How do I install the Color Grade skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add agamm/color-grade in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Color Grade safe to use?

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Which AI agents work with Color Grade?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Color Grade free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Color Grade?

agamm (@agamm) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Color Grade by agamm — Agent Skill

Name: Color Grade
Author: agamm

Color Grade

Color-grade a video — apply a cinematic look / LUT, or generate and compare candidate looks for the user to pick. Use whenever footage looks flat/muted/cold and needs grading, you want a named reusable look (warm, teal-orange, punchy, neutral), or you have a .cube LUT to apply. Covers applying .cube/HALD LUTs via ffmpeg, baking a look from a color-filter chain, and the "render a few looks, let me choose" workflow.

agamm 9854642 3.5 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

Color grade (LUTs via ffmpeg)

Grade through LUT files rather than re-deriving filter params each time. Two LUT formats, both native to ffmpeg, no extra deps:

.cube — a 3D LUT (what colorists ship). Applied with lut3d.
.png HALD-CLUT — a look baked from a filter chain (below). Applied with haldclut.

The grade command auto-detects by extension.

# Apply a look
uv run video-agent grade apply in.mp4 --lut luts/teal_orange.cube -o out.mp4
uv run video-agent grade apply in.mp4 --lut luts/warm.png        -o out.mp4   # HALD

"Make a few looks and let me choose"

The best grading UX: render the SAME frame through several candidate looks into one labelled contact sheet, show it, let the user pick — then apply the winner to the whole video.

uv run video-agent grade preview in.mp4 --at 45.0 \
    --lut none --lut luts/warm.png --lut luts/teal_orange.cube --lut luts/punchy.png \
    -o looks.png
# read looks.png → user picks → grade apply with that one

none = the ungraded original (always include it for reference). Pick a frame (--at) with skin tones + a bright and a dark area so the grade's effect is visible.

Bake a look into a reusable LUT

Author a look as a color-filter chain, then bake it into a HALD LUT once so it's reusable and fast to apply:

uv run video-agent grade gen-lut \
    --eq "curves=r='0/0 .5/.55 1/1':b='0/.03 1/.97',colorbalance=rs=.05:bs=-.05" \
    -o luts/warm.png

This runs an identity HALD-CLUT through the chain → a .png LUT. Use available filters only — this ffmpeg is LGPL, so no eq (and no drawtext). Grade with: curves (the workhorse — per-channel tone curves), colorbalance (shadows/mids/highlights RGB), colorchannelmixer (channel mixing / saturation), lut1d. Quick starting points:

warm: colorbalance=rs=.04:rm=.03:bs=-.04:bm=-.03
teal-orange: colorbalance=rh=.06:bs=.08 + lift shadows blue, push highlights warm
punchy: curves=all='0/0 .25/.18 .75/.82 1/1' (S-curve contrast) + light saturation via colorchannelmixer
desaturate/filmic: colorchannelmixer toward grey, or curves to lift blacks

Where grading sits in a pipeline

Grade at the final encode, after cuts/reframe, before captions/overlays (so burned text keeps its intended color). In an edl-edit job, set "grade": "luts/x.png" in the EDL and it's applied to the whole cut in the same pass.
Grading helps most on flat/log/prosumer footage; typical Rec.709 screen-recordings and webcams need only a gentle lift. Don't over-grade — a subtle look beats a heavy filter.

Gotchas

.cube vs HALD: external colorist LUTs are usually .cube (→lut3d); looks you bake here are .png HALD (→haldclut). The command handles both; just keep the extension honest.
HALD level: gen-lut defaults to level 8 (a 64³ grid) — plenty for smooth grades; raising it makes a bigger file, rarely needed.
Grade once, reuse: commit your luts/*.png (or .cube) so the look is plain-text/ data and re-applies identically across clips and re-renders.

---name: color-gradedescription: Color-grade a video — apply a cinematic look / LUT, or generate and compare candidate looks for the user to pick. Use whenever footage looks flat/muted/cold and needs grading, you want a named reusable look (warm, teal-orange, punchy, neutral), or you have a .cube LUT to apply. Covers applying .cube/HALD LUTs via ffmpeg, baking a look from a color-filter chain, and the "render a few looks, let me choose" workflow.---# Color grade (LUTs via ffmpeg)Grade through **LUT files** rather than re-deriving filter params each time. Two LUT formats,both native to ffmpeg, no extra deps:- **`.cube`** — a 3D LUT (what colorists ship). Applied with `lut3d`.- **`.png` HALD-CLUT** — a look baked from a filter chain (below). Applied with `haldclut`.The `grade` command auto-detects by extension.```bash# Apply a lookuv run video-agent grade apply in.mp4 --lut luts/teal_orange.cube -o out.mp4uv run video-agent grade apply in.mp4 --lut luts/warm.png -o out.mp4 # HALD```## "Make a few looks and let me choose"The best grading UX: render the SAME frame through several candidate looks into one labelledcontact sheet, show it, let the user pick — then apply the winner to the whole video.```bashuv run video-agent grade preview in.mp4 --at 45.0 \ --lut none --lut luts/warm.png --lut luts/teal_orange.cube --lut luts/punchy.png \ -o looks.png# read looks.png → user picks → grade apply with that one````none` = the ungraded original (always include it for reference). Pick a frame (`--at`) withskin tones + a bright and a dark area so the grade's effect is visible.## Bake a look into a reusable LUTAuthor a look as a **color-filter chain**, then bake it into a HALD LUT once so it's reusableand fast to apply:```bashuv run video-agent grade gen-lut \ --eq "curves=r='0/0 .5/.55 1/1':b='0/.03 1/.97',colorbalance=rs=.05:bs=-.05" \ -o luts/warm.png```This runs an identity HALD-CLUT through the chain → a `.png` LUT. **Use available filtersonly** — this ffmpeg is LGPL, so **no `eq`** (and no `drawtext`). Grade with: `curves` (theworkhorse — per-channel tone curves), `colorbalance` (shadows/mids/highlights RGB),`colorchannelmixer` (channel mixing / saturation), `lut1d`. Quick starting points:- **warm**: `colorbalance=rs=.04:rm=.03:bs=-.04:bm=-.03`- **teal-orange**: `colorbalance=rh=.06:bs=.08` + lift shadows blue, push highlights warm- **punchy**: `curves=all='0/0 .25/.18 .75/.82 1/1'` (S-curve contrast) + light saturation via `colorchannelmixer`- **desaturate/filmic**: `colorchannelmixer` toward grey, or `curves` to lift blacks## Where grading sits in a pipeline- Grade **at the final encode**, after cuts/reframe, before captions/overlays (so burned text keeps its intended color). In an `edl-edit` job, set `"grade": "luts/x.png"` in the EDL and it's applied to the whole cut in the same pass.- Grading helps most on **flat/log/prosumer footage**; typical Rec.709 screen-recordings and webcams need only a gentle lift. Don't over-grade — a subtle look beats a heavy filter.## Gotchas- **`.cube` vs HALD**: external colorist LUTs are usually `.cube` (→`lut3d`); looks you bake here are `.png` HALD (→`haldclut`). The command handles both; just keep the extension honest.- **HALD level**: `gen-lut` defaults to level 8 (a 64³ grid) — plenty for smooth grades; raising it makes a bigger file, rarely needed.- **Grade once, reuse**: commit your `luts/*.png` (or `.cube`) so the look is plain-text/ data and re-applies identically across clips and re-renders.

Frequently asked questions