# Editor Captions

> Add animated captions to videos via the ZapCap API. Uploads video, creates a captioning task, polls until complete, and downloads the result. Supports custom templates and language selection.

- Skill: `tfcbot/editor-captions` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tfcbot/editor-captions`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tfcbot/editor-captions/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Integrations & APIs
- Author: tfcbot (https://skillmd.com/u/tfcbot)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tfcbot/editor-captions

---


# Editor — Captions

Add animated captions through the external ZapCap API. Keep ZapCap credentials,
billing, and task state
separate from the Vidjutsu tenant.

## ZapCap API

- **Base URL**: `https://api.zapcap.ai`
- **Auth header**: `x-api-key: <ZAPCAP_API_KEY>`

### Step 1 — Upload video

```
POST https://api.zapcap.ai/videos/url
x-api-key: <ZAPCAP_API_KEY>

{ "url": "[VIDEO_URL]" }
```

Returns `{ "id": "..." }`.

### Step 2 — Create captioning task

```
POST https://api.zapcap.ai/videos/{id}/task
x-api-key: <ZAPCAP_API_KEY>

{
  "templateId": "[TEMPLATE_ID]",
  "language": "en"
}
```

Returns `{ "taskId": "..." }`.

### Step 3 — Poll until complete

```
GET https://api.zapcap.ai/videos/{id}/task/{taskId}
x-api-key: <ZAPCAP_API_KEY>
```

Poll every 5 seconds. When `status` is `"completed"`, the response includes a `downloadUrl`.

### Step 4 — Download result

Fetch the `downloadUrl` to get the captioned video.

## Parameters

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `templateId` | string | ZapCap default | Caption style template ID |
| `language` | string | auto-detect | Language code (e.g., `"en"`, `"es"`) |

## Pipeline Integration

Captions should be applied **after** overlays (ZapCap renders on top of everything):

```
1. Generate video (any director-* skill)
2. vidjutsu overlay — burn text overlay (optional)
3. Upload overlaid video URL to ZapCap → poll → download captioned result
```

## Key Behaviors

- **Input must be a public URL** — if you have a local file, upload it via `vidjutsu upload <file>` first to get a URL.
- **Apply captions last** — ZapCap renders on top of everything.
- **Poll, don't block** — captioning takes 30-120 seconds typically.
- **ZapCap billing is separate** — it is not part of the Vidjutsu subscription.
- **Keep task authority separate** — ZapCap's `taskId` is used only for this
  external caption job and must never be confused with a Vidjutsu clone task ID.