---
name: video-router
description: Read this FIRST on any video-production request to pick and lock the line — generate (AI footage), compose (designed HTML), edit (cut real footage), or AUTO end-to-end. Trigger when classifying a brief and committing to a primary path; do NOT trigger for authoring compositions, generating assets, or rendering output (those have their own stage skills).
---

# video-router

Knowledge for picking a video production line and locking it before work begins. This skill is read for guidance; it describes **what to decide**, not any tool mechanics.

## Unavailable Production Runtime

If production, rendering, or paid tools are explicitly unavailable, still select the line and return a complete **unexecuted production package** for a clear brief: assumptions, script/narration, timed storyboard/shotlist, exact visible copy and captions, visual/audio direction, rights-safe asset provenance/fallbacks, export target, preview checklist, and final encoding/playback QA. Clearly distinguish planned from produced media and do not withhold the package behind a direction form.

## The three capability axes

A finished video is built from one or more of three orthogonal axes. Decide which dominate, then lock them.

- **Generate (A)** — AI-generated footage/imagery: photoreal shots, b-roll, motion, talking-head. Use when the brief needs real-looking or cinematic visuals.
- **Compose (B)** — deterministic HTML composition: explainers, kinetic typography, motion graphics, captions / lower-thirds / overlays, data viz, title cards, transitions. Use when the visuals are designed rather than filmed. This is the default for explainer/animation work.
- **Edit (C)** — intelligent editing of supplied footage: evidence-based selection/cleanup, deterministic cut/join/reframe/captions/audio work, and semantic AI video editing for bounded pixel-level changes.

## Decision rules

1. Read the brief (topic, aspect ratio, language, duration) and classify the **dominant work object**:
   - "explain / teach / animate / motion-graphics / kinetic text" → **Compose (B)** primary, optionally Generate (A) for b-roll.
   - "make footage of / cinematic / a scene of / a character doing" → **Generate (A)** primary, Compose (B) to overlay captions.
   - "cut / clip / trim / repurpose / make highlights / remove or change something in my video" → **Edit (C)** primary. Keep EDIT as the route even when a billable `operation:"edit"` segment is required.
2. Most explainer/animation requests are **Compose-primary**: typographic and motion-graphic scenes assembled as an HTML composition, with AI imagery only where a shot genuinely needs it.
3. For supplied reference media, classify the requested relationship as `reproduce`, `edit`, or `guide` before choosing execution. Apply the same classification regardless of origin. Images can control content/identity/composition/structure/style; videos can additionally control motion/timing/audio through temporal anchors.
4. Aspect ratio drives the canvas: 16:9 → 1920×1080, 9:16 → 1080×1920, 1:1 → 1080×1080.

## End-to-end (AUTO) — when the job spans lines

Pick a **single line** when one axis cleanly dominates (just trim a clip; just an explainer; just generate a scene). Route to **AUTO end-to-end** when the deliverable genuinely needs MORE THAN ONE axis woven together — most often the user supplies their own material AND wants finished framing/voice/motion around it:

- "trim my clip, add a title card + captions, and a voiceover" (edit + compose + narration)
- "my footage in the middle, generate an opener, compose the stats" (edit + generate + compose)
- "make a finished video from these assets" where the assets alone are not the deliverable.

AUTO does not abandon the axes — it sequences them through one cross-modal plan (`stage-plan` builds the EDL, `stage-assemble` walks it), delegating each segment back to the generate / compose / edit lines. Choosing AUTO is itself the lock: the *primary* still gets named via the plan's `delivery_promise` (source_led / motion_led / compose_led / hybrid).

## Lock the runtime

- Decide the primary axis at the brief/proposal stage and **state it in the proposal**.
- Once locked, do not silently switch the primary axis mid-run. If a later step reveals the wrong choice, surface it to the user and re-confirm rather than quietly changing course.
- Layering is fine and expected (e.g. Compose captions over Generated footage); "locking" governs the **primary** path, not the allowed overlays.

## Boundary / non-goals

This skill only routes and locks. Semantic editing is not a silent switch to GENERATE: it remains an EDIT/AUTO job with a signed billable video edit segment and explicit original/preservation boundary.