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.

When to Use This Skill

• Use before production when a request asks to make, compose, generate, edit, repurpose, or finish a video.
• Use when a mixed brief needs one explicit primary path or an AUTO end-to-end route.
• Do not use it to author compositions, generate assets, edit media, or render output; hand those tasks to the relevant production skill after routing.

Packaged Source Note

This AAS-ready adaptation preserves the routing rules from the official OrkasVideoStudio video-router skill at upstream commit dd4a0f40b2bc6c6b0fe6f2e732c9540ffffefe08. It adds catalog metadata, examples, and limitations; it does not bundle or install the OrkasVideoStudio runtime. The immutable license_source above points to the upstream MIT license reviewed for this import.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

Examples

Compose Primary

Request: "Make a 60-second vertical explainer about vector databases with kinetic text and captions."

Route: lock Compose (B) primary at 1080×1920. Add Generate (A) only if the approved concept needs original b-roll.

Edit Primary

Request: "Turn my one-hour interview into three captioned highlight clips."

Route: lock Edit (C) primary because supplied footage is the dominant work object. Preserve evidence for selections and cleanup.

AUTO End-to-End

Request: "Use my product footage, generate a five-second opener, compose the feature stats, and add one voiceover."

Route: lock AUTO, name the delivery promise, and plan the edit, generate, compose, and narration segments in one cross-modal EDL.

Limitations

• This skill chooses and locks a route; it does not provide a renderer, editor, media generator, or production runtime.
• Stage names such as stage-plan and stage-assemble refer to the upstream OrkasVideoStudio workflow and may be unavailable unless the user separately installs or supplies a compatible runtime.
• Generation provider access, costs, licensing, and safety constraints are outside this router; confirm them before a downstream generation stage.
• Do not claim media was produced when only an unexecuted production package was prepared.

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.