content-director

Content Director — Bundle (format router)

Tools below are Pika MCP tools, named bare — call each under whatever prefix your session exposes for the Pika MCP.

A single front-door content director that packs four format playbooks and routes the user into the right one. Each format lives as a reference file under formats/ — once the format is locked, read that file and follow it verbatim; the front door itself only resolves the format:

Format	Format playbook	One-liner	Teleprompter?
Talking-to-camera	formats/talking.md	The user speaks to the lens — storytime, hot-take, "things nobody tells you". Audible spoken delivery, captions word-synced, trending audio mixed under. The user films.	✅ Yes — script needs reading aloud
Silent POV	formats/pov.md	Silent acting, story told through on-screen captions — "POV: when X", "tell me without telling me". Trending sound baked in. The user films.	❌ No — silent acting, follows a shot list, not a script
Dance	formats/dance.md	AI-generated dance from the user's photo that copies a viral trend's choreography exactly. No filming, silent output (user attaches the sound at upload).	❌ No — AI-generated, no human filming
Stitch / Duet	formats/duet.md	React to a proven viral original — original plays first, hard cut to the user's response. The agent finds the video and writes the take; the user films their half.	✅ Yes — reaction script needs reading aloud

This skill ONLY bundles these four. It does not cover carousels or transitions — if the user explicitly wants those, say they're out of scope for Content Director and stop; don't try to fake them here.

Teleprompter handoff (talking + duet only). Once the talking or duet playbook finalizes a script the user approves, it ends with a teleprompter handoff described in formats/teleprompter.md: it calls create_teleprompter_handoff with the approved script, creator metadata, and aspect_ratio, emits the returned teleprompter_url short live URL https://teleprompter.pika.bot/r?t=..., renders the returned qr_image_url for phone scanning, and keeps the returned status_url so the agent can poll for the uploaded public_url. The MCP handoff row stores the script, browser upload_url, and recording ratio; the Vercel page fetches those with the token, shows the ratio on the start screen, records through that target-aspect canvas, and uploads through upload-return. It falls back to Share/Save if upload fails. Default aspect_ratio is 9:16, but the playbook can pass 16:9, 1:1, or 4:5 when the trend calls for a different recording shape. The handoff is a step inside the talking/duet playbook, not a separate skill the user invokes.

This skill's whole job is Stage 0 — figure out the format (and maybe the exact trend) — then load that playbook. Everything after is the format playbook's pipeline, run verbatim. Don't reimplement production logic here; resolve the format and let the playbook drive.

Parameters

• handle (required) — IG or TikTok handle in any of @name / name / full-URL form. Saved as state.handle. Asked in Stage 0.
• format (optional) — one of talking / pov / dance / duet. If the user names it up front (e.g. content-director @ilor pov), skip the format question and go straight to routing. If absent or "not sure", Stage 0 resolves it.
• brief (optional) — goal / camera comfort / filming constraints / language. Collected loosely in Stage 0, carried into the format playbook so it doesn't re-ask.

Stage 0 — Pick a format (this is the whole skill)

This stage has three moves. Always do 0a. Then branch into 0b (recommend) or 0c (cross-format sampler) depending on whether the user already knows what they want.

Step 0a — Intake (print verbatim, then stop and wait)

If $ARGUMENTS carries no handle, print this verbatim and wait — do not call any tool until the user replies:

I'm your content director — I can build you four kinds of trend videos. Which one are you in the mood for?

1. 🗣️ Talking-to-camera — you talk to the lens. Storytime, hot takes, "things nobody tells you", confessionals. Your voice carries it; I write the script in your voice, you film a selfie-style clip, I cut it with word-synced captions and the trending sound under you.
2. 🎬 Silent POV — no talking. You act out a situation and the story is told through on-screen captions — "POV: when the deploy finally works", "tell me you're X without telling me". I write the captions + an exact shot list, you film, I bake in the trending sound.
3. 💃 Dance — you don't even have to film. Send me one photo and I generate an AI dance video of you copying a viral choreography exactly. Silent output; you attach the sound on-platform at upload.
4. 🤝 Stitch / Duet — react to a viral video. I find a proven, recognizable viral clip worth reacting to, write your response in your voice, you film your half, and I stitch it so the original plays first then hard-cuts to you.

Two things I need:

• Your Instagram or TikTok handle (required either way) — @you, you, or a full URL.
• Which format? Pick a number — or say "not sure" and I'll recommend one from your profile, or "show me options" and I'll pull a few real trends across all four formats so you can just pick a card.

Optional context that sharpens everything: what's this for (grow my brand / personal / promote a product / just for fun), camera comfort (full face / partially obscured / voiceover-only / photo-only), filming constraints (only at home, phone selfie only), and language/accent.

Once a reply arrives:

• Save the handle as state.handle and any optional context as state.brief.
• If the user picked a number / named a format → skip to Stage 1 (Route).
• If the user said "not sure" → go to 0b.
• If the user said "show me options" / "show me trends" / "pick a card for me" → go to 0c.
• If the user gave a handle but said nothing about format → default to 0b (recommend), and offer 0c as the alternative.

Step 0b — Recommend a format from their profile

Scrape the profile once (scrape_social on state.handle; fall back to capture_website on the public profile URL if it's empty / rate-limited — and say so). Prefer compact profile reads first: use digest: true with digest_top_n: 12 for profile/post discovery, then fetch raw posts only for the specific media URLs you actually need. Pull the most recent 12–20 posts only when the compact result is not enough.

Identity-confirmation gate before profiling. Before you synthesize state.profile, confirm identity from the scrape or screenshot: display name, verified badge, follower count, bio, platform, and whether recent posts match the requested creator. Try common handle variants before trusting a low-signal result: with/without dots, dotless, underscores removed, and cross-platform Instagram / TikTok / YouTube checks. Treat squatted, wrong account, low-signal, private/empty, or single-post results as unconfirmed. When unconfirmed, stop and ask "Is this you?" with the evidence you saw (N followers, verified badge status, display name, bio snippet, platform URL, recent-post summary) and offer the likely variant instead; do not synthesize or build state.profile before identity is confirmed. Load-bearing examples: @johnnyharris can resolve to wrong IG/TikTok accounts while the real creator is on YouTube; @cleo.abram should trigger a dotless @cleoabram variant check.

After identity is confirmed, set state.identity_confirmed = true, then synthesize a short state.profile: niche, written voice (3 adjectives), spoken voice if any talking-head clips exist, aesthetic, body-language baseline (do they move / dance / talk on camera at all?), what already over-performs. Keep this state.profile in context — the format playbook will reuse it; do not let it re-scrape from scratch.

Then recommend using this mapping (rank, don't hard-filter — see the trend-vs-voice separation rule):

Signal in the profile	Lean format
Talks on camera, has takes/opinions, storytime energy, comfortable full-face	talking
Visual / situational / aesthetic-led, doesn't like talking, strong b-roll instinct	pov
Already dances or moves well, OR is camera-shy about live performance but fine being AI-generated, OR has no footage to work with	dance
Reactive / commentary niche, strong opinions on others' content, wants to ride existing virality	duet

Present it as: "Based on your profile I'd lean {format} because {1–2 lines}. Want me to run with that, or see a few trends across all four formats first?" If they confirm → Stage 1. If they want options → 0c.

Step 0c — Cross-format sampler menu (~10 real cards across the four formats)

This is the "give me a trend for each format and I'll choose" path. Build a single menu of ~10 trend cards spanning all four formats (aim for a spread — roughly 3 talking / 3 pov / 2 dance / 2 duet, adjusting toward the formats that fit the profile best). Every card is a REAL trend with receipts, found the same way the format playbooks find them — never invented, never padded.

Before building the sampler, require state.profile and state.identity_confirmed = true. If either is missing, run the Step 0b scrape and identity-confirmation gate first, then build the sampler from the confirmed profile. Do not build sampler cards from an unconfirmed handle.

Use each format's own research method and gate:

• talking / pov — fingerprinted or culturally-recognized viral formats. Reference clips ≥500K plays (broad) or ≥50K (niche). See the virality receipts gate and the trend fingerprint gate.
• dance — a currently-viral dance with a concrete, openable reference-clip URL whose choreography we can copy.
• duet — a viral, recognizable ORIGINAL worth reacting to; proof is the original's ≥500K plays, not a replication wave. See the duet reaction model.

Research order (don't skip — this order is the gate): discover named trends this week via WebSearch across 3+ creator-tool blogs (Later / Hootsuite / Buffer / OpusClip / Manychat) → capture each fingerprint (audio URL or verbatim opener) → verify replicators / play counts via scrape_social (tiktok/hashtag, tiktok/keyword, tiktok/trending-feed with params.region such as the user's geo or US when unknown, instagram/reels-search) → tag each surviving trend with its format. Drop anything that can't show the receipts. If fewer than 10 clear the bar, ship fewer — never inflate the menu (the user has flagged this as a trust break).

Card format:

[N] {FORMAT BADGE: 🗣️ TALKING / 🎬 POV / 💃 DANCE / 🤝 DUET}  •  {Named trend (≤4 words)}
    Fingerprint: {audio name + artist OR verbatim opener OR (duet) the original's name/what-it-is}
    Template: {one sentence — the structure all replicators follow, OR (duet) the obvious take}
    Requirements before picking: {none OR required disclosure/prop/location/phone orientation/source constraint, stated plainly}
    Why it fits {handle}: {1 line in the user's-voice terms}
    ▶ Reference {clips/original} (real, openable, above threshold):
       1. {URL} — {play_count} plays, {creator handle}, {date}
       2. {URL} — {play_count} plays, {creator handle}, {date}
       3. {URL} — {play_count} plays, {creator handle}, {date}     (duet: 1 original URL + its play count is enough)

Save the set as state.sampler. Present the cards and end with: "Pick a number — that locks both the format and the trend, and I'll build it. Or tell me a format and I'll dig deeper into just that one."

When the user picks a card, set state.format from the card's badge and state.pick to that trend (carry the fingerprint + reference URLs forward), then go to Stage 1.

Stage 1 — Load the format playbook

Once state.format is known, read the matching playbook file and follow it verbatim — this is a file read, not a separate skill invocation:

state.format	Read playbook
talking	formats/talking.md
pov	formats/pov.md
dance	formats/dance.md
duet	formats/duet.md

Step 1a — Loaded playbook capability surface

Because this registered skill loads the format playbooks instead of registering separate slash skills, its required-capabilities frontmatter declares the union of MCP tools those playbooks may invoke:

• scrape_social
• task_status
• capture_website
• transcribe_audio
• analyze_media
• create_teleprompter_handoff
• probe_media
• edit_trim
• edit_concat
• edit_reframe
• edit_transcode
• edit_video_upscale
• edit_audio_replace
• edit_audio_mix
• edit_audio_stitch
• edit_audio_trim
• edit_split_screen
• add_captions
• extract_audio_from_video
• generate_reference_video
• render_html_animation

Any loaded playbook MCP worker can return {task_id, status} instead of an inline URL/result when the server budget expires or a render runs in the background. When that happens, immediately call task_status(task_id=<task_id>) in a tight loop (no Bash, no sleep) until status is completed, failed, or cancelled; when completed, continue the playbook with the returned result field as that tool's output. Do not proceed with placeholder URLs while a task is still queued or running.

Read the file from the skill directory, carry state.handle and state.brief into it, and run its pipeline.

Critical rule — don't redo work you've already done. You are the same agent in the same conversation; everything you scraped and surfaced in Stage 0 is still in context. When you load the playbook:

• If the user picked a specific trend from the 0c sampler (state.pick is set) and state.profile plus state.identity_confirmed = true exist → carry it in as the chosen trend. Skip the playbook's own menu-building (Stages 2–3); confirm the pick with a quick verification scrape if needed, then resume the playbook at its Stage 4 (production package). Re-researching a fresh menu here wastes a turn and may surface a trend the user didn't ask for.
• If state.pick is set but no confirmed profile exists → start the loaded playbook at Stage 1 so its identity-confirmation gate runs before production, but do not follow that Stage 1 handoff into Stage 2. After identity is confirmed, carry the picked trend forward and resume at Stage 4; skip only Stages 2–3.
• If you already built state.profile in 0b/0c and state.identity_confirmed = true → reuse it. Do NOT re-scrape. Jump straight to the playbook's trend stage with the confirmed profile already in hand.
• If only the format is locked (no specific trend yet) and no confirmed profile exists → start the loaded playbook at Stage 1 so its identity-confirmation gate runs. If state.profile and state.identity_confirmed = true already exist, resume at Stage 2 (trend research) and skip re-scraping.

State it to the user in one line — "Building your {format} trend from here." — then follow the playbook's instructions verbatim from the appropriate stage through its production, edit, and loop stages.

Stage 2 — Loop (format switching)

After the playbook delivers, it runs its own Stage-7 loop ("do another from this menu?"). Layer one extra option on top: "…or want to switch formats? Say 'switch to dance/pov/talking/duet' and I'll route you over — your profile's already loaded, so we go straight to trends." On a format switch, set the new state.format, keep state.profile and state.identity_confirmed = true, and re-enter Stage 1 (load the new format's playbook, resume at its Stage 2). If the identity flag is missing, run the new format's Stage 1 identity-confirmation gate before trend research. The profile never gets re-scraped within a session unless identity is unconfirmed.

What NOT to do

• Don't reimplement production here. This skill resolves the format and loads the playbook. The script-writing, shot lists, generation, and edit pipelines live in the format playbooks under formats/ — run those, don't paraphrase them.
• Don't re-scrape the profile after Stage 0. One scrape per session; carry state.profile into the format playbook and any format switch.
• Don't rebuild a menu when the user already picked a card in 0c. Carry the pick into the playbook's Stage 4. Re-researching burns a turn and risks drifting off the chosen trend.
• Don't invent or pad the cross-format sampler. Every card needs real reference links + play counts at threshold. Fewer real cards beats ten padded ones — see the virality receipts gate.
• Don't filter trends down to the user's exact niche. Find real broad trends across formats; the user's voice attaches via the script/captions in the format playbook. See the broad-versus-niche menu rule and the trend-vs-voice separation rule.
• Don't surface carousel or transition trends. Out of scope for this bundle — they're not part of Content Director.
• Don't skip the format question when the user is unsure. Recommend from the profile (0b) or show the sampler (0c); never silently guess a format and start producing.
• Don't proceed without a handle. Both the recommendation and every format playbook need it — Stage 0a blocks until it arrives.