# Ig Reel > Write an Instagram Reel from a raw idea - hook options off 26 formulas, the spoken script, the on-screen text, and a timed beat sheet - in the user's own voice and scored before they shoot it. Use whenever the user wants a Reel, a short-form video script, a hook, a voiceover, "make a reel about X", "what should I say in this video", or is about to record and does not have the first line yet. - Skill: `jakeschincariol/ig-reel` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add jakeschincariol/ig-reel` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/jakeschincariol/ig-reel/raw - Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS) - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: Jakeschincariol (https://skillmd.com/u/jakeschincariol) - Updated: 2026-09-22 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/jakeschincariol/ig-reel --- # ig-reel Turns one raw idea into a Reel that somebody finishes. Two tools live in this folder and they both actually run. Use them. Do not eyeball the hook and do not guess at the length. ```bash python3 hookscore.py hooks.txt # rank your hook options python3 hookscore.py --hook "one line" # score a single one python3 beats.py script.txt --target 30 # timed beat sheet before you shoot ``` ## Before you write 1. Read `~/.claude/instagram/voice.md` if it exists. That is the user's voice profile: how they talk on camera, what they never say, who they are talking to. If it does not exist, ask for **three of their own reels**, transcribe or read them, infer the voice, and write the file. A script in the wrong voice is unusable, because they have to say it out loud. 2. Read `hooks.json` in this folder. 26 formulas, each with a template, a filled example, the on-screen version, what it is for, and how it gets ruined. Four of them are in there because they kept turning up in real hooks, not because they completed a pattern. 3. If the idea is thin, do not pad it. Ask one batched question: what happened, to whom, and what did it cost or return. A Reel needs one specific true thing. Get it before writing. 4. If `~/.claude/instagram/swipe.md` exists, read it. `/ig-viral` writes that file, and it is the user's own evidence about which formulas are working in their niche right now. It beats the defaults in this file. ## The shape A Reel is decided in the first two seconds and kept by the next five. ``` 0:00 - 0:02 HOOK the claim. Spoken line and on-screen line, written separately. Motion in the first frame, not a static face. 0:02 - 0:07 THE STAKE why this matters to the person watching. One line. 0:07 - ... THE BODY one idea per beat, and the frame changes every beat. LAST 3s THE PAYOFF deliver what the hook promised, then the single ask. LAST LINE THE LOOP echo one word from the hook so the replay lands clean. ``` Length: 15 to 45 seconds is the working range. Reels run to 3 minutes and almost nobody should use it. Under 7 seconds the loop counts inflate and nothing else does. ## The loop **1. Pick three hooks, not one.** Run the idea through `hooks.json`, choose three formulas that genuinely fit it, and write the spoken line plus the on-screen line for each. Different formulas, not three rewrites of one. **2. Score them.** Put the three spoken lines in a file, one per line, and run `hookscore.py`. Show the user the ranking. If the top one is under 50, you do not have the hook yet and no amount of editing fixes that. **3. Write the script** on the winning hook. Plain spoken language, the way the user actually talks. Contractions. Short lines. No sentence they would have to rehearse. **4. Time it.** Run `beats.py script.txt --target {length}`. Fix every flag: a hook past 3 seconds, any beat over 4 seconds, a run of beats with nothing concrete in them, no loop. Re-run until it is clean. **5. Humanize it.** Run the script through `/ig-human` before showing it. A written-sounding line is obvious the moment someone says it out loud. **6. Print the block.** The script in a fenced block, the on-screen text as a separate list with timings, and then: ``` REEL READY hook: #3 Nobody Tells You, scored 86 STRONG length: 28.4s across 9 beats at 165 wpm on-screen: 6 cards humanizer: 4 artefacts stripped, human score 81 PASS caption: run /ig-caption next Reply "yes" to log it, or tell me what to change. ``` **7. Never publish.** This skill produces a script. The user shoots it and posts it. On "yes", append to `~/.claude/instagram/log.md` with the date, the hook formula used and the first line, so `/ig-audit` has a history later. ## On-screen text is a separate script Write it separately, every time. It is read before it is heard. - **Six words or fewer per card.** It is being read at arm's length by someone who is not listening yet. - **The hook card is up at frame 1**, not after a beat of silence. - **Keep it inside the safe zone.** On a 1080x1920 frame, nothing above y=230 or below y=1440, and keep the right 230 pixels clear. The interface sits on top of everything outside that box: the caption, the action rail, the audio strip. - **Never put the hook where the caption sits.** That is the bottom of the frame and it is covered. - **Burn in captions for the body.** Most people watch muted first. ## Rules that make the difference - **One idea per Reel.** If the script has two, you have two Reels. Say so. - **Numbers over adjectives.** "$4,200" beats "a lot". If the user has not given a number, ask for one rather than writing around the hole. - **Cut the intro.** No greeting, no "in this video", no name, no logo sting. The video starts at the sentence you would normally reach at second six. - **Change the frame every beat.** A static shot for 8 seconds is where people leave, and `beats.py` will flag it. - **One ask at the end.** Comment a keyword, save it, or follow. One. - **Never fabricate.** No invented metrics, clients, revenue or outcomes under the user's name, even as a placeholder. If a number is needed and unknown, leave `{{your number}}` in the script and flag it. - **Do not write a script around a trending audio the user cannot use.** If the idea needs the user's own voice, say so. ## Example ``` /ig-reel we cut proposal time from 5 hours to 20 minutes with one template ``` ``` HOOKS (scored) 86 STRONG #5 Time Collapse "Proposals used to take me five hours. Twenty minutes now." on screen: 5 HOURS -> 20 MIN 71 STRONG #1 Cost Confession "I billed four hours a week for formatting. For two years." on screen: 2 YEARS WASTED 54 OK #9 The Steal "Steal the proposal template that did it." on screen: STEAL THIS Shooting #5: the ratio is believable, it reads in one glance on screen, and the number is yours. ```