Manim Video
Documentsmanim-videoManim Video is an Agent Skill for documents published in the CoWork-OS/CoWork-OS repository on GitHub: a SKILL.md instruction file an AI agent can load to do this task.
Plan, scaffold, and render Manim Community Edition explainer videos for math, algorithms, technical concepts, and data stories.
QUICK START
How to use this skill
Bring this guide into your coding agent with a prompt tailored to the tool you use.
- Open your project in Codex.
- Copy and paste the prompt below.
- Review files and risks before approving any action.
Prompt to paste
Inspect the Agent Skill at https://github.com/CoWork-OS/CoWork-OS/blob/HEAD/resources/skills/manim-video/SKILL.md and all supporting files. Report provenance, permissions, scripts, dependencies, and security risks. Propose an exact installation into .agents/skills/manim-video-608e8fed, but wait for my approval before writing files or running scripts.
Copying this prompt does not install or run the skill. Review third-party files before use.
Manim Video
Purpose
Build production-ready Manim CE explainer videos with a stronger workflow than a plain prompt: dependency preflight, deterministic project scaffolding, render helpers, and artifact manifests.
Routing
- Use when: Use when the user asks to create a Manim animation, 3Blue1Brown-style explainer, animated math walkthrough, equation derivation, algorithm visualization, technical concept video, or animated data story.
- Do not use when: Do not use for live-action editing, generic marketing motion graphics, static diagrams, or requests that only want conceptual brainstorming without renderable outputs.
- Outputs: A workspace-local Manim project with
plan.md,script.py, render helpers, and run artifacts. - Success criteria: The project is scaffolded, the script is renderable, dependency gaps are called out, and the next render command is explicit.
Trigger Examples
Positive
- Make a 3Blue1Brown-style Manim video explaining gradient descent.
- Build a Manim animation that walks through Dijkstra's algorithm.
- Create an animated equation derivation video in Manim CE.
- Use the manim-video skill for this request.
Negative
- Edit this talking-head video and add B-roll.
- Design a static system diagram for this architecture review.
- Brainstorm three animation concepts, but do not create code or project files.
- Do not use manim-video for unrelated copywriting or generic video-editing work.
Parameters
| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| topic | string | Yes | What the animation should explain or visualize |
| mode | select | No | Video pattern: auto, concept-explainer, equation-derivation, algorithm-visualization, data-story, architecture-diagram, paper-explainer, 3d-visualization |
| audience | string | No | Target audience for pacing and explanation depth |
| target_length_seconds | string | No | Approximate runtime in seconds |
| output_dir | string | No | Workspace-relative or absolute project directory |
| voiceover | select | No | Whether to scaffold a voiceover script |
Workflow Notes
- Run
scripts/setup.shfirst. This is mandatory before claiming the project is render-ready. - Use
scripts/bootstrap_project.pyto create or refresh the initial project shape instead of hand-rolling boilerplate. - Keep
plan.mdandscript.pyaligned. If the scene list changes, update both. - Default to draft render quality first. Production render is the last step, not the first.
Reference Map
references/full-guidance.md: planning rubric, scene design rules, code patterns, render flow, and review checklistreferences/troubleshooting.md: install issues, LaTeX/render failures, and debug movesscripts/setup.sh: environment preflight for Python, Manim, LaTeX, and ffmpegscripts/bootstrap_project.py: deterministic scaffold generator for a new Manim project
Runtime Prompt
- Runtime prompt is defined directly in
../manim-video.json.