# Creating Highlight Video > Master orchestrator skill that triggers automatically when a user wants to make a highlight video from a link. Coordinates the planner, cutter, and verifier skills automatically. - Skill: `zenithth/creating-highlight-video` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 8 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add zenithth/creating-highlight-video` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/zenithth/creating-highlight-video/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: zenithth (https://skillmd.com/u/zenithth) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/zenithth/creating-highlight-video --- # Creating a Highlight Video ## Overview This is the master orchestration skill for the Highlight Editor Family. When the user pastes a video URL and asks for a highlight, you MUST immediately activate this skill. It acts as an automated pipeline director, ensuring the AI seamlessly hands off tasks to the correct sub-skills and scripts without requiring the user to manually invoke them. ## When to Use - Whenever the user asks to "make a highlight", "cut this video", or pastes a YouTube URL with the intent of extracting scenes. ## The Automated Pipeline > [!IMPORTANT] > **REQUIRED SUB-SKILL (FIRST):** Before anything else, run `preparing-tools` to verify all system dependencies (`yt-dlp`, `ffmpeg`, `python3`, `sqlite3`). Do NOT proceed if any tool is missing. When this skill is activated, you must guide the operation through these 4 strict phases: ### Phase 1: Scene Selection To cut a video, we need to know *what* to cut. 1. Ask the user if they already have the timestamps or a Markdown selection list. 2. If they do NOT have one, offer to read the transcript or use the `livestream-scene-selection` skill to help them identify the best timestamps (following the "But / Therefore" rule). 3. **REQUIRED SUB-SKILL:** Before finalizing any scene selection, you MUST apply `references/no-jumpcut-rules.md`. This skill enforces Walter Murch's Rule of Six, the 5-min buffer rule, the merge-contiguous rule, and the pacing rollercoaster — all of which prevent jump cuts in the final output. 4. Once you have the timeline validated against `references/no-jumpcut-rules.md`, write it out to a `.md` file (e.g., `highlight_selection.md`). > **Workspace Rule:** If there is an existing `youtube__workspace` directory (created by `anibon-timestamper` or similar skills), you MUST save this `.md` file inside that directory! ### Phase 2: Highlight Planner Once the `.md` file is ready, you must invoke the planner. - **Find `[SKILL_ROOT]`**: Look at the `` XML tag at the top of your prompt. Strip the filename `SKILL.md` (or with backslashes `\` on Windows). Replace all `\` with `/`. The result is `[SKILL_ROOT]`. 1. See `highlight-planner/SKILL.md`. 2. Run: `python3 "[SKILL_ROOT]/scripts/plan_highlight.py" --video-id --source ` 3. Wait for the `highlight_plan_.json` file to be generated. 4. **CRITICAL DURATION CHECK:** Read the stdout from the planner script. If the total highlight duration exceeds **30 minutes**, STOP and warn the user. Tell them downloading will take a long time, and offer to list available resolutions/framerates using `yt-dlp -F `. If they choose a lower quality to save time, append `--format ""` during Phase 3. > **Iron Rule:** Never read the JSON file. It is for the machine only. ### Phase 3: Highlight Cutter (Subagent Delegation) Because video downloading and FFmpeg rendering can take time, this phase should ideally be handled cleanly. 1. See `highlight-cutter/SKILL.md`. 2. Run: `python3 "[SKILL_ROOT]/scripts/cut_highlight.py" --source [--format "chosen_format"]` 3. Monitor the background task or subagent. It will download the chunks (or use a local `--source`) and stitch them via FFmpeg `filter_complex`. > **Tip:** If the user already downloaded the full video to avoid YouTube rate limits, pass the local file path to `--source` instead of the URL! ### Phase 4: Highlight Verifier Once the `.mp4` is rendered, we must QA check it. 1. See `highlight-verifier/SKILL.md`. 2. Run: `python3 "[SKILL_ROOT]/scripts/verify_highlight.py" ` 3. Read the output. If it PASSES, present the final MP4 file link to the user! ## Zero-Friction Execution The goal of this orchestrator is **Zero-Friction**. Do not stop and ask the user for permission between Phase 2, 3, and 4. Once Phase 1 is complete and the timestamps are approved, you should execute the Planner, Cutter, and Verifier in one continuous flow, only reporting back to the user when the final QA-checked MP4 is ready! ## Subagent Dispatch Contract 1. **Pre-Grant Workspace Permissions**: Call sk_permission for ead_file on working workspace directory. 2. **Parallel Highlight Scene Selection**: Spawn parallel subagents using invoke_subagent across transcript/video chunks to identify peak meme/hype highlights. 3. **Assembly**: Pass highlight timeline timestamps to dit-cut-video-ffmpeg for cutting and stitching.