# Recipes Ways to start a video, what you can hand Claude, and ideas for videos to build your own approach on. There is no one way to ask for a video. Claude follows the same method each time (discover, script, music, sketch, build, check), and how much you give it up front only changes how many questions it asks. Start small and add material as you go, or hand over everything at once. These recipes are starting points: mix them, change them, and write down the ones that work for your team. ## Start from one sentence Point Claude at the product and say what the video is for: > Look at my app in ../scheduler and make a feature release video about our > scheduling feature, 30 seconds. Claude reads the code and docs, runs the app, and looks at it. Then it asks the few things only you know, each with suggested answers from what it found: the moment a new user says "oh", who will watch and where, the pace, the music. Anything your sentence already said ("calm", "for LinkedIn", "no music yet") it does not ask again. Run the app's dev server in its demo or seeded mode first, or tell Claude how to start it. Claude records the real UI from it, so the video uses your product's own type, colours and data. ## Show what to highlight with screenshots When you know which screens matter, show them. Make the video first (or let Claude make it), then put screenshots in the video's `reference/` folder: ```text launch/videos/scheduling/reference/ 01-empty-week.png 02-drag-to-book.png 03-conflict-warning.png ``` > The screenshots in reference/ are the three moments I want: the empty week, > dragging a slot to book it, and the conflict warning. Build the video around > those, in that order. Claude reads each one, finds the same state in the running product and records it there. A recording of the live UI stays sharp when the camera pushes in; a screenshot does not. So screenshots in `reference/` guide the video and do not appear in it, unless you ask for that. If the product cannot run on your machine (a native app, a staging-only feature), say so. Claude can build shots from your screenshots or a screen recording instead, at the resolution they were taken, and tells you up front what that costs. ## Bring your own images and clips Put files you want in the video in its `media/` folder, and say what each one is for: ```text launch/videos/scheduling/media/ intro-sting.mp4 # our logo animation team.jpg # photo for the end card calendar-sync.mov # screen recording of the mobile app ``` > Open with media/intro-sting.mp4, cut to the app on the first downbeat. Put > media/team.jpg behind the end card, dimmed. Use calendar-sync.mov for the > mobile shot, full frame. Video files play frame exact (`Clip`), so a clip lands on the same frame in the studio, in stills and in the render. Another video's render can be used the same way: a logo sting made once opens every later video. Record where each file comes from, so `pnpm launch check` and `pnpm launch licences` know it is cleared: Claude writes a `licences.json` in the video's folder (`{ "media/team.jpg": { "licence": "Our own photo" } }`). Your own product and brand files only need a line saying they are yours. ## Music and sound Intentface Launch cuts the video to a track; it does not make music. You have three ways to get one: - **Your own track.** A track you bought, licensed or had made goes in the video's `audio/` folder. `pnpm launch beats` finds its beats and sections, and the shots are timed to them. - **Generate one from Claude's brief.** Once the script is agreed, Claude writes a brief with the exact length, tempo, sections and hits. You generate the track (ElevenLabs Music, Suno and the like) and drop it in `audio/`. - **No music yet.** Claude picks a tempo and times everything in beats, so a track can be briefed to the finished cut later. Sound effects (clicks, ticks, whooshes) come from a small starter library in the package. `pnpm launch sfx find whoosh` searches it. For effects it lacks, Claude can generate them with ElevenLabs: 1. Install the ElevenLabs CLI: `npm install -g @elevenlabs/cli`. 2. Put your API key in `launch/.env` (ignored by git): ```sh ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=sk_... ``` 3. Ask for the sound pass once the cut is locked: > The cut is locked. Add sound effects: a soft click on each booking, a > swell under the end card. Claude never prints the key. Commercial use of generated sounds needs a paid ElevenLabs plan, and before generating anything for a sonic logo, turn off ElevenLabs' setting that shares outputs with other users. Your own sounds work too. Put sounds for one video in its `audio/sfx/`, and sounds for every video in the launch folder's `sfx/`, then run `pnpm launch sfx index` to measure them. A voice-over (recorded or generated) goes in `audio/voice/`, and the music ducks under it. ## Write down how your team works Claude reads `launch/CLAUDE.md` whenever it works in the launch folder. Write your team's way of making videos there, above the add-ons list: `pnpm launch update` keeps it. For example: ```md ## How we make videos - Every video opens with the `sting` video's render and ends on our end card. - 30 seconds for a feature, 60 for a launch. 9:16 cut for every feature video. - Music: the tracks in launch/music/, licensed for all our videos. - Calm and precise: long holds, no slams. - Never show customer names; use the demo workspace. ``` Longer recipes can go in their own files, with a line in `CLAUDE.md` pointing to them (`Weekly updates: follow launch/recipes/weekly-update.md`). Claude follows what is written, and asks only what it leaves open. When a video shows that a skill is wrong or missing something, Claude says which skill and what it learned. Skills are revised in the packages, so a fix reaches every repo with `pnpm launch update`. ## Ideas Ways to use it beyond the one-off launch video. Each is a request, and some are worth writing down as a recipe. ### A weekly product update, scripted once The same structure every week, so each episode is quick to make and looks like the last one: the logo sting, three changes shown working in the product, and an end card with the date. Build it once: > Make a weekly-update video: open with the sting video, then three slots of > about 8 seconds, each showing one change in the product with a three-word > label, then an end card with the week's date. 30 seconds, our weekly track. > Make the three changes and the date the parts that change each week. Claude builds the first episode and shows the storyboard. After that, each week is a variant of the same video: the same shots, music and look, with that week's changes and copy. > This week's update: the changelog is in CHANGELOG.md under 2026-10-12. Show > recurring events, the new time-zone picker and faster search. Add it as > variant w42. Claude records the three changes, fills the slots, and renders `out/weekly-update-w42.mp4` with `pnpm launch render weekly-update --variant w42`. Write the structure in `launch/recipes/weekly-update.md` so the format stays the same whoever asks. ### A video for every feature release One look for all of them, set in `launch/CLAUDE.md` (length, opening, music, pace), so each release video only needs the feature: > New release video for bulk rescheduling. Same format as our feature videos. ### Every shape from one video A video can declare other shapes (`formats`, such as 9:16 and 1:1). The layout reflows for each; it is never a crop. Ask for a vertical cut for social posts and `pnpm launch render --format vertical` renders it. ### Languages and captions Captions are part of the video: `render` writes `.srt` and `.vtt` beside the mp4, and they can be burned into the frame for muted feeds. A language version is a variant with its own copy and voice-over: > Add a German variant: translate the on-screen copy and the captions. ### A logo sting > Animate our logo as a 3 second sting, from logo.svg in media/, with a sonic > logo. We'll open every video with it. The logo-animation skill derives the motion from how the mark is built and makes sure the last frame is exactly the approved logo. Other videos then open with it. ### A demo for a sales call or a talk Longer and calmer, at reading pace, with captions and no music: > A 2 minute walkthrough of the scheduling flow for sales calls. No music, > captions on, slow enough to talk over.