claude-real-video for AI agents

What is crv?

crv (claude-real-video) is a CLI tool that extracts meaningful frames and transcripts from videos so AI agents can "see" and "read" them. It uses scene-change detection (not fixed-interval sampling), sliding-window deduplication, and optional Whisper transcription.

Key advantage: Same 58-second clip at fixed 1fps = 58 frames. crv keeps the 26 that actually differ, and --grid packs them into 3 contact sheets. Fewer tokens, nothing missed.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• ffmpeg / ffprobe on PATH

# macOS
brew install ffmpeg

# Linux
sudo apt install ffmpeg

# Windows
winget install Gyan.FFmpeg

Install crv

# Recommended: with audio transcription support
pip install "claude-real-video[whisper]"

# Core only (frames + dedup)
pip install claude-real-video

The [whisper] extra never installs itself, without it there is no speech-to-text (videos that ship their own subtitles still get a transcript).

Verify installation

crv --help
ffmpeg -version

Install as agent skill

Run the bundled installer to symlink this skill into all detected agent platforms:

bash install-skill.sh

Or manually copy to your agent's skill directory:

# Claude Code
cp -r skills/claude-real-video-for-agents ~/.claude/skills/

# Codex
cp -r skills/claude-real-video-for-agents ~/.codex/skills/

# OpenCode
cp -r skills/claude-real-video-for-agents ~/.opencode/skills/

# Gemini CLI
cp -r skills/claude-real-video-for-agents ~/.gemini/skills/

Usage

Basic: Watch a video from URL

crv "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

Output in crv-out/:

• frames/, deduplicated keyframes
• transcript.txt, plain-text transcript
• MANIFEST.txt, summary for LLM consumption

Recommended: With grid and intent

crv "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID" -o crv-out --grid --why "what the user wants to know"