Viral Hook

Prepends an extreme, no-dialogue ~4s hook to a user's video — an attention-grabbing event that erupts into the user's own scene, with an optional designed title burned into the lower third — then hard-cuts into the untouched clip.

generate_viral_hook does the whole render in one call and returns BOTH the hook and the stitched final. This skill's job is the creative judgment the tool can't make: read the scene, pick a hook action from the menu, and write a title.

Hook rules (govern what you WRITE as hook_action)

1. Certain to grab attention, fast. Extreme and unmissable inside ~2s — over plausibility or relevance to the video's topic.
2. Erupts into the user's OWN scene. Same person, location, lighting — the tool anchors on the best visual anchor frame: 0s when usable, otherwise the first detectable face frame. Describe the event entering THAT space, never a different setting.
3. Use the scene's real geometry. Enter through a doorway with depth, a wall behind the subject, headroom above.
4. No dialogue. Voice-free (only ambient / impact SFX) — don't write spoken lines into hook_action.

Hook super-category menu

Four super-categories. Rotate super-category per run on the same clip/session — without rotation, regenerates collapse to vehicle / explosion / creature. Archetypes are starting points, not a closed list; invent freely within the category.

A. Destructive intrusion — external force violently enters and damages the scene

B. Physics anomaly — laws of physics break, photoreal; scene + subject stay, motion goes wrong

C. Content-supersized — an element FROM the clip appears building-sized and crashes in

Pull the element from the scene reading (Step 2) — hero product, pet, drink, phone, logo.

D. Content-projectile — a relevant object FROM the clip flies at the subject at speed

Source from the scene reading.

Title rules (when the user wants one)

• ≤7 words, ALL CAPS, one punchy line. Tie it to BOTH the hook action AND the clip's actual content. Example: giant-sneaker projectile + sneaker unboxing → "THIS DROP HITS DIFFERENT."
• Optional — omit for a title-free hook.
• Typography defaults to bold distressed display type with a thick black outline. The user may override via type_style (a free-form style string) or by pasting a brand.md — extract ONLY the typography directives (fonts, weights, treatments), ignore logos / palette / voice. Warn that thin / un-outlined styles may wobble over the 4s.

Workflow

Step 0 — Intake (empty args)

If no video was provided, print this menu verbatim and STOP — do not call any tool:

What would you like a viral hook on? Paste any of:

• A local video path — e.g. /Users/me/Desktop/clip.mp4
• An https URL to an mp4
• A path + a title — e.g. clip.mp4 — "YOUR PROMPTS WON'T SAVE YOU"
• A path + "surprise me" — agent picks the hook action and title

Wait for the next message. Don't guess an input.

Step 1 — Get a URL

If the input is a local file, upload_asset it and use the returned public_url. If it's already an https URL, use it directly. Any format is fine — no transcoding or probing here.

Step 2 — Read the scene

analyze_media(video_url) → capture the subject + framing, indoor/outdoor + setting, lighting, photoreal vs stylized aesthetic, and the spirit/topic. Also note the hero objects (product, pet, drink, phone, logos), including whether each one is visible near the opening or only appears later — required for super-categories C and D. This reading is passed verbatim as the scene parameter.

Step 3 — Pick the hook action

Rotate super-category vs the previous run on this clip; pick a different one if possible. Choose the strongest archetype the scene's geometry supports (A/B) or the most prominent hero object (C/D). Write the specific hook action — entry vector + motion + scale + peak — as one vivid sentence. This is hook_action. For C/D, name the exact hero object so the tool ties it to the clip. If the hero object appears later in the clip rather than near the opening, make the first hook frame explicit: "from the first frame, the subject is holding/using [hero object]".

Step 4 — Title + style

Ask whether the user wants a title. If yes, propose a ≤7-word ALL-CAPS line tying the hook action to the topic, get approval, and offer typography choices before rendering: default, custom direction, or brand.md. If the user has no preference, use default and say so. If no title is wanted, skip — the hook renders title-free.

Step 5 — Render

Call generate_viral_hook({ video_url, scene, hook_action, title?, type_style? }). If it returns {task_id, status}, poll task_status(task_id) in a tight loop until terminal, then read the result. On failed, surface the error — don't retry blindly.

Step 6 — Deliver

Present both clips:

• hook only: [[video:<hook_url>]]
• final stitched: [[video:<final_url>]]

What NOT to do

• Don't re-implement the render in the skill. No extract_frame / generate_image / edit_concat / transcode here — generate_viral_hook owns all of it. If the hook looks wrong, change the hook_action / title text, not the pipeline.
• Don't pass a seed. Variations should come from hook_action, title, or type_style.
• Don't bake a title onto the real video. The title belongs only on the hook.
• Don't auto-edit an approved title. If a rephrase is needed, ask.