--- name: video-check description: Grade a recorded video against "the basics" and write a report card so videos improve week over week. Run during edit (after captions exist, before publish). Trigger, the creator says "check the video" / "run the checklist" / "video-check", or post-production reaches its final step. --- # Video check, the basics scorecard A **learnable-skills report card**, run at edit time. It does NOT relitigate the idea or chase algorithm/game-level strategy, the gate from the framework is: **under ~2,000 views/video, you stay in the basics.** That's us. So this grades execution of the basics only, and its main output is **what to fix next time.** Source of the criteria: a small-channel basics framework (under ~2,000 views per video you are still in the basics). The checklist below is the distilled contract. Non-negotiable framing: **ship daily > perfection.** This report never blocks a publish. It sorts findings into **fix-now** (cheap, no re-record, title length, thumbnail element count) vs **next-time** (needs a re-record or a habit change). Bias every recommendation toward the next video, not toward delaying this one. ## Inputs (read from `content/videos/NNN-slug/`) - The transcript: `final.srt` (preferred) or `recording-edit.txt`, this is the ground truth for what was said and the timing. - `brief.md`, the intended hook (verbatim), the ONE CTA, thumbnail concept, and whether the creator pre-declared **home vs search**. - `titles.md` / `description.md`, the chosen title + chapters. - `thumbnail/`, the 3 drafts. - The video file (`final.mp4`) only if a timing/pacing question needs a frame grab; otherwise the.srt timestamps are enough. If the creator hasn't declared home vs search for this video, infer it and say which you assumed, it changes half the checks. ## The scorecard, grade each ✅ / ⚠️ / ❌ with a one-line why 1. **Intro (first ~30 s), heaviest weight.** ~50% of viewers leave here. - Formula present? **concept → stakes ("because…" / "can I pull it off?") → optional ending preview.** One sentence can carry all three. - Starts *immediately*, no "hey guys, welcome back," no throat-clearing, no long channel preamble. - From the.srt: read the first ~30 s verbatim into the report and mark exactly where the actual content starts. 2. **Title** : - **< 50 characters** (YouTube truncates). Count and show the number. - **Specific over mysterious** ("My tractor broke, now it costs $500" beats "You won't believe…"). Curiosity-gap only earns its keep with an audience that already trusts us, we don't have that yet. - **Complements, never duplicates, the thumbnail**, title text and thumbnail text must not say the same words. - **Delivers**, every promise/claim in the title is actually paid off in the transcript (no undelivered clickbait). 3. **Thumbnail** (against `brand/thumbnails.md` + the framework): - **≤ 3 elements.** Fills tthey canvas (most views are phone-sized). Text is read *before* the title → it must not repeat the title. - **3 variants armed for YouTube's built-in A/B test** (our standing 3×3 rule), even with no statistical winner, A/B teaches 3× faster. 4. **Storytelling**, is there a spine or an info-dump? - Story = **intention + obstacle**; telling = narrating the collision. Look for a chain: problem #1 → what happened → "next…" → problem #2. Note if it's a flat list with no tension. 5. **Homepage vs search**, never merge the two intents. - **Search video** wins on 4 axes: **shorter · starts solving faster (no preamble) · easier to understand (≈3rd-grade language) · more complete than what currently ranks.** Grade against those four. - **Homepage video**: frictionless, **every jargon term explained in ≤5 s** with a plain analogy, **speed front-loaded** (if the video shows 10 things, ~5 in the first minute), **scene changes in the first 3 min** (different shots/screens, not the same frame cut fast). 6. **Jargon sweep**, scan the transcript for technical terms (systemd, Docker, LLM, MCP, quantization, DNS, etc.). List any used **without a ≤5-second plain-language analogy.** These are the exact lines that lose non-converted viewers. 7. **What to remove next time**, the biggest beginner problem is **repetition**, then dullness. - **Said-then-showed:** if the narration says "let me Google this" and the screen then shows the Googling, one of them is dead weight, flag it. - **Impact ∝ screen time:** low-impact moments getting long screen time = cut candidates. List the specific timestamps. - Keep struggle that moves the story; cut filler. 8. **Speak / audio** (from the transcript, footage only if needed): note obvious rushing (run-on delivery, no breaths), mumbled/unclear stretches, or dead air the edit missed. Mic distance/quality is a record-time fix, note it for `/record`, don't re-grade it every time. ## Output 1. **`content/videos/NNN-slug/review.md`**, the report card: - Header: video NNN, title (+char count), declared/assumed **home-or-search**, and whether it serves that intent. - The 8 items, each ✅/⚠️/❌ + one line. - **🔧 Fix now (cheap, before publish):** bullet list, or "none." - **⏭️ Next time (habit / re-record):** the top 3 highest-leverage changes, most impactful first. - **✅ Keep doing:** one thing that clearly worked (so we reinforce, not just correct). 2. **Append one row to `content/videos/REVIEW-LOG.md`** (create with the header if missing) so the trend is visible, this is how we answer "are the videos improving?": `| date | NNN | home/search | intro ✅? | title chars | top next-time fix |` Before writing the row, glance at the last 3-5 rows: if the **same next-time fix keeps recurring**, say so explicitly in `review.md` ("this is the 3rd video flagged for a slow intro") and, if it's a process gap, propose a one-line rule for the relevant skill (`/record`, `/post-production`, `/new-video`), that's how the checklist makes the videos actually improve, not just get graded. ## Relationship to other skills - Runs **inside/after `/post-production`** (post-production produces the assets; video-check grades them). Post-production's final step should invoke this. - **Not** `/retro`, retro is a 48-h-later post-mortem about the whole launch (packaging, metrics, publish friction) and proposes skill edits. video-check is same-day, execution-only, basics-only. - Keep it fast, this is a gate, not an essay. A report the creator can read in 60 seconds beats a thorough one he skips.