# Guide · Reelcrew URL: https://reelcrew.io/guide Reelcrew is a film crew for Claude Code and Codex: you say what video you need, the agent directs, and Reelcrew does the handiwork on your own computer. ## Getting started 1. **Install Reelcrew.** On a Mac or Linux, in Terminal: `curl -fsSL https://reelcrew.io/install.sh | sh`. Linux: Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04 and Debian 12, 13 (a desktop, a server or WSL2, as a user or root); Fedora, RHEL, Rocky and Alma 8 and 9 and Amazon Linux 2023 work once you run the `dnf` commands `reelcrew doctor` prints; Alpine and glibc older than 2.28 cannot install it. On Windows, in PowerShell: `irm https://reelcrew.io/install.ps1 | iex`. Or ask Claude Code or Codex to install it for you. 2. **Answer a few setup questions.** Choose a voice, an image service, music. You can skip any of them and come back to them at any time. 3. **Restart Claude Code or Codex** so it picks up the new skills. 4. **Say what video you need.** For example: “Make a video explaining why the sky is blue”. The agent picks the right skill and works all the way to the MP4 file. Forgot a command? Type `/reelcrew` in Claude Code or `$reelcrew` in Codex, or just ask: “What videos can Reelcrew make?”, “What is my computer missing?”. The agent reads the Reelcrew guide and does it for you. ## Choosing a kind of video Each kind of video is a skill. You do not need to name the skill: describe the video and the agent chooses. The sample requests below give you the idea. ### News photo short Starter, Pro plan A 40–55 second vertical news video in photo-bulletin style for Reels, TikTok and Shorts: press photos, a fixed headline, karaoke captions, a news-reader voice. - “Make a vertical breaking-news video about … (paste the article link)” - “Build a 45-second photo bulletin about …, watermark @mychannel” ### Cinematic explainer short Starter, Pro plan A clip of about 30 seconds explaining a science fact, with cinematic illustrations and effects timed to each word. - “Make a 30-second clip on why you cannot fold a sheet of paper more than 7 times” - “A vertical clip on how lightning forms” ### Motion FX kit Starter, Pro plan Motion effects for talking videos: text cards, text behind the speaker, glitch, split screen. - “Add text cards and text behind the speaker to this video (file path)” - “Make a glitch opening for the clip …” ### Animated lesson video Starter, Pro plan Turns a lecture or a talk into a 3–4 minute hand-drawn animated video, with captions and a thumbnail. - “Turn this YouTube video into an animated lesson in English: (link)” - “Make a video on why the sky is blue, with captions” ### Paper walkthrough video Starter, Pro plan Walks through a scientific paper (PDF, arXiv) section by section, 3–5 minutes, charts appearing with the narration. - “Make a video explaining this paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762” - “Sum up this PDF in a 4-minute video” ### Paper explainer, 3Blue1Brown style Starter, Pro plan Explains a scientific paper in the 3Blue1Brown style: black background, maths formulas, drawings that build with the narration around one backbone formula, 4–6 minutes. - “Make a 3b1b-style video on this paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762” - “Explain this PDF in the Manim style” ### Engraved plate video Starter, Pro plan A 2.5–3 minute film on philosophy, history or an idea, in an editorial engraving style: sepia engravings with camera moves, portrait cards, stamps, red underlines, karaoke captions. - “Make an engraving-style video on Plato's allegory of the cave” - “Build an engraved film on Schrödinger's cat” ### Vox collage video Pro plan A paper-collage documentary (like Vox): halftone photos, torn paper labels, red string, stamps, from 40 seconds to a few minutes. - “Make a paper-collage video on the history of the Rosetta Stone” - “Build a Vox-style video from this article (link)” ### Archival documentary video Pro plan An 8–10 minute documentary on history or technology: licensed photos, old newspaper pages, date cards, explanatory graphics. - “Make a documentary on how the first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid” - “An 8-minute report on the history of the iPhone” ### Property location video Pro plan A vertical property video: project photos, then a real map with the routes to schools, markets and the metro, with minutes. - “Make a location video for the apartment at … (address), with these 5 photos” - “A video of an apartment next to … metro station: how many minutes on foot” ### Isometric factory video Pro plan A 16:9 video of about 70 seconds explaining a system or a process as an isometric drawing: a 6-station conveyor moving on the beat, a routing table, stacked results, two acts before and after. Music only by default; a voice can be added. - “Make an isometric factory video explaining an AI agent system that routes tickets” - “Build a decision-factory video for a loan approval process, before and after automation” ### Niche explainer short Pro plan A 60–90 second vertical video explaining a topic in a niche (travel, law, trading, English, history, office tips, AI for business, personal finance, cooking…): a mascot guide, a widget of the niche (cost table, route map, price candles, legal text…), voice and captions or music only. - “Make a short explainer: what 48 hours in Paris costs” - “Make an easy video on the new … rule for online sellers” ### Beat motion video Pro plan A motion-graphics video cut on the beat, the punchline landing on the drop, words appearing as they are spoken, karaoke captions: 10 styles (a product launch as a keynote, comic or pencil sketchbook; one concept on a diagram; an idea in morphing white dots; a science paradox; farm produce from a shop’s photos; a website launch; a product demo from a screen recording; a personal showreel from a website, music only), vertical, landscape or square. - “Make a keynote-style launch video for the new feature from this changelog” - “Make a produce video from the shop's photos and clips” - “Make a showreel of me from my website” ### Meme loop video Pro plan A square animated meme looping for about 8 seconds: one AI background image, a stick figure with a drawn cartoon face (running, waving, sleeping), flying money, z letters, a slow push-in, a title, looping music and your watermark; no AI video generation. - “Make a stick-figure meme about the race between food delivery apps” - “Redo this meme with my own character (link)” ### Mascot 3D video Pro plan A brand's 3D mascot, rebuilt in code from the customer's pictures or loaded from their GLB file: a character sheet to approve, a 16:9 or 9:16 promo with a voice, 3D UI cards and the logo locking on the music's drop, two mascots chatting at a sidewalk tea table, and a seamless landing-page hero loop with a sample page. - “Make a 3D mascot video for my brand from these pictures” - “Two mascots chatting over iced tea, vertical 9:16” - “A hero video with our mascot for the landing page” ### English listening video Pro plan A 15–80 second vertical English listening video for Vietnamese learners from one short lesson: a story read line by line in English and Vietnamese with a box following each word, a passage with its vocabulary tinted and glossed, or a guess-the-word quiz (the Vietnamese meaning read, a countdown, the answer with its IPA). Free Kokoro (English) and VieNeu (Vietnamese) voices on your machine. - “Make an A2 English listening video telling a story about a day at the market, 10 lines” - “Make a guess-the-word video on kitchen words, 5 words” ### Whiteboard drawing video Pro plan A 16:9 or 9:16 whiteboard drawing video from an SRT, a voice file or a script: each 25–35 second scene is one line drawing on paper, a hand draws it region by region in the order of the story and then colours it, with the voice, a music bed, a pencil sound and optional subtitles; you approve each step before the next. - “Make a whiteboard drawing video from this subtitle file” - “Turn this script into a vertical hand-drawn explainer” ### Machine explainer video Pro plan Explains a technical idea with a real machine drawn in isometric (many small precise parts, four-tone shading, a card with a live readout, optional WebGL and 3D), as a narrated video (Vietnamese or English, karaoke captions, mechanical sounds, −14 LUFS) or a music-only one, 16:9 or 9:16, plus the interactive HTML page and A4 or Letter PDF sheets; searches the community gallery first and credits what it reuses. - “Explain how this works as an isometric machine, as a narrated video” - “Make an interactive machine figure for my blog post and print an A4 poster” ### Talking-head highlight short Pro plan Cuts a long talk (podcast, livestream) into a highlight video under 5 minutes, filler words removed, a vertical frame that follows the face; also a paper-collage style (the speaker as a sticker, words popping with the speech) and faceless videos from a script. - “Cut this podcast video into a 3-minute vertical highlight” - “Make a 60-second short from the livestream (file)” - “Make a collage video of the speaker on paper from this clip” - “Make a faceless collage video from this script” ## Setting up the crew Each job uses one service. Nothing costs money unless you choose it: paid services use your own key and you pay them directly. Run `reelcrew setup` to be asked step by step, or ask the agent. - **Voice**: ElevenLabs: the most natural, paid. Gemini: paid per character. OpenRouter: one key for the voices of several makers and for images, paid per character. VieNeu (free, on your computer) speaks Vietnamese only. · elevenlabs.io · aistudio.google.com/apikey · openrouter.ai - **Transcription (speech to text)**: ElevenLabs: the same key as the voice, with the time of every word. Soniox: paid by the minute, also with the time of every word. · elevenlabs.io · console.soniox.com - **Images**: Codex: uses your ChatGPT plan through the Codex CLI, no key. Gemini: paid per image. OpenRouter: the same key as the voice, many image models, paid per image. · aistudio.google.com/apikey · openrouter.ai - **Music and sound effects**: ElevenLabs: made from a description, paid. Sound effects also come with a free sample library. · elevenlabs.io - **Cut-outs, motion**: HyperFrames: free, one download. ElevenLabs: have an account? [Get a key here](https://elevenlabs.io/app/settings/api-keys). New to ElevenLabs? [Sign up](https://try.elevenlabs.io/kpc6dkx6s5mg). **Never paste a key into the chat.** Enter it in a Terminal (Mac or Linux) or PowerShell (Windows) window: `reelcrew keys set elevenlabs`; what you type stays hidden. Keys are stored only on your computer. ## Making and changing a video Each video lives in a project folder: script, voice, music, images and the MP4 file. To change anything, tell the agent: 1. “Change line 3 to …”, “line 5 mispronounces a name”, “switch to a female voice”: the agent edits the script and records just those lines again. 2. “Happier music”, “drop the sound effect at 12 seconds”: the agent redoes the music or the mix, without rebuilding the whole video. 3. “Export a lighter file to send on WhatsApp”, “louder for YouTube”, “make another thumbnail”: the agent exports again from the same project. For a change that applies to **every later video** (your channel colours, your own end card), ask the agent to use `reelcrew skill edit`: your version is kept apart and survives Reelcrew updates. ## Account and computers Reelcrew runs on a computer signed in to an account with the Starter or Pro plan: sign in once with `reelcrew login` (confirm in the browser) and the plan's skills download by themselves. Each account works on 1 computer, Mac or Windows. Each computer slot can change to another computer 3 times in 30 days. Signing in again or a new key (Rotate) on the same computer, and the Cloud Agent's machine, do not count as a change. To change computers: run `reelcrew license deactivate` on the old one, or free it on [your account page](https://reelcrew.io/account), then sign in on the new one. Reelcrew updates itself in the background and uses the new version from the next run. To update now: `reelcrew update`. A new version misbehaves: `reelcrew update --rollback`. ## Removing Reelcrew No sign-in is needed to remove it. Ask the agent, or run it yourself in Terminal (Mac or Linux) or PowerShell (Windows): 1. `reelcrew self uninstall`: shows what will be removed (the program, the Reelcrew skills in Claude Code and Codex, the Reelcrew Studio plugin in Claude). Add `--yes` to remove; add `--all` to delete your API keys, sign-in, library and plans too. Skills you saved yourself are kept, unless you use `--all`. 2. Restart Claude Code, Claude Desktop or Codex. 3. On an old version where that command asks you to sign in: run `reelcrew update` first (no sign-in needed), then remove it again. To use it on another computer instead of removing it: first run `reelcrew license deactivate` to free this computer's place. When the `reelcrew` command no longer runs, remove it by hand: - **Mac: the program and its data**: `rm -rf ~/.reelcrew` - **Mac: the PATH line**: `delete the line with .reelcrew/bin in ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bash_profile)` - **Linux: the program and its data**: `rm -rf ~/.reelcrew` - **Linux: the PATH lines and links**: `delete the line with .reelcrew/bin (and the # reelcrew line above it) in ~/.profile (or ~/.bash_profile), ~/.bashrc, ~/.zprofile and ~/.zshrc; delete ~/.local/bin/reelcrew and ~/.local/bin/rc when they point to ~/.reelcrew/bin/reelcrew` - **Windows: the program and its data**: `Remove-Item -Recurse -Force $env:USERPROFILE\.reelcrew` - **Windows: PATH**: `remove %USERPROFILE%\.reelcrew\bin from the user Path variable (Settings › Environment Variables)` - **Reelcrew skills in Claude Code and Codex**: `delete the reelcrew-* and reelcrew folders in ~/.claude/skills (Claude Code) and ~/.agents/skills (Codex)` - **The Reelcrew Studio plugin**: `claude plugin uninstall reelcrew@reelcrew-local, then claude plugin marketplace remove reelcrew-local` ## When something goes wrong - **reelcrew doctor shows ✗ on a line**: That line gives the command that adds what is missing. Or run reelcrew setup to be asked step by step. - **A key is refused, or there is none**: Run reelcrew keys set in Terminal/PowerShell and paste the key again. reelcrew keys test checks every key. - **The skills do not show in Claude Code or Codex**: Restart the agent (Claude Code or Codex). Still missing: run reelcrew setup, then restart it once more. - **A paid skill says there is no licence**: reelcrew whoami shows whether this computer is signed in to the right account; then reelcrew license sync. - **The computer cannot find the reelcrew command**: Open a new Terminal/PowerShell window after installing. Still not working: run the install command again. - **A new version has a bug**: reelcrew update --rollback goes back to the previous version at once. - **An error you do not understand**: Paste the whole error message to the agent: every Reelcrew error has a code and a hint for the fix. ## Everyday commands You rarely type commands: the agent runs them for you. The commands below run in Terminal (Mac or Linux) or PowerShell (Windows); `rc` is the short name of `reelcrew`. - **`reelcrew setup`**: Gets the computer ready: installs the skills, downloads the tools, asks you to choose voice, images, music - **`reelcrew doctor`**: Checks what the computer is missing - **`reelcrew keys set `**: Enters an API key (typed hidden): elevenlabs, soniox, gemini, openrouter… - **`reelcrew login`**: Signs this computer in to your account; the plans you bought download by themselves - **`reelcrew whoami`**: Which account this computer is signed in to, with which plans - **`reelcrew ls`**: The skills on this computer - **`reelcrew check