faceless-explainer

First, keep this skill fresh — confirm with the user before running: npx hyperframes skills update faceless-explainer. 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.

media-use: Before sourcing audio/images/logos, call /media-use to resolve BGM/SFX/images from the HeyGen catalog and brand logos from their official sources. Run --adopt first to register existing assets. See /media-use skill.

Faceless Explainer to HyperFrames

Use this skill to turn a body of text into an explainer video: pick a design system, plan a teaching story, and build it frame by frame in HyperFrames. Faceless means every visual is invented downstream — there is no capture step and no real asset inventory.

The front door is /hyperframes. You are the orchestrator. Run each step, verify its gate, and only then continue. This skill is for explaining a topic from text, with no product and no website to capture. Any other intent, a bare "make a video", or any uncertainty → read /hyperframes first — the intent layer owns every route decision, and a fresh creation arriving here without BRIEF.md goes through it anyway (Setup's opening rule).

You are the orchestrator. Work in videos/<project>/. Run steps in order and pass each gate before continuing. User-gated steps are Step 0, Step 3, and Step 6. Read ../hyperframes-core/references/brief-contract.md before Step 0 — it defines the gate types and how BRIEF.md's flow/storyboard derive the mode that governs the Step 3/4/6 gates. Do every step yourself except Step 5, where you dispatch one sub-agent per frame. Do not put design or motion rules here; those live in the frame-worker sub-agent, this skill's local ../hyperframes-animation/rules/ + ../hyperframes-animation/blueprints/, and hyperframes-creative.

Workflow: Step 0 setup → hyperframes.json; Step 1 brief → capture/extracted/; Step 2 design system → frame.md; Step 3 storyboard/script → STORYBOARD.md and SCRIPT.md; Step 3.1 audio → audio_meta.json; Step 4 visual design → enriched STORYBOARD.md; Step 5 frames → compositions/frames/NN-*.html and index.html; Step 6 final render → renders/video.mp4.

Step 0: Setup

Goal: Enter with a confirmed brief, create the HyperFrames project, and make the brief durable.

The brief is confirmed by the intent layer, not by questions asked here. Opening rule, in order: (1) BRIEF.md exists → read it and ask nothing — the brief is settled, and its flow/storyboard derive the mode (brief contract § 1). (2) No BRIEF.md but the project exists (hyperframes.json / STORYBOARD.md on disk) → resume from the storyboard's frontmatter and the recorded preferences; never re-interrogate a half-built project. (3) Neither — a fresh creation request that arrived here directly → read /hyperframes and run its intent layer (references/intent-interview.md): it checks recipes and remembered defaults, conducts this route's questions (../hyperframes/references/routes/faceless-explainer.md), and hands back the locked brief. Edit requests skip all of this — go do the edit.

Initialize only if hyperframes.json is missing. Name <project> from the topic in kebab-case, such as compound-interest-explained; never use workspace name or timestamp.

npx hyperframes init "videos/<project>" --non-interactive --example=blank --skill=faceless-explainer — init checks the installed skills against the latest on GitHub and updates the global set if any are out of date.

After init, let <PROJECT_ROOT> be videos/<project> and run every subsequent relative-path command with that directory as its working directory. In the commands below, . means <PROJECT_ROOT>; never write .media, capture, or output files in the caller directory.

Write BRIEF.md immediately after init (never before — init refuses a non-empty directory): the intent layer's locked brief, shape per ../hyperframes-core/references/brief-format.md. Resolve <MEDIA_DIR> as the installed /media-use skill directory. Then record each preference-backed answer with node <MEDIA_DIR>/scripts/prefs.mjs record --hyperframes . (brief-format.md names the subset). If the intent layer adopted a recipe, run node <MEDIA_DIR>/scripts/recipe.mjs use --hyperframes . --name <name>; it copies its frame.md into the project (Step 2 is then skipped) and returns the skeletons Step 3 drafts from. A recipe fills answers, not approvals; the review gates still run.

Show sign-in status before proceeding past Setup — run npx hyperframes auth status and relay its output verbatim. It reports whether voice/BGM will use HeyGen or local engines and, when signed out, how to sign in. Apply one branch:

• Collaborative: wait for the user to sign in or explicitly choose offline / go.
• Autonomous: state the status and continue through the available local engines.

Do not silently omit a required capability when no offline provider exists; surface the blocker. Do not fold this decision into another question or write keys into a per-repo .env. Auth ownership and offline fallbacks: /media-use references/setup-providers.md § Providers.

Gate: hyperframes.json and BRIEF.md exist; the preference-backed answers were recorded (brief contract § 2); sign-in status was shown (signed in, or continuing offline).

Step 1: Brief (no capture)

Goal: Fold the user's text into the project as the source of information. There is no website capture and no real assets — this is a faceless explainer.

Save the user's full input verbatim, then create the synthetic capture package by hand:

• capture/extracted/visible-text.txt — the full article / notes / topic / brief, verbatim. This is the source of information, not a story template (Step 3 reshapes it).
• capture/extracted/tokens.json — { "title": "", "description": "", "colors": [], "fonts": [] }. Fill title/description from the brief. Leave colors/fonts empty unless the user explicitly gave brand colors or fonts — then add them (the design preset supplies a complete palette regardless).

If the user pasted a script or wants their wording kept, save it verbatim as user_script.txt; VO_MODE (verbatim or restructured) comes from BRIEF.md — the intent layer asks it when a script arrives. Ask once here only if the brief somehow lacks it, and store the answer for Step 3.

Do not run npx hyperframes capture (there is no URL). Do not create asset-descriptions.md or populate capture/assets/ — faceless visuals are invented in Steps 4-5, not captured. The one exception: if the user supplied a real image, place it under public/<basename> and note it for Step 3.

Gate: capture/extracted/visible-text.txt and capture/extracted/tokens.json exist; you can state the explainer's topic and audience in one clear sentence.

Step 2: Design System

Goal: Choose one shipped frame preset; a script turns it into this video's frame.md + caption skin.

When BRIEF.md names a style_preset — the user picked it by eye from the showcases at the intent layer — use it; the judgment call is yours only when the brief is silent. Then you make the one call — which preset: read ../hyperframes-creative/references/design-spec.md and browse ../hyperframes-creative/frame-presets/; pick the preset whose look best fits the topic, tone, and audience. Then run:

node <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/build-frame.mjs --preset <name> --hyperframes .

The script does the rest deterministically: copies the preset's FRAME.md → frame.md and remixes it onto any brand tokens in capture/extracted/tokens.json (brand colors mapped onto the preset's color keys by role; the preset's display + body fonts swapped for the brand's), copies the preset's caption skin to .hyperframes/caption-skin.html, and self-validates (exits 1 on a broken mapping). Proceed as soon as it exits 0 — no hand-editing of the spec.

A faceless explainer usually has no brand colors/fonts (tokens.json colors/fonts empty) → the script keeps the preset's own palette, a complete shippable design. Only when the user named brand colors/fonts add them to tokens.json before running, and only adjust frame.md by hand afterward if a mapping truly needs it.

Gate: build-frame.mjs exited 0 — frame.md exists from a named preset, and (when the preset ships one) .hyperframes/caption-skin.html exists as the caption skin source; the chosen preset was recorded as a preference (--key style_preset --workflow <this workflow>, brief contract § 2).

Step 3: Storyboard and Script

Goal: Turn the text into an approved frame-by-frame teaching plan.

Read ../hyperframes-creative/references/story-spine.md (hook language, value-before-evidence, storyboard-as-proposal, source-traceable visuals), references/story-design.md, ../hyperframes-animation/blueprints-index.md, ../hyperframes-core/references/storyboard-format.md, and ../hyperframes-core/references/script-format.md. Use them to write STORYBOARD.md and, when narration is needed, SCRIPT.md. Set the frontmatter duration: from the brief's length — a rough expectation; assembly reports where the cut lands against it.

Use story-design.md for the explainer structure (concept / how-to / listicle / story), hook strategy, clarity techniques, emotional beats, the type-enum mapping, and VO_MODE. The video's sequence comes from narrative design, not the input text's paragraph order — reorder, merge, omit, compress. As a soft guide, consult the role→blueprint menu in ../hyperframes-animation/blueprints-index.md: for each beat, write the voiceover in the shape its candidate blueprint implies and tag that candidate blueprint: id when one fits. Teaching truth still decides which beats exist — never force a beat to fit a blueprint, and never invent a beat just because a proven shape is available. Faceless visuals are invented downstream, so frames do not carry an asset inventory: leave asset_candidates empty unless the user supplied a real public/<basename> image. Use the exact required fields from the storyboard and script references.

After drafting, run the review loop's plan pass — ../hyperframes-core/references/review-loop.md § 1: open the board (don't ask whether to), present the plan as a proposal, and ask the two questions — approve or change, and sketches first (recommended) or skip. Feedback loops through chat or the board's comments file until approved. This is a checkpoint gate (brief contract § 1): in autonomous mode there is no board and nothing to ask — post the same summary as a heads-up and proceed; sketches collapse into the build, and the one preview question comes at Step 6.

Gate: STORYBOARD.md exists, every frame has the required narrative fields, SCRIPT.md exists when narration is needed, and the user approved the frame-by-frame plan (autonomous: the summary was posted as a heads-up).

Step 3.1: Audio

Goal: Generate narration, word timings, music, and audio metadata from the approved script.

Start audio after Step 3 approval. Run it in the background, then continue to Step 4. (Sign-in status was already shown in Step 0; the engine falls back automatically.)

Choose the narration voice from the user's ask before invoking. If the request named a voice, gender, or tone, pick a matching voice id and pass it with --voice <id>. The pipeline default is otherwise Marcia (female) on HeyGen / am_michael on Kokoro — so a request like "a male voice" is silently ignored unless you pass the flag. Voice ids are provider-specific; resolve against whichever provider Step 0's sign-in status selected: HeyGen (signed in) via node <MEDIA_DIR>/audio/scripts/heygen-tts.mjs --list (or GET /v3/voices?engine=starfish); Kokoro (offline) via the voice table in <MEDIA_DIR>/audio/references/tts.md (prefixes am_/bm_ male, af_/bf_ female). When the user expressed no preference, fall back to the remembered voice (brief contract § 2) before the pipeline default, and say which one you used; omit --voice only when neither names one. When the user explicitly picked a voice this run, record it (prefs.mjs record --key voice).

node <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/audio.mjs --script ./SCRIPT.md --storyboard ./STORYBOARD.md --hyperframes . --out ./audio_meta.json --voice <voice-id> &

The audio script handles narration, word timings, BGM lookup from HeyGen's music library, and timing metadata. BGM mood comes from the storyboard's music: field. This uses the HeyGen Audio API for retrieval, not generation, and the same ~/.heygen credential as TTS. For provider details, read ../media-use/audio/references/tts.md.

If there is no narration and no SCRIPT.md, skip voice generation. BGM may still run if the storyboard has a music mood.

The canonical fully-silent marker (shared across the workflows that reuse this audio model): music: none in the STORYBOARD.md top YAML block and no SCRIPT.md. That combination marks the project silent — no narration, no BGM, no SFX. audio.mjs recognizes it and generates nothing (it removes any stale audio_meta.json; an absent audio_meta.json is what assemble treats as silent), so this step is a clean skip. music: none with narration keeps TTS and turns only BGM off. Use exactly this spelling — don't improvise other markers.

Gate: audio job has started, or the project is marked silent (music: none + no SCRIPT.md).

Step 4: Frame Visual Design

Goal: Add the visual direction, layout intent, and motion choices to each storyboard frame.

Sketch the board first (collaborative only). The moment the plan is approved, run the sketch pass — ../hyperframes-core/references/review-loop.md § 2 (don't wait on Step 3.1; sketches don't use timings): wireframe every frame yourself, mark each built, pause for the one layout question when the board is full, and revise only the sketches named until the board is confirmed. Only then write the visual design below onto the confirmed layouts. In autonomous mode, or when the user chose to skip sketches at Step 3, skip this pass — frames go straight from outline to animated at Step 5.

Edit STORYBOARD.md in place. Do not create another storyboard. Use frame.md as source of truth for color, type, layout feel, and style.

Read references/visual-design.md, ../hyperframes-animation/blueprints-index.md, references/motion-language.md, and ../hyperframes-animation/rules-index.md. Use visual-design.md for the method (the time-coded shot sequence, the inline Layout vocabulary, and the invented-visual treatment), plus the required ## Video direction block. Use ../hyperframes-animation/blueprints-index.md to pick each frame's shot shape. Use motion-language.md (the motion vocabulary + the motion doctrine) and ../hyperframes-animation/rules-index.md (valid rule names) for motion — do not invent motion names.

Search the live catalog before you invent any named look. A faceless explainer invents every visual, which is exactly when a hand-authored rebuild of an existing block is most likely. For every look, effect, treatment or transition the brief names — "CRT scanlines", "glitch", "film grain", "shimmer sweep", "confetti burst" — run npx hyperframes catalog --query "<the look, in plain English>" --json and read the top results BEFORE you write that look into STORYBOARD.md. The search needs nothing installed: no project, no prior add, no account. It ranks the whole hosted registry (~400 blocks and components) from any directory. A block that already does the job becomes the frame's focal — name it here so Step 5's workers install and customize it. Invent a visual only after a search for it came back with nothing that fits.

For every frame, write a time-coded shot sequence into STORYBOARD.md per visual-design.md's method: pick the frame's blueprint (or compose), instantiate it with THIS frame's invented content, and pace each Scene's reveal to the voiceover so the frame develops across its full duration instead of front-loading then freezing. Because the explainer is faceless, focal/roles name the invented visual elements (a hero word, a diagram node, a data-viz series) — you are designing them, not selecting captured assets. State layout and motion inline per Scene (vocabularies in visual-design.md and motion-language.md). Add one video-wide ## Video direction block.

Do not change story, script, transition_in, or the source text. Do not write HTML in this step. There is no asset-staging step — faceless visuals are built by the workers in Step 5. If the user supplied a real public/<basename> image, reference it by path in the relevant frame's focal/roles; otherwise nothing to stage.

Gate: every frame has a time-coded shot sequence whose reveals are paced to the voiceover (no front-loading); each frame names its invented focal and/or roles; ## Video direction exists. Collaborative: the sketch board was confirmed.

Step 5: Build Frames

Goal: Build every storyboard frame as an HTML composition and assemble the playable video.

Wait for Step 3.1 audio to finish if audio was started. Then sync durations and fetch SFX; skip both if silent.

node <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/audio.mjs sync-durations --audio-meta ./audio_meta.json --storyboard ./STORYBOARD.md

node <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/audio.mjs fetch-sfx --storyboard ./STORYBOARD.md --hyperframes .

Duration sync is mechanical: real voice duration wins; silent frames keep estimates; never hand-edit synced durations.

Before dispatch, read ../hyperframes-core/references/subagent-dispatch.md. Build the per-frame packets and the worker role payload:

node <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/frame-packets.mjs --project "$PROJECT_DIR" --storyboard "$PROJECT_DIR/STORYBOARD.md"

The builder writes one bounded packet per frame under .hyperframes/frame-packets/ (the frame's exact storyboard block + the blueprint body + every cited rule recipe, inlined) and _role.md (../hyperframes-core/references/frame-worker-core.md + this skill's sub-agents/frame-worker.md, concatenated verbatim — the complete worker role). Dispatch one sub-agent per frame, in parallel if possible; otherwise run workers in waves. Each worker gets exactly one frame: its prompt carries _role.md and that frame's packet — paste both in full, or hand the two file paths for the worker to read first (equivalent; the worker starts from exactly those two documents either way) — plus a dispatch context with PROJECT_DIR, frame_id, whether the frame has a confirmed sketch on disk (the worker dresses that layout rather than redrawing it — frame-worker core § When a confirmed sketch exists), canvas size, and caption status + keep-out band if captions are enabled.

Workers read only their packet and frame.md; they never open STORYBOARD.md or the skill documents (the packet inlines what was selected upstream). Each worker writes only compositions/frames/NN-*.html. Workers must never edit STORYBOARD.md.

Full-bleed backgrounds ride on a class="clip" layer, never the #root. A frame's ground (color field / gradient / grid) is its own full-duration background clip — a background set on the #root / data-composition-id element is clip-gated to the frame's window and is not a dependable ground, so dark content can land on the black host body and render invisible. The video's base ground is painted by the assembler from frame.md's canvas color onto the index #root. (Full rule + self-check: ../hyperframes-core/references/frame-worker-core.md.)

As each worker returns, the orchestrator marks that frame as animated in STORYBOARD.md.

After audio timings exist, build captions in the background and assemble the index:

node <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/captions.mjs build --storyboard ./STORYBOARD.md --audio-meta ./audio_meta.json --hyperframes . --out ./caption_groups.json &

node <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/assemble-index.mjs --storyboard ./STORYBOARD.md --hyperframes .

captions.mjs uses the project's .hyperframes/caption-skin.html (copied in Step 2) as the caption look, injecting brand tokens from frame.md; with no skin present it renders the built-in default pill. captions: skipped (<reason>) is valid. Continue without captions when explicitly skipped.

Gate: every frame is marked animated (collaborative: the sketch board was confirmed at Step 4), index.html exists, and captions are built or explicitly skipped.

Step 6: Finalize

Goal: Verify the assembled video, get user approval, and render the final MP4.

Inject transitions, run checks, pause for review, then render.

node <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/transitions.mjs inject --storyboard ./STORYBOARD.md --hyperframes .

node <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/transitions.mjs verify --storyboard ./STORYBOARD.md --index ./index.html

npx hyperframes lint

npx hyperframes check

npx hyperframes snapshot --at <frame-midpoints>

snapshot stitches the captured frames into one contact sheet (snapshots/contact-sheet.jpg). Glance at it; if nothing is obviously broken, move on — don't linger here.

If a command fails, surface stderr and stop — don't pile on recovery commands. Fix it yourself: the cheapest safe edit to compositions/frames/NN-*.html, then rerun the failed check.

Known false-positive — do not chase it. check may report a handful of text_box_overflow findings of ~1–4px on the caption highlight words (selector #caption-word-* / .caption-line). The caption pill uses a deliberately snug line-height (set once in scripts/captions.mjs) and has no overflow:hidden, so a heavy display glyph's ink spills a few px into the pill's own padding — nothing is actually clipped. Treat these as expected and proceed. Do not inflate the caption line-height (it balloons the pill, which is worse). Only act on a text_box_overflow when it names a frame element (#el-NN-*), not a caption word.

After checks pass, pause for user review — the review loop's final look (../hyperframes-core/references/review-loop.md § 4): one question, on the Studio that has been open since Step 3 — render now, or what changes? (Autonomous: the one kept question, preview first or render.) Then deliver the MP4 with the contact sheet and the frame ids so revisions can target a single frame.

Preview: npx hyperframes preview --background

Render only after user approval (autonomous mode: after the preview-or-render question):

npx hyperframes render --skill=faceless-explainer --quality high --output renders/video.mp4

Do not rerun lint, check, or snapshot after rendering unless the user asks.

Gate: lint and check passed and the snapshots were inspected before render; user approved at the review pause (autonomous: checks passed and the delivery includes the contact sheet); renders/video.mp4 exists. Final reply states MP4 path and final duration.

Quick Reference

Formats: landscape 1920x1080; portrait 1080x1920; square 1080x1080 — derived from the destination (brief contract § 2). Set the format once in the storyboard frontmatter.

Faceless deltas vs a captured-asset workflow: no Step 1 capture (synthetic tokens.json + visible-text.txt); no asset-descriptions.md and no capture/assets/; no asset-staging in Step 4; asset_candidates empty by default; every visual is invented by the Step 5 workers (typography / abstract graphics / diagrams / data-viz). A user-supplied public/<basename> image is the only real asset path.

Background scripts: the workflow ships only these under scripts/: build-frame for adopting + brand-remixing a frame preset into frame.md (+ caption skin); audio for TTS, transcription, BGM, SFX, and duration syncing; captions; transitions for inject and verify; and assemble-index. Everything else is the hyperframes CLI.

The reusable, domain-agnostic shot shapes live in ../hyperframes-animation/blueprints/ (indexed by ../hyperframes-animation/blueprints-index.md).