# Video Podcast Maker Lite

Minimal personal narrated-video pipeline, a topic becomes a talking-head-free...

- Repository: https://github.com/Agents365-ai/video-podcast-maker (1708 stars)
- Category: DevOps
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-01
- Runs scripts: yes, review before use

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add Agents365-ai/video-podcast-maker --skill video-podcast-maker-lite -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add Agents365-ai/video-podcast-maker --skill video-podcast-maker-lite -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add Agents365-ai/video-podcast-maker --skill video-podcast-maker-lite -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add Agents365-ai/video-podcast-maker --skill video-podcast-maker-lite -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Minimal personal narrated-video pipeline, a topic becomes a talking-head-free explainer MP4 (1080p or 4K) via script → Azure TTS (SSML) → Remotion. Use when the user wants a quick narrated video from a topic without the full video-podcast-maker machinery (no extra skills, no thumbnails/shorts/publish matrix). Do NOT trigger for heavy production needs, use video-podcast-maker for those.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Video Podcast Maker Lite

A single-purpose pipeline for personal use: **topic → narration script → Azure TTS (SSML) → Remotion → 1080p/4K MP4**. No external skills, no config files, no bundled templates, the Remotion composition is generated once against the [contract below](#composition-contract), then reused across videos.

## Prerequisites

```bash
pip3 install azure-cognitiveservices-speech   # the only Python dependency
export AZURE_SPEECH_KEY="..."      # Azure Speech resource key
export AZURE_SPEECH_REGION="..."   # e.g. eastasia
# ffmpeg + node 18+ required; one Remotion project with npm install done
# Playwright MCP (session browser) needed only for Step 5 BGM fetching
```

## Project discovery (run before Step 1)

1. **Locate the Remotion project**, the directory containing both `src/remotion/index.ts` and `node_modules/remotion/`. Check the current working directory first; if it is not there, ask the user for the project path. Do NOT scan the filesystem, and do NOT create a new project if one exists elsewhere.
2. **Inventory existing videos**, `ls videos/` and `ls src/remotion/*Video.tsx`. The most recent `*Video.tsx` is the component to copy in Step 3; `videos/` shows which videos already exist.
3. **Existing `videos/{name}/`?** Then this is an iteration on that video, not a new one, reuse the directory and re-run only what changed (see [Iterating](#iterating)).
4. **No project anywhere** (first run only) → scaffold once in the working directory: `npm init -y && npm i remotion @remotion/cli @remotion/transitions react react-dom`, create `src/remotion/`, and warn the user about the one-time ~2 GB install. All later videos skip this.

## Workflow (6 steps)

Run all commands from the project root. All artifacts for one video live in `videos/{name}/` inside the project. `{name}` is lowercase English, hyphen-separated.

### Step 1, Write the script: `videos/{name}/podcast.txt`

The rest: https://github.com/Agents365-ai/video-podcast-maker/blob/HEAD/skills/video-podcast-maker-lite/SKILL.md