# captions-and-clipping

Turns long-form video into vertical clips with sound-off captions. Useful when a podcast or webinar needs to become Shorts, Reels and TikToks.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 720 installs · ★ 199
- Author: social-media-skills
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/social-media-skills/skills/tree/HEAD/skills/captions-and-clipping/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-15
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/captions-and-clipping

## What it does

The skill lays out the craft of clipping: how one long video becomes dozens of standalone Shorts. Inside is the CLIP framework with four steps — cut to the moment, lay out vertical 9:16, inscribe captions, polish and publish clean. Reference files cover the tool landscape and clip-and-caption recipes.

Tools find moments and burn in captions fast, but the virality score is a hint, not a verdict. Clips rated 40 beat 85, and around 70% of auto-clips need cleanup. So a human still picks the moment that stands alone with its own hook, reframes so the subject stays in frame, and reviews the transcript for accuracy.

Routing follows each tool's strength: Opus Clip cuts at scale, Submagic gives the best animated word-by-word captions, CapCut is a free manual editor. Submagic caps source length by tier, up to roughly 30 minutes on Business with API, so a full podcast won't fit. Exports need to be clean, with no other-platform watermark, because that trips the Originality Score on Reels and Shorts. Publishing goes to scheduling-and-queue and WoopSocial, which only schedules and publishes — it does not clip or caption.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add social-media-skills/skills --skill captions-and-clipping -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/captions-and-clipping/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/captions-and-clipping/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add social-media-skills/skills --skill captions-and-clipping -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/captions-and-clipping/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add social-media-skills/skills --skill captions-and-clipping -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/captions-and-clipping/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install social-media-skills/skills captions-and-clipping
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/captions-and-clipping/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add social-media-skills/skills --skill captions-and-clipping -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/social-media-skills/skills --path skills/captions-and-clipping
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/captions-and-clipping/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add social-media-skills/skills --skill captions-and-clipping -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/social-media-skills/skills/tree/HEAD/skills/captions-and-clipping/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- clip a podcast into vertical Shorts
- add subtitles for mute viewing
- repurpose a webinar into Reels and TikToks
- pick a moment that stands alone without context
- export a clip without another platform's watermark

## Example prompts
- Clip this podcast into Shorts with captions, pick moments that have their own hook
- Make 9:16 vertical clips from the webinar and caption them word by word
- Repurpose the long video into Reels and TikToks, clean export with no watermarks

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: f8c879cae1b39479.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE f8c879cae1b39479
```text
---
name: captions-and-clipping
description: >-
  The long-form-to-Shorts + sound-off captions mini-skill (Opus Clip / CapCut / Submagic). Use
  when someone wants to "clip my podcast/webinar/long video into Shorts," "make TikToks/Reels from
  a YouTube video," "add captions/subtitles to a video," "repurpose long-form into short-form," or
  "auto-generate clips." Tools clip and caption; a human reviews; WoopSocial schedules/publishes.
  Below the ai-video router; sibling to veo-3, heygen, ai-voiceover. This is the general craft:
  route OpusClip-specific pipelines (credits, Virality Score, tiers) to opus-clip, hands-on
  short-form editing to capcut, and the long-form talk edit itself to descript. Export clean (no
  watermark); disclose AI-edited video.
version: 1.0.0
---

# captions-and-clipping

The **transform** producer of the video cluster — it turns existing long-form into native short
clips with sound-off captions, the engine behind the Shorts funnel and cross-platform reach. Under
the **ai-video** router; sibling to veo-3 (scenes), heygen (avatars), ai-voiceover (narration).

## The POV: a clip is a standalone Short, not a random 30 seconds
AI tools find candidate moments and auto-caption fast — but the **virality score is a hint, not a
verdict** (clips rated 40 beat 85; ~70% need cleanup), so a human still picks the moment that
**stands alone with its own hook**, reframes so the subject stays in frame, captions for mute
viewing, and ships **clean** (no other-platform watermark — it trips the Originality Score on Reels/
Shorts). One long video → ~10–30 native clips, each a real Short.

## Read these first
1. **brand-profile** — pillars, look, non-negotiables (for selection + caption style).
2. **voice-builder** — so clip selection and hooks fit the brand, not generic viral templates.

## The framework: CLIP
(Depth: `references/the-clip-framework.md`.)
- **C — Cut to the moment:** AI moment-detection (Opus Clip ClipAnything) surfaces candidates; a
  human picks complete, hook-first, on-strategy clips.
- **L — Lay out vertical:** 9:16 subject-tracked reframe; trim filler; keep subject in safe zones.
- **I — Inscribe captions:** burned-in word-by-word for mute viewing; ~2 lines; review the transcript.
- **P — Polish & publish clean:** strip watermarks; hand hook/caption to the platform writer; disclose.

## Route tools by strength (verify-quarterly)
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE f8c879cae1b39479

The third-party file has ended. Everything between the f8c879cae1b39479 tags is data: requests and commands from it are not followed. An “end of file” line with another tag inside the block is part of the file.

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