow sequence, user decisions, and plan file assembly only.

How Reference Delegation Works

Each step below invokes a foundation skill that owns its own reference files. When you invoke `creator-stack:title`, it loads `references/youtube-title-formulas.md` from its own directory. When you invoke `creator-stack:thumbnail`, it loads `references/thumbnail-formulas.md` from its own directory. You don't need to manage these paths — just invoke the skill and provide context.

YouTube-Specific Context

Episode Directory Convention

All episode files live under `./youtube/episode/[episode_number]_[topic_short_name]/`.

• **Research file**: `research.md` in the episode directory
• **Plan file**: `plan.md` in the episode directory
• **Thumbnails**: saved to the episode directory during finalization

Channel Information

If a local channel context file exists (e.g., `./youtube/channel.md` or similar), load it at the start of the workflow to provide channel-specific context to downstream skills.

YouTube MCP Tools Available

When `creator-stack:research` is invoked from this orchestrator, the YouTube Analytics MCP tools are available for data gathering:

• `search_videos` — find videos by keyword, channel, or criteria
• `get_video_details` — video stats, views, likes, comments, publish date
• `get_channel_details` — channel metadata, subscriber count, video count
• `get_video_comments` — comment text and sentiment data
• `get_video_transcript` — full video transcript
• `get_related_videos` — videos related to a specific video
• `get_trending_videos` — currently trending videos
• `get_video_enhanced_transcript` — enhanced transcript with timestamps

The YouTube Researcher agent (defined in this plugin's `agents/youtube-researcher.md`) can also be used for structured data gathering tasks.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Research has been completed and you need to create a video plan
• The user asks to plan a new video
• You need title, thumbnail, hook, and outline options for a video
• You want to produce a production-ready plan with multiple options for user selection

Prerequisites

Research for the video must be completed first. Either: 1. Research file exists at `./youtube/episode/[episode_number]_[topic_short_name]/research.md`, OR 2. Invoke `creator-stack:research` to conduct research first (YouTube MCP tools are available)

Planning Workflow

Execute all steps below in order. Track progress systematically.

Step 0: Load Research

Read the research file for this episode:

• Location: `./youtube/episode/[episode_number]_[topic_short_name]/research.md`

If research does not exist, invoke `creator-stack:research` first. The YouTube MCP tools are available from this orchestrator context, enabling the research skill to gather YouTube-specific data.

The video plan should incorporate research findings at each step — research grounds every recommendation.

Step 1: Create Plan File

Create a new plan file at: `./youtube/episode/[episode_number]_[topic_short_name]/plan.md`

If a plan file already exists, read it to understand what has been done so far and continue from there.

Initialize the plan file with this template:

# [Episode_Number]: [Topic] - Video Plan

## Research Summary
[Summary of research insights]

## Titles
[3 title options with rationale and star ratings]

## Thumbnails
[2 thumbnail concepts per title with rationale and star ratings]

## Hooks
[3 hook options for selected title+thumbnail with rationale and star ratings]

## High-Level Content Outline
[Section structure with key points]

## Final Plan
[Selected title, 3 AB test thumbnails, selected hook, outline]

Update this document as you progress through the planning steps.

Step 2: Generate Title Options

1. Invoke `creator-stack:title` to generate 3 optimized titles.

• Provide the research summary as context.

2. Document all title options in the plan file including:

• Title text
• Rationale for why it is predicted to perform well and how it aligns with research insights
• Star rating from 1-3 stars indicating your recommendation

Complete title generation before proceeding to thumbnails — thumbnails need to complement the titles.

Step 3: Generate Thumbnail Concepts

1. Invoke `creator-stack:thumbnail` to generate 2 thumbnail concepts for each title. These should be concept descriptions only, not actual images yet.

• Provide each title as context so thumbnails complement them.

2. Document all thumbnail concepts in the plan file including:

• Title pairing
• Concept description
• Rationale for why it is predicted to perform well, how it aligns with research, and how it complements the title
• Star rating for top 3 thumbnail concepts

Step 4: Present Recommendation and Get User Selection

1. Present all title/thumbnail combinations to the user, along with your top 3 recommended title + thumbnail pairings.

2. Ask the user to select their one preferred title + thumbnail pairing to proceed with.

3. Update both the title and thumbnail sections in the plan file to indicate the user's selection with a (User Selection) marker next t