Visual Brief Generator

Purpose

Turn a piece of content or campaign idea into a structured, copy-paste-ready visual generation brief — a shot list, per-scene prompts, aspect ratios per platform, and a style/mood guide. If a connected image- or video-generation MCP tool is available in the current session and the user wants to generate now, use it. Otherwise the written brief itself is the deliverable.

Important: Higgsfield launched an official hosted MCP server in 2026 (Runway and Midjourney still have no known official one as of this writing), so it's no longer accurate to assume none of the major image/video-gen tools has one — but having an MCP server available in general doesn't mean it's connected in any given session. This skill checks whatever tools are actually available at runtime instead of hardcoding a tool name, the same as it always has. For short-form vertical video specifically (YouTube Shorts/Instagram Reels/TikTok), see the more targeted short-form-video skill instead, which checks for the same connectors and also produces platform-specific captions, hashtags, and posting-time guidance this skill doesn't.

Step-by-step process

Plugin root: if a path below still shows an unexpanded CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT placeholder (Claude Code fills it in; other agents such as Codex don't), resolve it before using any of them: take the output of printenv CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT if it prints a path, otherwise walk up from this file's folder to the first folder that contains references/brand-voice.md, and if neither works, ask the user where this plugin lives. Use that absolute path in every file path and shell command below.

1. Check onboarding status. Read ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/brand-voice.md. If it doesn't exist, or its first line is <!-- MARKETING-SKILL:UNCONFIGURED -->, pause and ask the user this plugin's 4 setup questions (priority task; content types to produce; target audience + tone; default output format — same as /marketing-skill:marketing-setup) before continuing, then save the answers into that file and flip the marker to CONFIGURED with today's date. Otherwise, read it for mood/tone consistency below. If the file is unconfigured but the user already said to skip setup or use the defaults, don't ask: use its placeholder defaults for this run, say so in one line, and leave the marker as it is.
2. Confirm scope.
   • Source content or campaign this brief is for. If the user references a project feature/launch without describing it, look for it first — Glob for README*, CHANGELOG*, and docs/**/*.md at the project root, then Read whichever look relevant — before asking them to describe it. Only check documentation-oriented files this way, not arbitrary source code. If nothing relevant turns up, ask directly.
   • Deliverable type: video, image, or both.
   • Target platform(s) — this determines aspect ratio (e.g. Reels/TikTok 9:16, LinkedIn 1:1 or 16:9, YouTube 16:9).
   • Roughly how many scenes/shots, and total duration if video.
   • Any existing brand assets, colors, or style references to match.
3. Look for a connected visual-generation tool. Check the tools actually available in this session for one whose name or description indicates image or video generation (for example, a connected Canva connector, or any other connected MCP server for this purpose — do not assume any specific one is present).
   • If found: ask the user whether to actually generate the asset(s) now using that tool, with the per-scene prompts below as input.
   • If not found: proceed to produce the written brief only.
4. Draft the brief using the exact section structure below, applying brand voice/tone from references/brand-voice.md.
5. Report status honestly. Never claim an asset was generated if no tool call actually happened. If no visual-gen tool is connected, say so plainly and point to this plugin's docs/video.md ("Connecting a visual-generation tool").

When to use this skill

Trigger on requests like:

• "Make a visual brief / video brief for..."
• "I need a shot list for..."
• "Write image/video prompts for..."

Output structure (required)

Use this exact section order, as Markdown ## headings:

Brief Overview

Goal, source reference, target platform(s), total duration or frame count.

Shot List

A table: Shot # | Description | Duration/Frames | Camera/Framing notes.

Per-Scene Prompts

One block per shot. Each prompt must be self-contained (no dangling pronouns like "it" referring to a previous scene) and include:

• The generation prompt itself.
• A negative prompt, if relevant to the target tool.
• Aspect ratio for that shot.
• Style/mood keywords.

Aspect Ratio & Format per Platform

A table: Platform | Aspect Ratio | File Type.

Style & Mood Guide

Color palette, tone, pacing, and sound/music direction (if video).

Generation Status / Next Steps

State plainly whether a connected tool was used to actually generate anything. If not, note how to connect a visual-gen MCP tool (see this plugin's docs/video.md) or how to paste these prompts into a tool manually.

Formatting rules

• Keep style/mood keywords consistent across scenes unless variation is intentional and called out.
• Respect brand-voice constraints (including any banned words/imagery).
• Never fabricate an asset URL or claim generation succeeded when it didn't.

Example output

Fictional example: a 3-scene, 15-second product-teaser brief for Instagram Reels, brief-only (no visual-gen tool connected).

## Brief Overview
Goal: teaser for the "one-click export" feature launch.
Source: content-repurposer LinkedIn post draft.
Platform: Instagram Reels.
Total duration: 15 seconds (3 scenes, 5s each).

## Shot List
| Shot # | Description | Duration | Camera/Framing notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cluttered desktop, multiple export windows open, looking chaotic | 5s | Close-up, slight overhead angle |
| 2 | Cursor clicks a single "Export" button | 5s | Screen-capture style, centered on the button |
| 3 | Clean report appears instantly, checkmark animation | 5s | Full-screen, centered |

## Per-Scene Prompts
**Scene 1:** "A cluttered computer desktop with five overlapping export
dialog boxes, warm office lighting, slightly messy and stressful mood,
overhead close-up angle." Negative prompt: "no readable text, no logos."
Aspect ratio: 9:16. Style/mood: chaotic, warm-toned, slightly comedic.

**Scene 2:** "A cursor clicks a single glowing 'Export' button on a clean
software interface, satisfying tactile motion, centered framing." Negative
prompt: "no readable brand names." Aspect ratio: 9:16. Style/mood: crisp,
minimal, satisfying.

**Scene 3:** "A finished report appears on screen with a green checkmark
animation, bright and clean, full-screen." Negative prompt: "no clutter."
Aspect ratio: 9:16. Style/mood: bright, resolved, confident.

## Aspect Ratio & Format per Platform
| Platform | Aspect Ratio | File Type |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram Reels | 9:16 | MP4 |

## Style & Mood Guide
Color: cool blues and whites, one warm accent in scene 1 for contrast.
Tone: light, a little playful, resolves into confident/clean. Pacing:
quick cuts, no scene longer than 5s. Sound: upbeat, minimal, a single
"ding" sound cue on scene 3's checkmark.

## Generation Status / Next Steps
No connected image/video-generation tool was available in this session, so
no asset was generated — this brief is the deliverable. To generate
directly, connect a visual-gen MCP tool and re-run this skill (see this
plugin's `docs/video.md`), or paste the per-scene prompts above into your tool of
choice.