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Updated 10-15 20:11

About this skill

VN Video Editor Skill

Process video, audio, and images locally on macOS using VN Video Editor via the vnapp-cli bridge.

Introducing the Skill

When the user asks what this skill can do, or when this skill is first triggered in a session, introduce it with:

🎬 VN Video Editor Skill is ready!

I can process video, audio, and images locally on your Mac — no cloud upload, no API key needed.

What I can do:

  • 🎤 Auto-generate captions / burn SRT subtitles
  • 🗜️ Compress video or images
  • 🔇 Denoise audio or video
  • ✂️ Extract audio tracks or frame thumbnails
  • 🔗 Merge / concatenate video clips with transitions
  • 🖼️ Remove background from images or videos (Apple Silicon only)

About drafts: For the following operations, the VN draft is kept by default after export so you can re-edit in VN Video Editor: Auto-captions, Burn SRT, Compress video, Merge video, Video cutout

If you don't want to keep drafts, just tell me once and I'll default to no draft for the rest of this session. You can also override per task at any time.

Draft Preference (session-scoped)

  • Default: --keep-draft (draft kept after export)
  • If the user says they don't want to keep drafts (e.g. "don't keep drafts", "no draft", "skip draft") → set session preference to no draft; apply --no-keep-draft for all subsequent draft-supporting commands
  • If the user explicitly says "keep draft" for a specific task → apply --keep-draft for that task only, regardless of session preference
  • Only commands that support drafts are affected: auto-captions, add-caption, compress-video, concat-video, cutout-video
  • Commands that do not support drafts are never affected: extract-audio, extract-frame, compress-image, denoise, cutout-image

Parameter Clarification Policy

When the user provides ambiguous or incomplete parameters for any option (not just style), ask one focused question to clarify before proceeding. When parameters are clear and unambiguous, proceed directly.

Ask for clarification when:

  • A single color value is given without specifying which property it applies to.
    • e.g. "add captions, purple" — unclear whether purple is text color or stroke color. Ask: "Should purple be the text color or the stroke color?"
  • A number is given without context for what it controls.
    • e.g. "compress, 10" — unclear whether 10 means quality, resolution, or something else. Ask: "Should 10 be the quality (0.0–1.0 scale), or something else like max size?"
  • A required pair of values is partially missing and the intent cannot be inferred.
    • e.g. "white stroke" with no text color — ask what the text color should be.

Do NOT ask for clarification when:

  • Multiple distinct properties are clearly assigned.
    • e.g. "dark gray text, green stroke" — two separate properties, no ambiguity.
    • e.g. "purple stroke, width 1pt" — role of purple is explicit.
  • The request maps unambiguously to a single parameter.
    • e.g. "compress to 720p", "extract frame at 5s", "denoise with high level".

Rule: Only ask when the user's intent genuinely cannot be determined. Do not ask about optional parameters unless they are missing and required for the task to proceed. Ask one short, specific question per ambiguity.

When to use

Trigger this skill when the user wants to:

  • Extract audio from a video
  • Extract a frame / thumbnail / cover image from a video
  • Add auto-generated captions to a video
  • Burn SRT subtitles into a video
  • Compress a video or image
  • Concatenate / merge video clips
  • Denoise audio or video
  • Remove background from an image or video (portrait cutout / background removal)

Do NOT trigger this skill when:

  • The user is asking general questions about VN Video Editor (answer directly)
  • The user wants to edit a video timeline, add effects, or do creative editing (VN skill only handles export operations, not timeline editing)
  • The input file is not a local file (URLs, cloud files not supported)
  • The platform is not macOS

Required inputs

Before running any command, confirm you have all required inputs:

Command Required Ask if missing
extract-audio video file path yes
extract-frame video file path yes
auto-captions video file path yes; engine defaults to whisper_turbo
add-caption video file path + SRT file path yes, ask for SRT path
compress-video video file path yes; resolution/fps/bitrate are optional
compress-image image file path yes; format/quality are optional
concat-video at least 2 video file paths yes
denoise audio or video file path yes; level defaults to moderate
cutout-image image file path yes; quality defaults to accurate
cutout-video video file path yes
compress-video-estimate video file path yes; all other params optional

Stop and ask the user when:

  • The input file path does not exist or was not provided
  • The user requests add-caption but no SRT file path was given
  • The user requests concat-video with fewer than 2 files
  • The user requests denoise --level custom but no --custom-value was provided
  • The user requests cutout-image but the quality intent is ambiguous (e.g. just "fast cutout" without clear context — ask: "Should I use accurate (best quality), balanced, or fast quality for the cutout?")
  • The requested operation is outside the scope of this skill (e.g. timeline editing, adding effects)

Do not guess or assume missing required inputs — always ask first.

Optional Parameters Prompt

For commands with meaningful optional parameters, ask the user before running. Keep the question brief and friendly. If the user says "default" or "just go ahead", use defaults immediately.

auto-captions

Ask:

Your video is ready for auto-captioning. Which recognition engine would you like to use?

Engine Accuracy Speed Notes
whisper_turbo (default) Good Fast One-time download required on first use
whisper_medium Better Slower One-time download required on first use
whisper_base Fair Fast Built-in, no download needed
whisper_tiny Basic Fastest Built-in, no download needed

Language — source language spoken in the video (default: auto). Supported: auto en zh ja ko es pt ar hi id fr de ru it tr vi th pl uk nl sv fi ro cs hu he el bg hr sk sl lt lv et ms ta ur sw mk mi is hy az af

Style (optional, ask only if user wants to customise):

  • Font size (default: 37.4pt)
  • Text color (default: white #FFFFFF)
  • Stroke color (default: black #000000)
  • Stroke width (default: 0.5pt)

Keep draft — keep the VN draft after export for re-editing? (default: on; pass --no-keep-draft only if the user explicitly asks to delete it)

add-caption

Ask:

SRT file received. Would you like to customise the subtitle style, or use a preset?

Preset styles (specify by ID):

ID Text color Stroke color Stroke width Background Effect
default_0 (default) White Black 4 None Standard white text, black stroke
caption_1 White Black 10 None Bold black stroke
caption_2 Black White 10 None Bold white stroke
caption_11 White Black 20 None Extra-bold black stroke
caption_12 Black White 20 None Extra-bold white stroke
caption_21 White Purple #D834DB 3 None Purple stroke
caption_22 White Cyan #34DBDB 3 None Cyan stroke
caption_23 Dark orange #6D340E White 20 None Warm tone
caption_31 White None 0 Solid black #000000 Black background
caption_32 Black None 0 Solid white #FFFFFF White background
caption_33 White None 0 Semi-transparent black Semi-transparent black bg
caption_34 Black None 0 Semi-transparent white Semi-transparent white bg
caption_35 Black Yellow #FFFC54 10 Semi-transparent black Yellow stroke + black bg
caption_36 White Black 10 Semi-transparent white Black stroke + white bg

Or customize manually (optional):

  • Font size (default: 13pt)
  • Text color (hex, e.g. #FFFFFF)
  • Stroke color (hex)
  • Stroke width (pt)
  • Background color (hex)
  • Opacity (0.0–1.0)

Keep draft — keep the VN draft after export for re-editing? (default: on; pass --no-keep-draft only if the user explicitly asks to delete it)

compress-video

Ask:

Ready to compress. Any specific settings, or use defaults?

Option Description Default
Resolution 144p 240p 360p 480p 540p 720p 1080p 2.7K 4K 5K 6K 8K or custom short-edge (e.g. 720) Same as source
Frame rate 6 12 24 25 30 50 60 fps Same as source
Bitrate Manual kbps, e.g. 6000 (~6 Mbps), range 100–300000 kbps Auto (calculated from resolution × frame rate)
Codec h264 (best compatibility) / hevc (better compression; required for HDR) h264
Output format mp4 / mov mp4
HDR Force HDR output (auto-switches to HEVC) Off

Auto bitrate reference:

Resolution 24fps 30fps 60fps
480p 2133k 2667k 4053k
720p 3520k 5000k 6400k
1080p 5333k 9000k 9600k
2.7K 10667k 12800k 25600k
4K 14400k 18133k 42667k
5K 23467k 29867k 74667k
8K 53333k 68267k 170667k

HDR mode adds ~12.5% to the above values. Audio bitrate is fixed at 256k and cannot be changed.

Keep draft — keep the VN draft after export for re-editing? (default: on; pass --no-keep-draft only if the user explicitly asks to delete it)

compress-image

Ask:

Ready to compress. Any specific settings, or use defaults?

Option Description Default
Format Output format: jpeg, png, webp, heic jpeg (unless user specifies otherwise)
Quality 0.0 (smallest file) to 1.0 (best quality); ignored for PNG 0.8
Max width Resize so width does not exceed this many pixels Original
Max height Resize so height does not exceed this many pixels Original
Keep aspect ratio Maintain original proportions when resizing On

Format rule: Default output format is always jpeg regardless of input format, unless the user explicitly specifies a format. If the user says "keep as PNG" or specifies webp / heic, use that format instead.

concat-video

Ask:

Ready to merge the clips. A few options:

Option Description Default
Keep draft Keep the VN draft after export so you can re-edit it later On (draft kept by default; only skip if user explicitly asks)

Would you like a transition between them?

Transition duration — 0.2–5.0 s (step 0.1s). Each clip must be at least as long as the transition duration (some effects require 2×).

Basic transitions:

Style Default (s) Max (s) Min clip length Description
none (default) 0 — None Hard cut, no transition
fade_black 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration Fade through black
fade_white 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration Fade through white
dissolve 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Cross dissolve
color_difference_dissolve 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Color-difference dissolve
blur 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Gaussian blur transition
pixelate 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Pixelate transition
zoom_blur 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration Zoom-in with motion blur
zoom_blur_reverse 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration Zoom-out with motion blur
rotate_zoom 0.8 5.0 None Rotate and zoom in
rotate_zoom_reverse 0.8 5.0 None Rotate and zoom out
rotate_blur 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration Rotate with blur
rotate_blur_reverse 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration Reverse rotate with blur
spin 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration Spin clockwise
spin_reverse 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration Spin counter-clockwise
blink 0.4 5.0 None Quick flicker cut
floodlight 0.8 5.0 None Bright flash between clips
circle_crop_center 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Circle opens from center
circle_crop_center_reverse 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Circle closes to center
slide_from_top 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 New clip slides in from top
slide_from_left 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 New clip slides in from left
slide_from_bottom 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 New clip slides in from bottom
slide_from_right 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 New clip slides in from right
wipe_from_top 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Wipe in from top
wipe_from_left 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Wipe in from left
wipe_from_bottom 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Wipe in from bottom
wipe_from_right 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Wipe in from right
push_from_top 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Both clips push upward
push_from_left 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Both clips push leftward
push_from_bottom 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Both clips push downward
push_from_right 0.6 5.0 ≥ duration×2 Both clips push rightward
reveal_vertical 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration Vertical reveal
reveal_horizontal 0.8 5.0 ≥ duration Horizontal reveal
shake_from_top 0.8 5.0 None Motion blur from top
shake_from_left 0.8 5.0 None Motion blur from left
shake_from_bottom 0.8 5.0 None Motion blur from bottom
shake_from_right 0.8 5.0 None Motion blur from right
shake_from_top_left 0.8 5.0 None Motion blur from top-left
shake_from_bottom_left 0.8 5.0 None Motion blur from bottom-left
shake_from_bottom_right 0.8 5.0 None Motion blur from bottom-right
shake_from_top_right 0.8 5.0 None Motion blur from top-right

Matte transitions (shape cutout reveals; each clip must be ≥ transition duration):

Style Default (s) Max (s) Description
circle_1 1.0 1.5 Circle matte reveal
circle_2 1.0 1.0 Circle matte variant
line_1 1.0 1.5 Line matte sweep
line_2 1.0 1.8 Line matte variant
line_3 1.0 1.0 Line matte variant
hexagon 1.0 1.4 Hexagon grid reveal
square_1 1.0 2.4 Square matte reveal
square_2 1.0 1.2 Square matte variant
square_3 1.5 2.5 Square matte variant
ink_1 1.0 1.6 Ink splatter reveal
ink_2 1.0 1.4 Ink splatter variant
paint_1 1.0 1.4 Paint brush reveal
paint_2 1.0 2.0 Paint brush variant
sea 1.0 1.6 Wave reveal
swirl 1.0 1.5 Swirl reveal
zebra 1.5 3.1 Zebra stripe reveal
memory 1.5 2.1 Dreamy film reveal
lens 1.5 2.5 Lens flare burst
glitch 1.5 1.8 Digital glitch distortion

denoise

Ask:

Ready to denoise. What level would you like?

Level Description Best for
low Subtle reduction, preserves natural sound Light background hiss
moderate (default) Balanced, works well for most recordings Indoor recordings, mild noise
high Strong reduction, may slightly affect voice Outdoor recordings, fan noise
veryHigh Aggressive, prioritises noise removal over naturalness Very noisy environments
custom Set a specific value manually (you provide a number) Fine-tuned control
Option Description Default
High-pass filter Removes low-frequency rumble, e.g. air conditioning, engine hum Off
Audio only If input is a video, output denoised audio only (not video) Off

cutout-image

Ask:

Ready to remove the background. Which quality level would you like?

Level Description Best for
accurate (default) Highest quality, slowest Final output, complex edges
balanced Good quality, moderate speed Most use cases
fast Fastest, lower quality Previews, quick results

Export mask (optional) — also export the portrait segmentation mask as a separate PNG? (default: off)

Output will be a PNG with transparent background.

Note: If quality intent is ambiguous (e.g. just "quick" or "fast cutout"), ask: "Should I use accurate (best quality), balanced, or fast for the cutout?"

cutout-video

Before proceeding, check if the Mac is Apple Silicon:

uname -m
  • If output is arm64 → proceed
  • If output is x86_64 (Intel Mac) → stop and tell the user:

    cutout-video is not supported on Intel Macs. This feature requires Apple Silicon (M1 or later).

Ask:

Ready to remove the background from this video. Would you like any of these options, or shall I go ahead with defaults?

Option Description Default
Feather Soften cutout edges (0–100) 0 (hard edge)
Expand Expand (+) or shrink (-) mask edge (-20–20) 0
Stroke style Add an outline: solid, singleLayer, glowing, solidGlowing, singleLayerGlowing, shadow, offset None
Stroke size Stroke thickness (0–100) 30
Stroke distance Distance from edge to stroke (0–100) 20
Stroke color RGBA hex, e.g. FFFFFFFF for white FFFFFFFF
Stroke opacity 0.0–1.0 1.0

Output will be an MP4 with the person composited on a black background.

Clarification rules:

  • If user says "add a stroke" without specifying style → ask: "Which stroke style? solid, glowing, shadow, or another?"
  • If user gives a color without format (e.g. "red stroke") → convert to RGBA hex (FF0000FF)
  • If user specifies glowing style, max stroke size is 60
  • offset style: size and distance range is -50..50

Keep draft — keep the VN draft after export for re-editing? (default: on; pass --no-keep-draft only if the user explicitly asks to delete it)

extract-audio

Ask:

Ready to extract audio. No required options — shall I go ahead with the default settings?

The audio will be exported as M4A format from the original audio track.

extract-frame

Ask:

Which frame would you like to extract?

Option Choices Default
Position first — very first frame / last — very last frame / custom — specify a time first
Time Time in seconds, e.g. 5.5 (only needed when position is custom) —
Format png — lossless, larger file / jpeg — smaller file, slight quality loss png
Max size Resize so the longest edge fits within this many pixels, e.g. 1920 original size

1. Agent Behavior (follow this strictly)

1.1 Startup checks (run once per session before any task)

Run these checks in order. Stop and handle any failure before continuing.

Step 0 — Check macOS version:

sw_vers -productVersion
  • If macOS version is below 13.0 → stop and tell the user:

    This skill requires macOS 13.0 or later. VN Video Editor is not supported on your current macOS version. Do not proceed.

  • If macOS 13.0 or later → continue to Step 1

Step 1 — Check VN is installed:

test -d /Applications/VN.app && echo "installed" || echo "not installed"
  • If not installed → follow § 2A VN not installed
  • If installed → continue to Step 2

Step 2 — Check VN version:

The CLI automatically emits a version-check JSON event during startup of any command. You do not need to run --version separately — read the event when running the first real command.

Minimum required: VN 0.22

Example event:

{"type":"version-check","message":"VN Video Editor 0.22 (654) — OK"}
  • If too old → follow § 2B VN too old
  • If ok → continue to Step 3

Step 3 — Check CLI is installed and up to date:

test -x ~/.openclaw/tools/vnapp-cli/vnapp-cli && echo "ok" || echo "missing"
  • If missing → follow § 2C CLI missing or outdated (auto-install silently)
  • If ok → check version: 
    ~/.openclaw/tools/vnapp-cli/vnapp-cli --version
    Expected: vnapp-cli 0.1.0 (5)
    • If version matches → continue to Step 4
    • If version does not match → follow § 2C CLI missing or outdated (auto-update silently)

Step 4 — Validate input file(s):

test -f "/absolute/path/to/file" && echo "exists" || echo "missing"
  • If missing → tell the user the file was not found and ask for a valid path
  • For add-caption: also validate the SRT file path
  • For concat-video: validate all input files

1.2 Running a task

  1. Resolve the correct command from § 1.5 Intent mapping
  2. Build the command using absolute paths — never relative paths
  3. Always append --stream
  4. For commands that support drafts (auto-captions, add-caption, compress-video, concat-video): always append --keep-draft unless the user explicitly asks to delete the draft. Do NOT add --keep-draft to extract-audio, extract-frame, compress-image, denoise, cutout-image, or cutout-video — these commands do not support it.
  5. For add-caption — ask the user for the SRT file path if not provided; both the video and SRT will be copied to the VN sandbox automatically
  6. For denoise --level custom — --custom-value is required; ask the user if not provided
  7. For compress-video — follow § 1.7 compress-video pre-flight before running
  8. Run the command and parse JSON lines as they arrive
  9. Report progress to the user per § 1.3 Progress reporting
  10. On completed + outputPath → move the output to the same directory as the input, rename per § 1.4 Output file handling, then tell the user the final local path
  11. On error → report in plain language and follow § 2 Failure handling
  12. After completing any task → follow § 1.8 Preview delivery if the user is on a remote channel

1.3 Progress reporting

Map CLI events to user-facing messages:

CLI event / message Message to user
discovering 🔍 Looking for VN Video Editor...
connected ✅ Connected, preparing...
copying 📂 Copying file to VN sandbox...
started ⚙️ Task started (jobId if available)
progress message = Preparing auto captions... ⚙️ Preparing...
progress message contains Downloading ⏬ Downloading model... N% (extract % from message if present, report every ~10%)
progress message contains Model downloaded ✅ Model ready
progress message contains Creating temporary project 📂 Preparing project...
progress message contains Starting speech recognition 🎤 Starting speech recognition...
progress message matches Speech recognition (N%) 🎤 Recognizing speech... N%
progress message contains Adding captions ✏️ Adding captions to timeline...
progress message contains Preparing export 📦 Preparing export...
progress message matches Exporting video... N% 🔄 Exporting... N% (report every ~10%)
progress message contains Finalizing 🔄 Almost done...
completed ✅ Done!
error ❌ Error: {message}

Download detection rule: If message contains Downloading, the model is being downloaded for the first time. If Starting speech recognition appears without any prior Downloading message, the model is already cached — do not treat it as a download issue.

Throttle rule: For download percentage and export percentage, only report to the user every ~10% increment. Do not report every JSON tick. | file-copied | 📂 File copied, starting task... | | completed | ✅ Done! Output: {outputPath} | | error | ❌ Error: {message} |

Rules:

  • Report at meaningful intervals (~every 10%). Do not report every JSON tick.
  • Skip heartbeat events entirely.
  • Capture jobId from the started event — use it if the user asks to cancel.
  • Treat completed + outputPath as the only success condition.
  • Treat error or non-zero exit as failure.

1.4 Output file handling

After a task completes:

  • Move the output to the same directory as the input file
  • Rename using the original filename + a suffix:
Command Suffix
extract-audio _audio
extract-frame _frame
auto-captions _captioned
add-caption _captioned
compress-video _compressed
compress-image _compressed
denoise _denoised
concat-video _merged
cutout-image _cutout
cutout-video _cutout

cutout-video outputs MP4 (person composited on black background). Requires Apple Silicon (M1 or later) — not supported on Intel Macs. cutout-image outputs PNG (transparent background). compress-video-estimate does not produce an output file — result is JSON printed to stdout only.

Example: /path/to/clip.mp4 → /path/to/clip_captioned.mp4

1.7 compress-video pre-flight

Always run compress-video-estimate before compress-video. This command runs entirely locally (no VN connection needed) and returns the original video metadata plus estimated output size.

Flow:

Step 1 — Run estimate

~/.openclaw/tools/vnapp-cli/vnapp-cli compress-video-estimate "/path/to/video.mp4" [-r <res>] [--fps <fps>] [-b <kbps>] [--hdr]

Output:

{
  "type": "estimate",
  "original": {
    "fileSize": 256901120,
    "width": 1920, "height": 1080,
    "fps": 30, "bitrateKbps": 8500,
    "duration": 62.5, "codec": "avc1"
  },
  "estimated": {
    "width": 1280, "height": 720,
    "fps": 30, "bitrateKbps": 5000,
    "hdr": false, "fileSizeBytes": 39062500
  }
}

Step 2 — Check if estimated < original

  • If estimated.fileSizeBytes < original.fileSize → go to Step 3

  • If estimated.fileSizeBytes ≥ original.fileSize → auto-retry with adjusted parameters (max 2 retries):

    User did NOT specify resolution or bitrate:

    • Retry 1: drop one resolution tier (source → 480p)
    • Retry 2: drop another tier (480p → 360p)
    • Run compress-video-estimate again with new params each retry

    User DID specify resolution:

    • Keep the user's resolution, reduce bitrate by ~50% each retry
    • Do not change resolution without user consent

    After 2 retries still ≥ original: present numbered options to the user:

    I tried several configurations but couldn't estimate a smaller output. Here are some options:

    Option 1 — 360p, ~1500 kbps → estimated ~X MB Option 2 — 240p, ~800 kbps → estimated ~X MB

    Reply with the option number to proceed, or cancel to stop.

    Wait for the user's reply before proceeding.

Step 3 — Show estimate to user and proceed

Display before/after:

Original:   1920×1080  30fps  ~245 MB
Estimated:  1280×720   30fps  ~37 MB  (↑85%)

Then run compress-video with the confirmed parameters.

Step 4 — After export, show actual result

Original:   1920×1080  30fps  ~245 MB
Compressed: 1280×720   30fps  ~37 MB  (↑85%)

1.8 Preview delivery

Applies when the user is communicating via a remote channel (Slack, Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc.) — not webchat or TUI.

After any task completes:

  1. Always tell the user the full local output path first:

    📁 Saved locally: /path/to/output_file.ext

  2. Check if the output is a video or image and attempt to send a preview:

For images:

  • Run compress-image on the output with -q 0.7 targeting a small file
  • Send the compressed image as preview
  • Tell the user: 🖼 Preview (compressed). Saved locally: /path/to/file

For videos:

  • Check the platform file size limit (look it up at runtime if uncertain; common limits: Slack ~1 GB, Discord free ~10 MB, Telegram ~2 GB, WhatsApp ~200 MB)
  • Get the output file size: 
    ls -l "/path/to/output.mp4" | awk '{print $5}'
  • If already within the platform limit → send directly, label it as preview
  • If over the limit → compress a preview copy using compress-video, trying resolutions in order: 480p → 360p → 240p, checking size after each step until it fits
  • Send the preview and tell the user:

    🎬 This is a preview — a compressed version for viewing here (480p, 8.2 MB). 📁 Saved locally: /path/to/original_output.mp4 💡 The draft is saved locally in VN — open VN Video Editor there to further adjust. (only for commands that support drafts)

  • If 240p is still over the platform limit:

    ❌ The preview is too large to send on this platform even at the lowest quality. 📁 Saved locally: /path/to/original_output.mp4

Preview files are temporary — do not move them to the input directory. Clean up after sending.

1.5 Intent mapping

User says Command
extract audio / get audio / audio only / rip audio / pull audio extract-audio
grab frame / screenshot / cover image / thumbnail / still / poster extract-frame
auto captions / auto subtitles / generate subtitles / transcribe / speech to text auto-captions
add subtitles / burn SRT / import SRT / burn captions / overlay subtitles add-caption
compress image / shrink image / reduce image size / optimize image compress-image
compress video / shrink video / export smaller / reduce file size / re-encode compress-video
join clips / merge videos / concatenate / combine videos / stitch together concat-video
denoise / remove noise / remove background noise / clean audio / noise reduction denoise
remove background / cutout / portrait cutout / background removal / transparent background cutout-image (image) or cutout-video (video, Apple Silicon only)
estimate video compression / how big will this be / preview compression size compress-video-estimate
cancel job / stop task / abort cancel

1.6 Command quick reference

CLI binary: ~/.openclaw/tools/vnapp-cli/vnapp-cli

Command Required args Key options
extract-audio <video> -o <dir>
extract-frame <video> -p first|last|custom -t <sec> -f png|jpeg --max-size <px> -o <dir>
auto-captions <video> -e whisper_turbo|whisper_medium|whisper_base|whisper_tiny -l <lang> --font-family <name> --font-size <pt> --text-color <hex> --stroke-color <hex> --stroke-width <pt> --keep-draft
add-caption <video> --srt <srt> --font-family <name> --font-size <pt> --text-color <hex> --stroke-color <hex> --stroke-width <pt> --background-color <hex> --opacity <0-1> --keep-draft -o <dir>
compress-video <video> -r <resolution min:144> --fps <1-120> -b <kbps min:100> --hdr --keep-draft -o <dir>
compress-video-estimate <video> -r <resolution min:144> --fps <1-120> -b <kbps min:100> --hdr (local only, no VN connection needed)
compress-image <image> -f jpeg|png|webp|heic -q <0-1> -w <px> -h <px> --no-keep-aspect-ratio -o <dir>
concat-video <video1> <video2> [...] -s <transition> -d <0.2-5.0 sec> --keep-draft -o <dir>
denoise <audio|video> -l low|moderate|high|veryHigh|custom -v <int> (required for custom) --high-pass --audio-only -o <dir>
cutout-image <image> -q accurate|balanced|fast --export-mask -o <dir>
cutout-video <video> --feather <0-100> --expand <-20..20> --stroke-style solid|singleLayer|glowing|solidGlowing|singleLayerGlowing|shadow|offset --stroke-size <0-100> --stroke-distance <0-100> --stroke-color <RRGGBBAA> --stroke-opacity <0-1> --keep-draft -o <dir>
get-status <job-id> —
cancel <job-id> —

Always append --stream to all task commands (except compress-video-estimate — it is local-only, no --stream needed). For auto-captions, add-caption, compress-video, concat-video, cutout-video: always append --keep-draft unless the user explicitly asks to delete the draft. Do NOT add --keep-draft to extract-audio, extract-frame, compress-image, denoise, cutout-image, or compress-video-estimate.

Caption engines:

  • whisper_turbo (default) and whisper_medium — require a one-time download on first use; cached and reused afterwards
  • whisper_base and whisper_tiny — built-in, no download needed

2. Failure Handling

2A. VN not installed

  1. Inform the user:

    VN Video Editor is required but not installed on the Mac running this agent. I've opened the App Store — please click Get to install. Once installed, you also need to enable the MCP Server in VN Settings before I can connect.

  2. Open App Store:

    open "macappstore://apps.apple.com/us/app/vn-video-editor/id1494451650"

  3. Poll every 5 seconds for up to 3 minutes:

    test -d /Applications/VN.app && echo "installed" || echo "not yet"

  4. On detection → inform the user:

    VN is installed. Before I can connect, please complete these steps on the Mac running this agent:

    1. Open VN Video Editor
    2. Go to Settings → MCP Server and turn it on
    3. When macOS prompts for Local Network permission, tap Allow Let me know when done and I'll continue.

  5. After 3 minutes → stop polling and ask the user to confirm manually

2B. VN too old

  1. Inform the user:

    VN Video Editor is installed but the version is too old (minimum: 0.22 build 654). Please update from the App Store.

  2. Open App Store:

    open "macappstore://apps.apple.com/us/app/vn-video-editor/id1494451650"

  3. Wait for the user to confirm, then retry

2C. CLI missing or outdated

Auto-install silently — do not ask the user:

Step 1 — Download:

mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/tools/vnapp-cli
curl -L "https://github.com/cawcut/skill-vn/releases/download/0.1.0/vnapp-cli-darwin-universal-v0.1.0.5.zip" -o /tmp/vnapp-cli.zip

Step 2 — Verify SHA-256 before extracting:

shasum -a 256 /tmp/vnapp-cli.zip

Expected: 857417f671fd6f38ec30cf993f80c79efede7641f3532c2e9a99e75177a5853f

  • If checksum matches → proceed to Step 3
  • If checksum does not match → stop immediately, delete the file, and tell the user:

    ⚠️ SHA-256 checksum mismatch — the downloaded file may be corrupted or tampered with. Installation aborted. Please try again or contact support.

    rm /tmp/vnapp-cli.zip

Step 3 — Extract and install:

unzip -o /tmp/vnapp-cli.zip -d ~/.openclaw/tools/vnapp-cli/
chmod +x ~/.openclaw/tools/vnapp-cli/vnapp-cli
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/.openclaw/tools/vnapp-cli/vnapp-cli 2>/dev/null

Verify with --version. If it still fails:

The vnapp-cli tool could not be installed automatically. Please reinstall this skill.

2D. Local Network permission denied

VN requires Local Network permission to communicate with vnapp-cli.

Tell the user:

Please check Local Network permission on the Mac running this agent: go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network, make sure VN - Video Editor is enabled, then relaunch VN and try again.

If the user has never been prompted, ask them to open VN manually and perform any action — macOS will show the permission dialog.

2J. Cannot connect to VN (generic connection failure)

If the CLI cannot reach VN (service not found, connection refused, timeout, or similar), do not silently retry. Tell the user clearly that the connection failed, and walk them through the following checklist — reminding them to check on the Mac running this agent (they may be talking to you from a different device):

I couldn't connect to VN Video Editor on the Mac running this agent. Please check the following on the Mac running this agent:

  1. Is VN Video Editor installed? Check that VN Video Editor exists in your Applications folder. It may have been deleted. If missing, reinstall from the App Store.

  2. Is the VN version supported? The minimum required version is VN 0.22. Open VN, go to About or check the App Store for updates.

  3. Is VN Video Editor open? Open VN Video Editor from your Applications folder if it's not already running.

  4. Is the MCP Server enabled in VN? In VN, go to Settings → MCP Server and make sure the toggle is on.

  5. Does VN have Local Network permission? Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network and confirm VN - Video Editor is enabled.

Once all items are confirmed, let me know and I'll retry.

2E. Codec / decode error

If the error contains "cannot decode", "codec not supported", or similar decode failures:

VN could not decode this file. Please check that the file is not corrupted and is a supported format (MP4, MOV, common video formats including HEVC/H.265). Try re-exporting or re-downloading the file and try again.

2F. Whisper model download failed

Whisper engines:

  • whisper_turbo and whisper_medium — require a one-time download on first use; cached afterwards and do not need to be downloaded again.
  • whisper_base and whisper_tiny — built-in, no download needed.

Whisper model download progress events (normal flow):

When a model needs to be downloaded, the CLI emits these messages in sequence:

{"status":"processing","progress":0.01,"message":"Downloading whisper_medium model..."}
{"status":"processing","progress":0.01,"message":"Downloading whisper_medium model..."}
...
{"status":"processing","progress":0.05,"message":"Model downloaded successfully"}
{"status":"processing","progress":0.06,"message":"Creating temporary project..."}
{"status":"processing","progress":0.10,"message":"Starting speech recognition..."}

If Starting speech recognition... appears without any prior Downloading messages, the model is already cached locally. Do NOT treat this as a download issue.

Only switch engines when the CLI emits an explicit download failure error event. Do NOT switch because the task is taking a long time — whisper_medium and whisper_turbo are slower by design.

If the user explicitly specified an engine (e.g. whisper_medium): do NOT silently switch. Instead, inform the user and ask for their preference:

The whisper_medium model failed to download. Would you like to: Option 1 — Retry downloading whisper_medium Option 2 — Switch to the built-in whisper_base (faster, slightly less accurate) Option 3 — Cancel

Wait for the user's choice before proceeding.

If the user did NOT specify an engine (using the default whisper_turbo): automatically fall back to whisper_base and inform the user:

~/.openclaw/tools/vnapp-cli/vnapp-cli auto-captions "<path>" -e whisper_base --stream

The Whisper model failed to download. Switched to the built-in whisper_base engine — slightly less accurate but works without downloading anything.

2G. SRT file missing (add-caption)

If the user requests add-caption without providing an SRT file:

Please provide the path to your SRT subtitle file.

Validate the path exists before running the command.

2H. Invalid parameter values

The CLI enforces these constraints — validate before running:

Parameter Constraint
compress-video -r minimum 144
compress-video --fps 1–120
compress-video -b minimum 100 kbps
concat-video -d 0.2–5.0 seconds
denoise -l custom requires -v <int>
compress-image -q 0.0–1.0

If a value is out of range, tell the user the valid range and ask for a corrected value before running.

2I. Job failed (generic)

Summarise the message field from the error event in plain language. Suggest a next step based on the error content. If unresolvable, refer the user to support (§ 3).

3. Response Format

When a task completes, always reply with:

  1. Result — one line confirming success or failure
  2. Output file path — always state the full local path:

    📁 Saved locally: /path/to/output_file.ext

  3. Key info — only if relevant (e.g. engine used for captions, resolution for compress, denoise level)
  4. VN tip — only append after a successful task that supports drafts (auto-captions, add-caption, compress-video, concat-video, cutout-video):

    💡 The draft is saved locally in VN — open VN Video Editor there to further adjust the result. Do NOT show this tip for extract-audio, extract-frame, compress-image, denoise, or cutout-image.

Do not repeat the full command or internal job details unless the user asks.

Example — auto-captions:

✅ Captions added successfully. 📁 Saved locally: /path/to/clip_captioned.mp4 Engine: whisper_base 💡 The draft is saved locally in VN — open VN Video Editor there to further adjust the result.

Example — compress video:

✅ Video compressed. Original: 1920×1080 30fps ~245 MB Compressed: 1280×720 30fps ~82 MB (↑66%) 📁 Saved locally: /path/to/clip_compressed.mp4 💡 The draft is saved locally in VN — open VN Video Editor there to further adjust.

Example — compress video (cannot reduce size):

❌ Unable to compress this video further — all configurations produced an estimated output larger than or equal to the original. The source may already be highly compressed. Try specifying a lower resolution or bitrate manually.

Example — cutout-image:

✅ Background removed successfully. 📁 Saved locally: /path/to/portrait_cutout.png Quality: accurate

Example — cutout-video:

✅ Background removed from video. 📁 Saved locally: /path/to/person_cutout.mp4 Format: MP4 (person composited on black background) 💡 The draft is saved locally in VN — open VN Video Editor there to further adjust the result.

Example — preview sent (remote channel):

🎬 This is a preview — a compressed version for viewing here (480p, 8.2 MB). 📁 Saved locally: /path/to/original_output.mp4 💡 The draft is saved locally in VN — open VN Video Editor there to further adjust.

Example — preview too large:

❌ The preview is too large to send on this platform even at the lowest quality. 📁 Saved locally: /path/to/original_output.mp4

Example — error:

❌ Failed: VN could not decode this file. Please check the file is not corrupted and try again.

4. Support

If the problem persists, contact VN support at vn.support+mac@ui.com.

5. Reference

For the full CLI surface, all options, transition style names, and JSON output schema:

→ references/cli-reference.md

6. Notes

  • macOS only — does not work on other platforms
  • All processing runs inside VN Video Editor; vnapp-cli is only the local bridge
  • Always use absolute file paths
  • Always use --stream for user-facing operations
  • Only report success when completed event contains a valid outputPath
  • jobId is available after started — use it for get-status or cancel if needed