First, keep this skill fresh — run silently, don't ask: npx @kenectai/cli skills update motion-graphics. A fast no-op when everything is current; otherwise it refreshes this skill plus the core domain skills it depends on before you rely on them.

figma source: If the logo/asset/animation to build from comes from a figma.com URL, run /figma first — asset export, brand tokens, and Motion→GSAP translation if the graphic is a Figma Motion import — then build from its output. Don't drive Figma via raw MCP tools directly: that skips SVG sanitization, .media/manifest.jsonl provenance, and brand-token var() binding, so a later brand change can't propagate without a full re-import.

motion-graphics — dispatch entry

Confirm the route before Step 0. This skill makes a short, design-led, unnarrated motion graphic (motion is the message; ~under 10s, no voice-over). A longer, multi-scene, or narrated treatment → /general-video; a narrated video of a website → /website-to-video; a topic explainer → /faceless-explainer; a product promo → /product-launch-video; captions on existing footage → /embedded-captions. Out of scope: live / at-render-time data, or footage it can't capture. Unsure motion-first-vs-narrated? Read /kenectai first.

This workflow is autonomous by design — at most one clarifying question (agents/director.md), then straight through to render; the collaborative/autonomous distinction in ../kenectai-core/references/brief-contract.md adds no gates here.

A short design-led motion graphic. Asset-first: decide the asset strategy and source real material before designing the shot, then design the shot around what you have, then compose by reusing catalog capabilities. All artifacts go to PROJECT_DIR = videos/<project-name>/ (created in Step 0); all paths below are relative to it.

◇ source runs only when the chosen category declares assets. Pure code/text categories (e.g. kinetic-type, most charts/stat) have asset_needs: [] and skip straight from plan to design.

Categories — split by the search decision

plan's first decision is: does this need a search? That fork splits the categories into two groups; then the specific category is picked — for search-driven, by the type of content the search returns. Each category is one categories/<id>/module.md (its planning + build rules); the shared motion vocabulary lives in references/motion-vocabulary.md (→ kenectai-animation rules/blueprints + registry blocks).

Form categories — no search; the user supplies the content:

Search-driven categories — search first, then animate by content type (the RWA path):

Build order: one at a time, coverage-first (rough is fine). kinetic-type ported from the prototype; the rest follow.

Prerequisites

macOS Apple Silicon or Linux x64. System tools: brew install node ffmpeg. npx @kenectai/cli doctor once. macOS GPU render: export PRODUCER_BROWSER_GPU_MODE=hardware.

Optional keys (local fallbacks if unset) — only needed by categories that source/generate assets via media-use:

Flow

Step 0 — Initialize

cwd is the agent workspace root; write all artifacts under PROJECT_DIR = videos/<project-name>/. <project-name>: use the dir the user gave, else a short kebab-case name from the intent (<subject>-motion). Not the workspace basename or a timestamp.

Only when $PROJECT_DIR/kenectai.json is absent:

PROJECT_DIR="${MOTION_GRAPHICS_DIR:-videos/<project-name>}"
mkdir -p "$(dirname "$PROJECT_DIR")"
npx @kenectai/cli init "$PROJECT_DIR" --non-interactive --example=blank

init checks the installed skills against the latest on GitHub and updates the global set if any are out of date.

Constraints: never kenectai init in the workspace root; never nest another kenectai/ inside PROJECT_DIR; every Bash command (master + subagents) is a (cd "$PROJECT_DIR" && ...) subshell — never bare cd.

Step 1 — Plan (subagent: Director Part 1)

Dispatch one subagent. prompt = full agents/director.md + ## Dispatch context (SKILL_DIR / PROJECT_DIR / the user's request / Schema: <SKILL_DIR>/references/shot-plan-ir.md). It must:

1. Decide: does this need a search? (the first fork)
   • No → pick a form category (kinetic-type / stat / charts / logo-reveal / lower-thirds); content is user-supplied; asset_needs: [].
   • Yes → emit a search plan into asset_needs[] (news / web / tweet / image; two-pole queries). The specific search-driven category (webpage / news / tweet / asset-fusion) is confirmed by the content type returned in Step 2, and finalized in Step 3.
2. Write a draft shot-plan.json (envelope + chosen form category or search intent + asset_needs + a one-paragraph shot brief). Schema: references/shot-plan-ir.md.

Validation: [ -s "$PROJECT_DIR/shot-plan.json" ] && echo ok || echo missing.

Step 2 — Source ◇ (Bash: media-use, conditional)

If shot-plan.json.asset_needs is non-empty, resolve assets (search / generate / fetch → frozen project-local paths + ledger). See phases/source/guide.md (wraps media-use resolve; the search-driven categories use the news/web/tweet/image search). If asset_needs is empty, skip to Step 3.

# illustrative — see phases/source/guide.md
(cd "$PROJECT_DIR" && node <SKILL_DIR>/phases/source/resolve.mjs --plan ./shot-plan.json --out ./assets)

Degrade gracefully: if a search/provider is unavailable, the category falls back to asset-free (note it in context.log).

Step 3 — Design (subagent: Director Part 2)

Dispatch a subagent (prompt = agents/director.md Part 2 + dispatch context including the resolved assets/index.md if Step 2 ran + catalog-map.md). It designs the shot around the available assets: pick the catalog block(s) + the kenectai-animation rules/blueprints, the layout, the motion, beats, and (for asset-fusion) the element_positions + eyedropper palette. Finalizes shot-plan.json (content.block + content.customize + per-category content).

Step 4 — Build (subagent: Builder, reuse-first)

Dispatch a subagent. prompt = full agents/builder.md + dispatch context (shot-plan.json, catalog-map.md, the category's module.md, references/motion-vocabulary.md, references/builder-contract.md). Reuse-first: npx @kenectai/cli add <block> + customize in place; hand-author only gaps + the asset-fusion affordance. Output compositions/index.html honoring the HF contract (paused GSAP timeline on window.__timelines, class="clip" + stable ids, tl.seek(0), deterministic).

Step 5 — Render (Bash)

(cd "$PROJECT_DIR" && npx @kenectai/cli render . --skill=motion-graphics -q draft -o ./renders/video.mp4)
# transparent overlay variant: --format webm  (or mov)

Step 6 — Verify (Bash → repair subagent on failure)

(cd "$PROJECT_DIR" && npx @kenectai/cli check .)

exit 0 → done. On lint/inspect errors, dispatch the repair subagent (agents/finalize.md: snapshot QA + one in-place fix pass + re-render). Never change a fixed duration in repair.

Report + optional preview

Report the final output (renders/video.mp4, or the .webm / .mov overlay variant) + duration. Don't open a preview during the run. Offer one only on request, started after render so it serves the final file:

(cd "$PROJECT_DIR" && npx @kenectai/cli preview)   # Studio UI; or `npx @kenectai/cli play` for a shareable link

Flags live in the kenectai-cli skill (references/preview-render.md).

Resume table

Design notes (maintainers — execution does not read this)

• Asset-first rationale: sourcing is front-loaded and informs shot design (the RWA flow: analyze → search → review → compose). the search-driven categories (webpage/news/tweet) and asset-fusion both lean on media-use search (news/web/tweet/image), which is media-use's documented RWA lineage.
• Reuse-first: the in-ecosystem analog of LLM-generated templates is "compose catalog blocks + kenectai-animation rules". HF's paused GSAP timeline ≙ Remotion's useCurrentFrame.
• Category module contract: one categories/<id>/module.md (planning + build), sharing references/motion-vocabulary.md (+ optional eval). Adding a category = drop the folder + register its classifier line in agents/director.md + its row in catalog-map.md; the phase pipeline is untouched.
• Directory shape:

  videos/<project-name>/
    kenectai.json  context.log
    shot-plan.json            # the IR (Director output)
    assets/  assets/index.md  # media-use output (if sourced)
    compositions/index.html   # Builder output
    renders/video.mp4

• Registration: in kenectai router — add the "design-led short motion graphic" intent + Workflow description; carve the motion-graphics triggers out of /general-video; add reverse Do-NOT-use edges. See motion-graphics-genre.md §5-7.