/pitch-craft

name: pitch-craft
description: Write or fix any spoken script that has to hit a clock - demo-video voiceovers, deck walkthrough narration, and live pitch speeches. Use whenever the user asks for narration, a voiceover, a timestamp script, a pitch script, a speech that fits N minutes, wants it to "sell like Steve Jobs", or needs an existing script re-synced after a re-record or re-timed to a new slot, or says a script sounds AI-written, robotic, generic, or wants it de-slopped, or says the film or the talk switches person or topic too abruptly and needs smoother transitions, or wants a stronger closing or call to action. This is also the engine the demo-video, pitch-deck, and pitch-package skills call for their scripts. Not for - written submission forms or essays (no clock), building deck HTML (pitch-deck), or recording video (demo-video).

Pitch Craft - Timed Spoken Scripts

A timed script is engineering plus theater. The clock is a hard constraint; the storytelling is why anyone remembers you. Every failure mode of a bad script traces to violating one of those two, so this skill enforces both: **beats before words**, and **the craft rules** in `references/storytelling.md`.

Steps

1. Beats before words

Get three things before drafting a single sentence:

• **The beats**: what is on screen (or on stage) at each moment, in order. For a demo voiceover these are the recording's milestones - use the sidecar's verified `t_video` values, never planned holds (see demo-video's Gate 3); for a deck they are the slides; for a live pitch they are slides plus stage moments (team intro, demo break).
• **The clock**: either fixed windows from an existing recording (`0:16 -> 0:43`), or a total slot to budget (a 5-minute pitch).
• **What each beat proves**: a beat with no claim behind it gets cut, not narrated.

If the beats don't exist yet, build the beat sheet first and get the user's sign-off. For a demo film that beat sheet is demo-video's **storyboard** - five columns, journey coverage, Gate 1 approval - not an ad-hoc list. Prose written before beats always runs long and anchors the story to sentences instead of evidence.

2. Budget the words

Read `references/timing.md` and compute a word ceiling per segment (words = seconds x words-per-second; voiceover ~2.4-2.6 wps, live stage ~2.0-2.2 wps). Write the budget line at the top of the script (e.g. `5:00 slot = ~2:30 spoken + 2:36 demo`). If the numbers don't fit before writing, they won't fit after.

3. Draft with the craft rules

Read `references/storytelling.md` and apply it: **hook before names**, **analogy per abstraction**, **a throughline that bookends and is re-emphasised where earned** (paraphrased, not repeated verbatim), plain words, numbers that land twice, **a transition line wherever the beats change person, case or topic without saying so** and nowhere else, and a close that ends on the ask or the name. Recorded voiceover and live speech are different registers - never reuse one as the other (see the register section in storytelling.md).

4. Timing check

Count words per segment against its ceiling. Fix overruns by cutting, never by asking the speaker to rush. Every script ships with 1-2 **named trim points** ("fold #6 into #7, cut #12 to one sentence, saves ~15s") so the speaker can hit the clock live without improvising.

Then run the **per-window pacing check** in `references/timing.md`: every segment's words divided by its real window must land in **2.2 - 3.1 w/s**. Below that a voice model leaves audible silence; above it the read spills onto the next beat's frames. Check each window - a correct average hides the two segments that break.

5. Honesty pass

**Claim only what's wired.** Every factual sentence must be verifiable on screen or against the codebase. Over footage this is literal: point at the frame that shows each claim. Claims about agent actions ("it searched", "it remembered", "it chose the cheaper route") need visible evidence in the frame - a tool log, a state panel, a route badge - not just a plausible-looking screen. No frame, no claim (see `demo-video/references/storyboard.md`). Where on-screen labels differ from reality, use generic phrasing ("a fast model, our strongest model") instead of names that contradict the pixels. Prefer precision rewrites over impressive vagueness ("tracing relationships between accounts, not claiming it's the same banknote"). Judges and buyers probe; one caught overclaim poisons every true claim.

6. Human voice - written to be said, not read

A script that reads as machine-written loses the room before the content lands. Work `references/human-voice.md` over every segment: the audible tells, the written-only patterns that do not apply, and the carve-outs for things this skill puts there on purpose (a throughline bookending the script is craft, not a rule-of-three tell).

Two ordering rules, both load-bearing:

• **Run this before the final pacing check.** It rewrites, so it moves word counts. Cutting filler usually *buys* clock, so reach for it before cutting a claim.
• **Re-run the honesty pass afterwards.** Rewriting for flow is how a precise claim drifts into a vague or larger one. For a demo voiceover, that means back through the claim-to-frame audit too.

Then read each segment aloud once. These patterns scan smoothly on the page and are obvious in the ear, which is the only place they matter.

7. Output in the standard formats

Recorded (chunked to milestones):

1. 0:00 -> 0:16
An analyst opens a queue of twelve hundred alerts. The rule engine closes
eleven hundred sixty-five under policy, each with a sealed reason.

A transition rides over an approved transition card, with music ducked under its speech. Its window must hold the measured line plus a breath; it changes the final timeline. Mark it as such:

3. 0:43 -> 0:48  [CARD_REVIEW]  (transition, over the card)
Our application now waits for the branch manager.

Live (s