Guides

Playbooks

A playbook is how a kind of video gets made: what you bring, the steps, the tools it needs and the quality bar. Styles set the look; playbooks set the method. Browse them in the gallery, from product launch videos and how-to videos to animated timelines.

Use one

Name it when you ask your agent for a video, or type /framejam:playbook and choose it on the page your agent opens. Your agent uses its method as a set of defaults (anything you say wins), and every render comes back to you for review like any other project. Or copy the prompt from a playbook's page and replace “[Add more context here]” with what the video is about and your files:

Make a video with the FrameJam playbook "Clean Cut" (id: clean-cut). Call get_playbook("clean-cut") and follow it. My raw take is ~/Movies/raw-take.mov

Reading a playbook page

What you need lists everything in three groups. Included ships with the playbook. On your computer is free software it installs or uses, like ffmpeg. Your accounts are outside services, each marked free, free tier or paid. The badge on the card counts the paid ones you can't skip.
New project or any project. Some playbooks bring their own engine and start a new project, because the look comes from it. Others work in the project you already have, with the tool it already uses. FrameJam never converts a project to another tool.
Styles says in one sentence how a style combines with the playbook: it sets the whole look, only some parts (like the captions), is a starting point, or isn't used.

Make your own

A playbook is a folder: an agent skill (SKILL.md) plus a playbook.json for the gallery. Put it in ~/.framejam/playbooks and it shows up next to the built-in ones. If you already have a skill that makes a kind of video, that skill is most of a playbook.

Turn my video skill in ./skills/weekly-recap into a FrameJam playbook in ~/.framejam/playbooks/my-recap. Follow the format of the built-in playbooks.

~/.framejam/playbooks/my-recap/
  playbook.json   # what the gallery shows: bring, get, needs, steps, creator
  SKILL.md        # the method your agent follows, step by step
  references/     # optional: deeper notes the agent reads when it needs them
  scripts/        # optional: helpers the agent copies into the project
  template/       # optional: a starter project or engine
  poster.jpg      # the still shown in the gallery
  preview.mp4     # an example video made with this playbook

playbook.json

{
  "id": "my-recap",
  "name": "Weekly Recap",
  "tagline": "Your notes for the week in, a 45-second recap video out.",
  "description": "Two or three plain sentences: what the video is, who it's for, what makes it good.",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "creator": { "id": "your-handle", "name": "Your Name", "url": "https://x.com/you" },
  "license": "MIT",
  "bring": ["Your notes or a list of what happened"],
  "get": "A 45-second 9:16 video with captions",
  "format": "9:16",
  "project": "any",
  "needs": [
    { "name": "Hyperframes", "where": "computer" },
    { "name": "A voice", "where": "service", "cost": "paid", "examples": ["ElevenLabs"], "optional": true }
  ],
  "styles": "all",
  "steps": ["Turn the notes into a short script", "Build one scene per point", "Render and review in FrameJam"],
  "tags": ["recap", "shortform"],
  "skill": "SKILL.md"
}

project is new or any. format is 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 or any.
Each item in needs has a where: included, computer or service. Services need a cost (free, free tier or paid) and a few examples. Add "optional": true to anything it can do without.
styles is all, parts, inspiration or none. With parts, add stylesNote to finish the sentence "Your style sets the ...", for example captions and inserts.
featuredStyles (optional) lists styles made for this playbook, each with a style id, a note for the agent and ready settings (like a template's theme) that SKILL.md says where to put. Each one gets its own example video, in previews/<style id>/. Any other style still works as styles says.
examples (optional) lists more finished videos made with the playbook, each with an id, a short label and a note saying what's different about it. Its example video goes in previews/<id>/.
creator is you. Add inspiredBy with a name and link when someone else's video inspired it.
SKILL.md is the method. Write it for an agent: what goes in, what comes out, what to decide before starting, the numbered steps, and how to know it's good. Stop before anything that costs money, and review each render in FrameJam.

A playbook in your folder with the same id as a built-in one replaces it.

Submit a playbook

Put the folder in a public GitHub repo, with an example video made with it, and send the link in the FrameJam Discord or in a GitHub issue. Good ones get added to the gallery with your name on them.

How to edit videos with Claude walks through it step by step, with a video. More in Guides.