shuohao-skills – Open-Source AI Short Film Production Skill Collection, Featuring a Complete Workflow

1. What is shuohao-skills

shuohao-skills is an open-source collection of AI skills specifically designed for agents like Claude Code and Codex. The tool provides a complete workflow for short film production, ranging from novel adaptation outlines, character design, art direction, scriptwriting, to storyboard segmentation. Each stage is equipped with script-based quality checks to ensure distinct character portrayals, precise duration control, and consistent style. The output can be directly integrated with TTS and video generation pipelines, enabling a one-stop AI pre-production process for short films from text to deliverable packages.

Technical Positioning and Domain: This project belongs to the domain of AI-assisted content creation, specifically as a professional workflow tool. It focuses on the pre-production phase of short film creation. Unlike general-purpose AI writing or video generation tools, shuohao-skills is embedded into the dialogue environment of programming agents such as Claude Code and Codex in the form of agent skills. It breaks down the industrialized production process of short films into executable and verifiable standardized steps, offering clear differentiation in this niche market.

Development Background: The project was open-sourced by developer eternityspring on GitHub, addressing the rapidly growing content production demands in the short film industry. Short film production involves multiple specialized stages, including scripts, characters, art design, and storyboards. Traditional workflows rely heavily on manual coordination, resulting in long production cycles and inconsistent styles. This project tackles these industry challenges with an engineering mindset, transforming professional production experience into reusable automated processes.

Core Value: It addresses key issues in AI short film production, such as uncontrollable quality, repetitive character portrayals, style drift, and inaccurate duration. Through over 50 independent validation scripts, it enables automated quality control without requiring model credits, shifting pre-production from "repetitive manual revisions" to "automated error interception" by machines. This significantly improves production efficiency and output consistency, reducing the team collaboration costs associated with industrializing short film production.

Technical Features: Implemented entirely using the Node.js standard library with zero npm dependencies, each skill can be independently copied and used immediately. The five skills (novel-outline, novel-characters, novel-art, novel-script, novel-storyboard) form a complete loop from novel to storyboard. Dialogue lines are automatically converted into seconds based on duration calculations, and storyboard outputs include deliverable packages with MiniMax H3 prompts, achieving full data integration across the entire workflow.

2. Key Features

• Outline Generation for Adaptation: Automatically decomposes the original novel text into short drama adaptation notes, character list, climax rhythm, episode summaries, and asset list, consolidating the story structure. This step is equivalent to merging the traditional scriptwriting process of "book breakdown" and "outline creation," significantly compressing the pre-production planning cycle and providing a structured foundation for subsequent character design and scriptwriting.

• Character Design and Duplicate Prevention Check: Extracts character information from the novel and generates a character set that includes three-view diagrams, visual prompts, and voice tone prompts. It automatically checks the similarity between characters, preventing "character duplication," a common quality issue in short dramas, from the source. The voice tone prompts can be directly used by the TTS pipeline, enabling seamless text-to-speech integration and reducing the need for manual voice adaptation.

• Art Design and Style Anchoring: Establishes style anchors, lighting variations, and white background prompts for main scenes, secondary scenes, one-time scenes, and narrative props, ensuring visual consistency across multiple episodes. The white background prompts facilitate subsequent chroma keying and compositing, demonstrating a deep understanding of downstream video production workflows and laying the groundwork for reference image delivery during the storyboard phase.

• Script Writing and Beat Flow Organization: Organizes the script structure by scene and beat flow, grouping dialogue by character and attaching voice tone prompts. Duration is automatically calculated using formulas—dialogue is converted to seconds based on speaking speed, and actions are converted based on beat timing. Excessive or insufficient writing will be highlighted in red in the quality report, ensuring precise control over the final video length and meeting the strict requirements of short dramas for tight pacing.

• Storyboard Splitting and Production Package Export: Splits scenes by the second, generates visual descriptions using pre-set reference images, and outputs production packages containing MiniMax H3 prompts and reference images that can be directly connected to downstream video generation pipelines. This step achieves a critical transition from textual creativity to visual storyboarding, serving as the core hub connecting pre-production planning and post-production generation.

• Scripted Quality Inspection System: Each step is executed by independent scripts that automatically perform 4 to 17 quality checks, with over 50 checks across the entire workflow, without consuming model quotas. Inspection results are presented in an HTML report, supporting one-click viewing. Errors are immediately intercepted, forming an engineering closed-loop of "generation—inspection—correction," transforming quality control from subjective judgment into objective rules.

• Zero-Dependency Self-contained Design: Implemented purely with the Node.js standard library, no npm dependencies are required. Each Skill can be copied and used independently and supports fully offline operation. This design significantly reduces deployment barriers and facilitates teams integrating individual Skills into existing production workflows, offering practical value in scenarios with high data security requirements.

3. How to Use

1. Environment Requirements and Prerequisites: Requires the local installation of Agent tools such as Claude Code or OpenAI Codex. The Node.js runtime version must be no less than 18. For the operating system, Linux and macOS are recommended environments. Windows users can run the script via WSL to support the creation of symbolic links.

2. One-Click Installation: After cloning the GitHub repository, run ./scripts/install.sh in the project root directory. The script will automatically detect the type of Agent tool already installed on your machine and create the corresponding symbolic links, completing the Skill registration. No additional environment variable configuration or npm dependency installation is required during the installation process, and the entire process can be completed within a few minutes.

3. Initiate Adaptation Task: Enter a command in the Agent conversation, such as "run novel-outline with shuohao-skills," and provide the original novel text as input. The Agent will call the corresponding Skill to start generating the adaptation outline. Users can monitor the execution progress in real time through the conversation.

4. Execute the Five Skills in Sequence: Call the five Skills in order: novel-outline → novel-characters → novel-art → novel-script → novel-storyboard. The output from each step will automatically be used as the input for the next step, forming a pipeline-style processing flow without the need for manual data transfer between steps.

5. View Quality Inspection Report: After each step is completed, an independent validation script will generate an HTML-formatted quality report, including the pass/fail status of 4 to 17 inspection items. If issues such as excessively similar characters, duration overruns, or mismatched prompts are detected, they will be highlighted prominently in the report for easy identification and correction.

6. Export Production Package: Finally, export a production package from the storyboard Skill, which includes the MiniMax H3 prompt, reference images, and structured JSON data. This package can be directly connected to the TTS and video generation pipelines, eliminating the need for manual formatting and achieving seamless integration from creative concepts to production-ready data.

7. Best Practices Recommendations: It is recommended to proceed to the next step only after the quality report for the current step has passed, to avoid the accumulation of errors. For series production, previously generated character and art settings can be reused to ensure a consistent style across episodes, while script-based quality control can be used for unified validation of batch outputs.

4. Pros and Cons Analysis

5. Comparative Analysis with Similar Tools

Selection Recommendations: For technical teams and professional short drama studios that prioritize process control, shuohao-skills offers clear advantages with its engineered quality control and zero dependency design. It is especially suitable for scenarios requiring batch production of pre-production materials that are reproducible, and where quality checks are desired to be integrated into automated pipelines. Its open-source nature also facilitates secondary development and customization according to team-specific needs.

For content creators who want to quickly obtain finished videos without engaging in complex production workflows, end-to-end platforms like Open-AI-Micro-Drama-Generator are more appropriate. Simply submitting a theme or script is enough to generate a complete video. Cloud-based SaaS tools such as Zaoju and Immediate Video excel in usability, making them ideal for users without a technical background. However, they are relatively limited in terms of workflow control and customization depth.

6. Editor's Summary

shuohao-skills has carved out a differentiated technical path within AI short film production tools. Instead of opting for an end-to-end "one-click generate video" approach, it breaks down the pre-production phase into five standardized, independently executable, and automatically verifiable Skills, addressing the core pain point of uncontrollable quality in AI-generated content through engineering methods. The design of over 50 scripted validation steps that do not consume model quotas is relatively uncommon in similar tools, reflecting a dual consideration of cost efficiency and quality assurance, as well as the developers' deep understanding of the short film production process.

In terms of practical value, this project precisely targets the high-frequency, essential scenario of "pre-production material creation" in the industrialized production of short films. Whether it's adapting web literature IPs, mass-producing series of short films, or supporting individual projects by independent creators, the tool provides a standardized workflow. Its zero-dependency and offline deployment capabilities further reduce the adoption barrier, enabling teams to integrate the tool into existing pipelines at a low cost. It is particularly suitable for internal network production environments with data privacy requirements.

In terms of target users, short film professionals with some technical background, process managers in film and video content teams, and technical creators familiar with Agent tools will be the primary beneficiaries. For completely non-technical users, the learning curve is relatively steep, and it is recommended to wait for the community ecosystem to mature or for third-party packaged solutions to become available before adopting the tool.

In terms of growth potential, the project is currently in its early stages, but its "Skill set + scripted quality control" architecture leaves room for future expansion. As the demand for industrialized production tools in the short film industry continues to grow, and the Agent ecosystem gradually matures, tools that convert professional production processes into executable Skills are worth keeping an eye on.

7. Application Scenarios

• Web Novel IP Short Drama Adaptation: Automatically decompose popular web novels into complete pre-production packages that include satisfying pacing, character settings, and shot-by-shot scripts, allowing short drama teams to directly proceed with filming. The "satisfying pacing" analysis during the adaptation outline phase is particularly aligned with the content characteristics of short dramas—strong narrative and fast pacing—helping teams quickly assess the adaptation potential of an IP.

• Industrialized Production for Short Drama Studios: Establish a standardized pre-production pipeline to enable batch and reproducible output from scripts to storyboards. The pipeline design with five Skills supports parallel production of multi-episode series, and character and visual design assets generated in the pre-production phase can be reused across episodes, reducing costs and style drift risks in multi-episode production while enhancing team productivity.

• Personal Production for Independent Creators: A single individual can complete the entire process from novel to storyboard using Claude Code or Codex, producing pre-production materials of industrial quality without the need for professional screenwriters or storyboard artists. Script-based quality control helps compensate for the lack of professional experience in independent creators, making the production of short dramas feasible.

• Storyboard Previsualization for Advertising and Brand Storytelling: Quickly convert brand storytelling scripts into visual storyboards with reference images and shot descriptions, used for internal proposals, client communication, or pre-shoot visual confirmation. The scene style anchoring capability in the visual design phase helps intuitively present the visual direction during the proposal stage, reducing communication costs.

• Film Education and Script Analysis: Serve as an educational tool to demonstrate the complete breakdown process from literary text to audiovisual language, helping students understand the design logic behind character development, pacing control, and cinematography. The quality inspection report can be used as teaching feedback, visually showcasing common issues and correction methods in professional production, thereby improving teaching efficiency.

8. FAQ

Q: What runtime environment does shuohao-skills require?
A: It requires the installation of Agent tools such as Claude Code or OpenAI Codex on the local machine, with a Node.js runtime version no lower than 18. The tool itself has no npm dependencies and supports offline operation. Linux and macOS are recommended system environments, while Windows can be used via WSL.

Q: How do I install shuohao-skills?
A: After cloning the GitHub repository, run ./scripts/install.sh in the project root directory. The installation script will automatically detect the type of Agent tool on your local machine and create a symbolic link, eliminating the need for manual configuration of environment variables or installation of additional dependencies. The entire process can be completed within a few minutes.

Q: Must the five Skills be executed in strict order?
A: Yes. The pipeline consists of the following sequence: novel-outline → novel-characters → novel-art → novel-script → novel-storyboard. The output of one stage serves as the input for the next. Skipping steps may result in missing character or visual design information, which can negatively impact the final output quality.

Q: Can the output from shuohao-skills be directly used for video generation?
A: Yes. The scriptbook includes TTS voice prompt keywords, and the storyboard Skill's exported package contains MiniMax H3 prompts and reference images, which can be directly connected to TTS and video generation pipelines. However, the tool itself does not generate the final video output; users must configure downstream generation services separately.

Q: What are the advantages of shuohao-skills compared to end-to-end short film generation platforms?
A: The core advantage lies in its engineered quality control and process controllability. Over 50 independent validation scripts do not consume model credits and can automatically detect common issues such as duplicate characters or excessive duration. Each stage's output can be individually inspected and corrected, making it suitable for professional production scenarios requiring batch processing and reproducible results.

Q: Is Chinese novel adaptation supported?
A: Yes. The tool is specifically designed for Chinese short film production scenarios, with optimization across stages such as adaptation outlines, character settings, and scriptwriting for Chinese content. The voice prompt keywords and TTS pipeline integration are also compatible with Chinese speech synthesis, making it suitable for domestic short film market production needs.

Q: How can I view the quality inspection report?
A: After each stage is completed, the validation script automatically generates an HTML-formatted quality report containing the pass/fail status of 4 to 17 inspection items. You can view the report by opening the file in a browser, with problematic items highlighted for easy identification and correction.

9. Project Links

• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/eternityspring/shuohao-skills (The project is currently only available via GitHub and does not yet have a dedicated website or other official channels)