KinoCut Repurpose

Use when turning one local video into a platform-ready short. Kinocut builds clip packages with manifests, review artifacts, and human approval gates.

This is a pre-kernel, path-based v1 skill. It guides an agent to produce a good short clip from one local video using only shipped Kinocut tools. Do not invent commands, providers, kernels, schedulers, uploaders, or publishing steps.

Install

From a checkout of this repository, install the skill into a Claude Code-compatible host that discovers local path skills:

bash

mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -R skills/kinocut-repurpose .claude/skills/kinocut-repurpose

Configure the Kinocut MCP server separately when MCP tools are available:

bash

claude mcp add kinocut -- uvx --from kinocut kino

For CLI-only hosts, install and verify Kinocut:

bash

pip install kinocut
kino doctor

Current Tools

Use these shipped surfaces only:

• MCP: video_repurpose_plan, then video_repurpose.
• CLI: repurpose-plan, then repurpose.
• Optional support tools when needed: info, video-ai-transcribe, generate-subtitles, subtitles, resize, normalize-audio, thumbnail, storyboard, video-quality-check.

Useful CLI shape:

bash

kino --format json info input.mp4
kino repurpose-plan input.mp4 --platforms youtube-shorts instagram-reel tiktok -o repurpose-out
kino repurpose input.mp4 --platforms youtube-shorts instagram-reel tiktok -o repurpose-out --min-score 0
kino video-quality-check repurpose-out/youtube_shorts.mp4

Required Flow

1. Inspect the source path first with info or video_info. Confirm duration, resolution, aspect, and audio presence.
2. Choose one short-clip intent and two or three platforms. Prefer youtube-shorts, instagram-reel, and tiktok for vertical clips unless the user explicitly asks for horizontal or square.
3. Run repurpose-plan / video_repurpose_plan before rendering. Review the repurpose_manifest.json for platform outputs, aspect ratios, target LUFS, max duration, and planned review artifacts.
4. Render with repurpose / video_repurpose only after the plan is plausible.
5. Inspect the rendered manifest, thumbnails, storyboards, and release checkpoint output.
6. Stop at human review. Do not publish, schedule, upload, or claim final approval.

Guardrails

• Captions: if speech matters and captions are missing, create or request an SRT before final review. Use video-ai-transcribe only when the host has the optional dependency; otherwise ask for a transcript or use generate-subtitles from provided text. Burn captions with subtitles only when the user wants burned-in captions.
• Audio: preserve voice intelligibility. Use normalize-audio or the repurpose tool's target LUFS defaults. Re-check clips that sound clipped, silent, or out of sync.
• Aspect: respect each platform manifest. Vertical short clips are 9:16; square posts are 1:1; YouTube landscape is 16:9. Do not crop important faces or text blindly.
• Pacing: keep the clip short and legible. If the source is too long for the selected platform, trim first with the existing trim command, then repurpose the trimmed path.
• Output review: require a manifest, thumbnail, storyboard, quality check, and release checkpoint artifact before handoff. Human review is mandatory before public use.
• Local-only: keep paths explicit and local. Do not download, upload, post, publish, or call cloud services unless the user separately asks and approves that external step.

Deterministic Demo

Run the bundled demo recipe from the repository root:

bash

python examples/repurpose_current_tools_demo.py --output-dir /tmp/kinocut-repurpose-demo

Dry-run the exact recipe without rendering:

bash

python examples/repurpose_current_tools_demo.py --dry-run

The script creates a deterministic FFmpeg fixture, runs repurpose-plan, renders youtube-shorts and instagram-reel variants with current Kinocut CLI commands, then checks the manifest and review artifacts.