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.
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

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