# prompt-videos

A skill with prompting techniques for video models on Replicate. Useful when you write video prompts or build generation features.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 2400 installs · ★ 141
- Author: replicate
- License: Apache-2.0 · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/replicate/skills/tree/HEAD/skills/prompt-videos/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-06-04
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/prompt-videos

## What it does

The skill distills prompting advice from Replicate's blog posts on video models. The techniques are model-agnostic, so they carry over between models. A good video prompt here is a scene description, not a caption: what happens, where, and how it looks.

It breaks a prompt into seven layers — subject, context, action, style, camera, composition, ambiance. Separate sections cover filmmaking language (shot types, camera motion, lenses and depth of field), audio and dialogue, and multi-shot prompting with time codes. The author advises against picking a model from memory: the video model landscape shifts weekly, so you query the API and read the schema before running anything.

There are practical fixes too. Many models were trained on videos with baked-in subtitles and will add them on their own — a colon in the dialogue line plus a no-subtitles note usually helps. Mispronounced names get spelled phonetically. Skip the ambient audio and the model guesses, sometimes badly. The skill leans on the neighbouring `find-models` and `compare-models` skills; without them you pick the model by hand.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add replicate/skills --skill prompt-videos -a claude-code
```

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

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add replicate/skills --skill prompt-videos -a codex
```

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

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add replicate/skills --skill prompt-videos -a cursor
```

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

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install replicate/skills prompt-videos
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/prompt-videos/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add replicate/skills --skill prompt-videos -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/replicate/skills --path skills/prompt-videos
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

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

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add replicate/skills --skill prompt-videos -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/replicate/skills/tree/HEAD/skills/prompt-videos/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- build a video prompt from seven layers instead of one line
- direct camera motion and shot type in filmmaking terms
- write dialogue, ambient sound and music into a single prompt
- keep baked-in subtitles out of the output
- lay out several shots with time codes in one clip

## Example prompts
- Help me write a prompt for a video model: a night chase on a rain-soaked highway
- Break my prompt into subject, context, action, style, camera, composition and ambiance
- The model keeps adding subtitles — how do I rewrite the prompt to stop that?

## Source text · SKILL.md · Apache-2.0

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: e224acf5bb51e88e.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE e224acf5bb51e88e
```text
---
name: prompt-videos
description: >
  Prompting techniques for AI video generation models on Replicate.
  Use when writing prompts for video models or building video
  generation features.
---

# Prompting video models on Replicate

Distilled from Replicate's blog posts on prompting video models (2025-2026). Techniques are model-agnostic and focus on transferable principles.

## Choose a model with the API, not from memory

This skill describes general prompting techniques. To choose a model, use the [find-models](../find-models/SKILL.md) skill and query the Replicate API. The video model landscape changes weekly. Don't assume specific models exist or are still state-of-the-art based on names you've seen before. Always search the API for current options, then read the schema before running anything.

For pricing and feature comparison, see the [compare-models](../compare-models/SKILL.md) skill.


## Scene description

A good video prompt is a scene description, not a caption. Write what happens, where, and how it looks.

### Layer these elements into every prompt

1. **Subject**: Who or what is in the scene (a person, animal, object, landscape).
2. **Context**: Where the subject is (indoors, a city street, a forest, a spaceship corridor).
3. **Action**: What the subject does (walks, turns, picks up a phone, runs).
4. **Style**: The visual aesthetic (cinematic, animated, stop-motion, documentary).
5. **Camera**: How the camera moves (dolly shot, tracking, static, handheld).
6. **Composition**: How the shot is framed (wide shot, close-up, over-the-shoulder).
7. **Ambiance**: Mood and lighting (warm tones, blue light, golden hour, overcast).

### Be specific, not vague

Vague: "A car chase"

Specific: "A high-speed car chase on a rain-drenched highway at night. Two muscle cars weave through heavy traffic at 140mph, headlights slicing through the downpour. One car clips a semi-truck sending sparks showering across six lanes. Tires hydroplane on standing water. Neon highway signs blur overhead."

### Overdescribe

Modern video models handle long, dense prompts well. Don't write "a man on the phone." Write "a desperate man in a weathered green trench coat picks up a rotary phone mounted on a gritty brick wall, bathed in the eerie glow of a green neon sign." Every concrete detail you add gives the model less room to improvise poorly.

### Name subjects directly

Use descriptive phrases like "the woman in the red jacket" or "the bearded man in flannel." Avoid pronouns, which are ambiguous to video models just as they are to image models.


## Camera and cinematography
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE e224acf5bb51e88e

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