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ahmedsakriahmedsakri/youtube-agent-pro/skills/yt-thumbnail/SKILL.md

yt-thumbnail

Skill1 starsChanged 37 days agoMITView on GitHub

Design the thumbnail as a concept before you open an editor - the one focal idea, three elements at most, three words at most, and nothing that repeats the title. Lints the plan and writes A/B variants. Use for "thumbnail idea", "design my thumbnail", "my CTR is low", "what should the thumbnail be", or thumbnail A/B testing.

3 other projects use a version of this.

Adopted by

Most recently taken up by

The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

6 rules. 0 are common, 5 are distinctive, and 1 is very specific to this project.

  • 0

    Common

    Most of the 3 edited versions we read keep these.

  • 5

    Distinctive

    This author's own choices. Worth a look.

  • 1

    Very specific

    Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

  • Common
  • Distinctive
  • Very specific
  1. Distinctive:

    Read the shared operating guide for profile lookup, helper paths, capability limits, and cross-skill routing before using this workflow.

    line 13
  2. Distinctive:

    Use the available voice profile or creator context (see the operating guide) and, more importantly, the title - the thumbnail is linted …

    line 28
  3. Distinctive:

    Aim for 0–3 words: Prefer less text; verify readability rather than treating the number as a rule.

    line 37
  4. Distinctive:

    Write three distinct concepts - not three colours of one idea.

    line 45
  5. Very specific:

    Run all three through thumblint.py with the title.

    line 47
  6. Distinctive:

    Keep two concepts that test different ideas.

    line 48

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 3 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

yt-thumbnail

Read the shared operating guide for profile lookup, helper paths, capability limits, and cross-skill routing before using this workflow.

The thumbnail is half the click surface and it is the half most people design last, tired, in the wrong tool. This designs it first, as a concept, and lints it before any pixels exist.

A tool lives here and it runs. Describe the concept in words; it checks the structure.

python3 "$YT_SKILL_DIR/thumblint.py" --concept "my shocked face, red arrow, phone showing \"4 SUBS\"" --title "..."
python3 "$YT_SKILL_DIR/thumblint.py" concepts.txt --title "..."    # rank several concepts

Before you design

  1. Use the available voice profile or creator context (see the operating guide) and, more importantly, the title - the thumbnail is linted against the title. The single most expensive mistake is the thumbnail repeating the title's words, because it wastes half the surface saying one thing twice. This skill refuses that.
  2. Design for feed size, about 210x118 px on a phone. If it does not read at a thumbnail of a thumbnail, it does not read.

The rules this enforces

  • One focal idea. The viewer decides in well under a second. Three elements is the ceiling.
  • Aim for 0–3 words. Prefer less text; verify readability rather than treating the number as a rule.
  • A signal. A face with a real expression, or one unmistakable subject, or a contrast cue (arrow, circle, before/after). A screenshot with no focal point is a slide, not a thumbnail.
  • Complement, do not echo. The thumbnail says what the title does not. Title carries the specifics; thumbnail carries the emotion or the artifact.

The move

  1. Write three distinct concepts - not three colours of one idea. One face-led, one artifact-led (show the thing), one contrast-led (before/after, vs).
  2. Run all three through thumblint.py with the title.
  3. Keep two concepts that test different ideas. Verify the channel's current testing eligibility before promising a native YouTube A/B test, especially for Shorts.

What to hand back

  • two linted concepts, described tightly enough to hand to a designer or build in Canva
  • for each: the focal element, the 0-3 words of overlay, the emotion it is going for
  • one line: which to lead with, and what the A/B is actually testing

For Shorts, plan a portrait cover/frame and account for the channel grid, Search, and Shorts-feed presentation. Do not assume a long-form custom-thumbnail upload or testing workflow applies. This skill supplies concepts and briefs; use an available image tool only when image creation is requested, and inspect the actual image before claiming it is ready.

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