claude-reelsmith 🎬

Reels and TikToks from your own footage, directed and edited by Claude Code. You approve an idea and a script. Claude writes it, voices it, picks fresh shots from your camera roll, cuts them to the words, adds motion effects and subtitles, mixes sound, and hands you a post-ready MP4, a cover and a caption. Your time: about 10 minutes per reel.

▶ Watch the demo reel — 27 s, English voice-over, the author's own clips, built with this repo (reel.json). Also: a 61 s Ukrainian reel made the same way.

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What's inside

Skill	What it does
🎬 reel-director	The director. Runs the job end to end, picks the story structure, decides which 3–5 effects go on which beat, plans transitions and sound, then reviews the cut like a critic before you see it.
✍️ reel-script	Scroll-stopping scripts from 7 structures (4 reverse-engineered from viral reels + "the experiment", "reverse breakdown", "POV scene"), 9 evidence-graded hook types and a retention checklist. Analyses reels you paste, writes in your language.
🎞 footage-scout	Picks fresh clips from a folder or a shared iCloud Photos album in your browser, downloads only what the edit needs, makes contact sheets, skips private details, keeps a used-footage log.
✂️ reel-builder	The editor + motion designer: one reel.json → finished 1080×1920 MP4 with subtitles, cards, effects, music and a −14 LUFS mix.
🗣 talking-head-edit	For videos where you talk to camera: cleans audio, cuts fillers, word-by-word captions, layout changes, UI cards.
🔊 reel-capcut	Sends the reel to an editable CapCut draft with library sound effects on every transition, so you can swap music and sounds by ear.

Engine effects (all keys in reel.json, see docs/effects.md):

cover story + frame break · orbit text around your head · doodle boil · glass type · headline wall · checklist · typewriter prompt · number counter · editor timeline with the spoken words · black-and-white → colour burst · photo montage with camera date stamp · punch-ins on accent words · zoom-through and whip transitions · hook and end cards · stamps · subtitles with accent words · Reels/TikTok safe-zone QA sheet · retention checks on every build (first seconds, pace, CTA length, voice pace, subtitle speed, loop), with sources in docs/retention.md.

Install

Requirements: macOS (recommended — person masks for cover/orbit use Apple Vision) or Linux without those two effects; Claude Code; ffmpeg, node ≥ 20, python3 ≥ 3.10 (brew install ffmpeg node python).

As a Claude Code plugin (recommended):

/plugin marketplace add lalimi/claude-reelsmith
/plugin install reelsmith@lalimi

Then once, in any terminal or by asking Claude: reelsmith setup (2–4 min: Python venv with faster-whisper, Playwright Chromium, the mask tool).

Or manually:

git clone https://github.com/lalimi/claude-reelsmith && cd claude-reelsmith
./install.sh --link-skills      # venv + Chromium + `reelsmith` on PATH + skills into ~/.claude/skills

Check anytime with reelsmith doctor.

Connectors (all optional)

• Claude in Chrome — lets Claude browse your shared photo album and the ElevenLabs web UI in your logged-in browser. Claude never types your passwords.
• CapCut MCP — bundled (.mcp.json); sign in once via /mcp. Needed only for the CapCut route → docs/capcut.md.
• ElevenLabs — TTS voice-over if you don't record your own → docs/voice.md.

Quick start

Open Claude Code in a folder for your reels and say:

Make me a 45-second reel for my Instagram about why people never launch their course. My clips are in the shared album "Reels" — use only new ones. Voice: my recording in voice.m4a.

The director asks a few questions, shows you a script to approve, then builds. Or drive the engine yourself:

reelsmith new reels/launch          # folder + template reel.json
reelsmith sheet reels/launch/src/*  # contact sheets to pick moments
reelsmith build reels/launch --stills   # fast preview + safe-zone QA sheet
reelsmith build reels/launch        # final MP4, cover.jpg, caption.txt in reels/launch/out/

Real examples: examples/chernetka/reel.json (17 segments, Ukrainian) and examples/demo-en/reel.json (the English demo: typewriter, timeline, counter, doodles). Footage not included.

How it works

idea ─► reel-script ─► approved script ─► voice (yours or ElevenLabs) ─► faster-whisper word timings
                                                                              │
footage-scout ─► fresh clips ─► reel.json (beats, effects, transitions) ◄─────┘
                                     │
reel-builder: HTML page per frame (Playwright) ─► ffmpeg ─► MP4 + cover + caption ─► director's critic pass
                                     │
                         (optional) reel-capcut ─► editable CapCut draft with sound effects

Every frame is an HTML page rendered by headless Chromium, so effects are plain CSS/SVG/JS in engine/template.html — easy to extend.

Privacy

Your footage, voice and renders stay on your machine (.gitignore excludes src/, out/, frames/). Nothing is uploaded unless you use the CapCut route. The skills check clips for other people's messages, car plates and street names before using them.

Support the project 💛

This is free and open source, built in Ukraine 🇺🇦 by an indie founder. If it saved you a few hours of editing, you can buy me a coffee:

Built by Lalita (@lali.mi), founder of BlackSea — a marketplace for Ukrainian creators of digital products. Questions, ideas, collaborations: [email protected].

Credits & license

MIT — see LICENSE. Talking-head prep scripts adapted from nicolapocock/claude-reel-editor (MIT). Fonts under SIL OFL 1.1. Full list: THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

Contributions welcome — especially the effects not built yet: couch wall, UI world, phone mockup, green screen, paper cut, vertigo.