/minimax-music-gen

name: minimax-music-gen
description: >
  Use when user wants to generate music, songs, or audio tracks. Triggers on any request
  involving music creation, song writing, lyrics generation, audio production, or covers.
  Also triggers when user provides lyrics and wants them turned into a song, or describes
  a mood/scene and wants background music. Supports multilingual triggers — match equivalent
  phrases in any language. Do NOT use for music playback of existing files, music theory
  questions, or music recommendation without generation.
license: MIT
metadata:
  version: "1.1"
  category: creative

MiniMax Music Generation Skill

Generate songs (vocal or instrumental) using the MiniMax Music API. Supports two creation modes: **Basic** (one-sentence-in, song-out) and **Advanced Control** (edit lyrics, refine prompt, plan before generating).

Prerequisites

• **mmx CLI** (required): Music generation uses the `mmx` command-line tool.

**Check if installed:**

  command -v mmx && mmx --version || echo "mmx not found"

**Install (requires Node.js):**

  npm install -g mmx-cli

**Authenticate (first time only):**

  mmx auth login --api-key <your-minimax-api-key>

The API key can be obtained from [MiniMax Platform](https://platform.minimaxi.com/). Credentials are saved to `~/.mmx/credentials.json` and persist across sessions.

**Verify:**

  mmx quota show

• **Audio player** (recommended): `mpv`, `ffplay`, or `afplay` (macOS built-in) for local

playback. `mpv` is preferred for its interactive controls.

CLI Tool

This skill uses the `mmx` CLI for all music generation:

• **Music Generation**: `mmx music generate` — model: `music-2.6-free`
• Supports `--lyrics-optimizer` to auto-generate lyrics from prompt
• Supports `--instrumental` for instrumental tracks
• Supports `--lyrics` for user-provided lyrics
• Structured params: `--genre`, `--mood`, `--vocals`, `--instruments`, `--bpm`, `--key`, `--tempo`, `--structure`, `--references`

• **Cover**: `mmx music cover` — model: `music-cover-free`
• Takes reference audio via `--audio-file <path>` or `--audio <url>`
• `--prompt` describes the target cover style

**Agent flags**: Always add `--quiet --non-interactive` when calling mmx from agents.

**Pipeline**:

• Vocal: `User description -> mmx music generate --lyrics-optimizer -> MP3`
• Instrumental: `User description -> mmx music generate --instrumental -> MP3`
• Cover: `Source audio + style -> mmx music cover -> MP3`

Storage

All generated music is saved to `~/Music/minimax-gen/`. Create the directory if it doesn't exist. Files are named with a timestamp and a short slug derived from the prompt: `YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_<slug>.mp3`

---

Language & Interaction

Detect the user's language from their first message and respond in that language for the entire session. This applies to all interaction text, questions, confirmations, and feedback prompts.

**User-facing text localization rule**:

• ALL text shown to the user — including preview labels, field names, confirmations, status

messages, playback info, feedback prompts, **and the prompt/description preview** — MUST be fully translated into the user's language.

• The **API prompt** sent to the model should always be written in English for best

generation quality. However, when previewing the prompt to the user, show a localized description in the user's language instead of the raw English prompt. The English prompt is an internal implementation detail — the user does not need to see it.

• The templates below are written in English as reference. At runtime, translate every label

and message into the user's detected language.

**Lyrics language rule**:

• Default lyrics language = the user's language. A Chinese-speaking user gets Chinese lyrics;

an English-speaking user gets English lyrics.

• Only generate lyrics in a different language if the user **explicitly** requests it.
• When a different lyrics language is needed, embed it naturally into the vocal or genre

description in the prompt. For example, instead of appending "with Korean lyrics", use "featuring a Korean female vocalist" or specify a genre that implies the language (e.g., "K-pop", "J-rock", "Mandopop", "Latin pop").

---

Workflow

Step 0: Detect Intent

Parse the user's message to determine:

1. **Song category**: vocal (with lyrics), instrumental (no vocals), or cover 2. **Creation mode preference**: did they provide detailed requirements (Advanced) or a casual one-liner (Basic)?

If ambiguous, ask using this decision tree:

Q1: What type of music?
  - Vocal (with lyrics)
  - Instrumental (no vocals)
  - Cover

Q2: Creation mode?
  - Basic — one-line description, auto-generate
  - Advanced — edit lyrics, refine prompt, plan

If the user gives a clear one-liner like "make me a sad piano piece", skip the questions — infer instrumental + basic mode and proceed.

---

Step 1: Basic Mode

**Goal**: User provides a short description, the skill auto-generates everything, then calls the API.

1. **Expand the description into a prompt**: Take the user's one-liner and expand it into a rich music prompt. Refer to the **Prompt Writing Guide** appendix at the end of this document for style vocabulary, genre/instrument references, and prompt structure. **The API prompt should always be written in English** for best generation quality, regardless of the user's language.

Follow this pattern:

   A [mood] [BPM optional] [genre] song, featuring [vocal description],
   about [narrative/theme], [atmosphere], [key instruments and production].

2. **Show the user a preview** before generating. Translate all labels AND the prompt description into the user's language. The English prompt is only used internally when calling the API — the user should never see it. Example template (English reference — localize everything at run