Content Machine

Short-form video skill pack for Claude Code, Codex CLI, and similar coding-agent CLIs.

Content Machine is moving away from a monolithic "AI video agent" and toward repo-local skills, 45ck/prompt-language flows, and deterministic runtime scripts that coding-agent CLIs can call directly.

cat <<'JSON' | node --import tsx scripts/harness/brief-to-script.ts
{
  "topic": "Redis vs PostgreSQL for caching",
  "archetype": "versus",
  "targetDuration": 35,
  "outputPath": "output/content-machine/script/script.json"
}
JSON

Early development. Skills, flows, and runtime scripts are now the primary interface. The legacy CLI control plane has been moved into archive/legacy-cli/; the remaining cm shell is intentionally thin.

Start with skills/, scripts/harness/, flows/, and DIRECTION.md.

Start Here

npm install

Node.js 20.6+ is required.

Primary Path: Coding-Agent CLIs

Use these three surfaces together:

• skills/: importable short-form video skills
• flows/: 45ck/prompt-language docs and manifests
• scripts/harness/: repo-side JSON-stdio runtime entrypoints

If you are deciding where to start:

• Start with a skill when you want one capability.
• Start with a flow when you want a full multi-step path.
• Start with scripts/harness/ only when you need the exact repo-side executable entrypoint.

Discover what is shipped:

cat <<'JSON' | node --import tsx scripts/harness/skill-catalog.ts
{}
JSON

cat <<'JSON' | node --import tsx scripts/harness/flow-catalog.ts
{}
JSON

Current repo-side entrypoints:

node --import tsx scripts/harness/doctor-report.ts
node --import tsx scripts/harness/flow-catalog.ts
node --import tsx scripts/harness/run-flow.ts
node --import tsx scripts/harness/skill-catalog.ts
node --import tsx scripts/harness/generate-short.ts
node --import tsx scripts/harness/brief-to-script.ts
node --import tsx scripts/harness/ingest.ts
node --import tsx scripts/harness/script-to-audio.ts
node --import tsx scripts/harness/timestamps-to-visuals.ts
node --import tsx scripts/harness/video-render.ts
node --import tsx scripts/harness/publish-prep.ts
node --import tsx scripts/harness/install-skill-pack.ts

If you want these skills inside another project, install the package there and materialize a local pack:

npm install @45ck/content-machine

cat <<'JSON' | node ./node_modules/@45ck/content-machine/agent/run-tool.mjs install-skill-pack
{
  "targetDir": ".content-machine",
  "includeFlows": true
}
JSON

Shipped starter skills:

• skills/doctor-report/SKILL.md
• skills/skill-catalog/SKILL.md
• skills/generate-short/SKILL.md
• skills/brief-to-script/SKILL.md
• skills/reverse-engineer-winner/SKILL.md
• skills/script-to-audio/SKILL.md
• skills/timestamps-to-visuals/SKILL.md
• skills/video-render/SKILL.md
• skills/publish-prep-review/SKILL.md

Thin cm Shell

npm run cm -- --help

Only config, doctor, mcp, and render remain live under cm. Everything else now lives in archive/legacy-cli/.

See full installation guide for optional setup such as Whisper and ffmpeg.

Quick Start

1. Run the main end-to-end flow

cat <<'JSON' | node --import tsx scripts/harness/run-flow.ts
{
  "flow": "generate-short",
  "runId": "demo-run",
  "input": {
    "topic": "Redis vs PostgreSQL for caching",
    "audio": { "voice": "af_heart" },
    "visuals": { "provider": "pexels", "orientation": "portrait" },
    "render": { "fps": 30, "downloadAssets": true },
    "publishPrep": { "enabled": true, "platform": "tiktok" }
  }
}
JSON

2. Reverse-engineer a reference short

cat skills/reverse-engineer-winner/examples/request.json | \
  node --import tsx scripts/harness/ingest.ts

3. Generate a script

cat skills/brief-to-script/examples/request.json | \
  node --import tsx scripts/harness/brief-to-script.ts

4. Review a render before upload

cat skills/publish-prep-review/examples/request.json | \
  node --import tsx scripts/harness/publish-prep.ts

5. Run structured environment diagnostics

cat skills/doctor-report/examples/request.json | \
  node --import tsx scripts/harness/doctor-report.ts

The primary user guide is now docs/user/AGENT-QUICKSTART.md. The archived CLI notes live under archive/legacy-cli/.

How The Repo Is Shaped

• skills/ defines when to use a capability, what it expects, and what files it should return.
• flows/ defines 45ck/prompt-language orchestration over one or more skills.
• scripts/harness/ exposes deterministic JSON-stdio entrypoints that execute the work.
• src/ still contains the media logic for captions, sync, reverse-engineering, render, and publish prep.
• docs/direction/ is the source of truth for the migration plan and cut lines.

Typical output flow:

skill request
  -> flow or direct runtime script
  -> files on disk
  -> optional render / review / evaluation outputs

Run-scoped flows write under runs/<run-id>/ by default. Direct skills can also write to explicit output paths.

What You Can Do

• Generate a short-form video from a topic.
• Reverse-engineer a winning reference short from a local file or URL.
• Generate only scripts, audio, visuals, or renders when needed.
• Run structured diagnostics before expensive generation work.
• Use the thin cm shell only for config, diagnostics, MCP, or render compatibility.

Documentation

• Agent Quickstart — primary user path for Claude Code, Codex CLI, and similar tools
• skills/ — agent-facing skill docs
• flows/ — 45ck/prompt-language docs and executable flows
• scripts/harness/ — repo-side JSON-stdio entrypoints and execution model
• Direction — migration plan, cut lines, and archive policy
• User Guide — skill-pack docs
• Developer Docs — active architecture, registries, and legacy engineering docs
• Reference — generated references, environment variables, glossary, and CLI details
• Archive — frozen legacy control-plane code and notes

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md to get started.

git clone https://github.com/45ck/content-machine.git
cd content-machine && npm install && cp .env.example .env
node --import tsx scripts/harness/skill-catalog.ts

License

MIT