citedy-video-shorts

Generate viral UGC shorts for your own social channels.

Turn a topic, product angle, or campaign idea into a finished vertical talking-head short with script, avatar, rendering, subtitles, and optional publishing.

This package is built to feel like a producer, not a raw API manual.

What It Does

citedy-video-shorts helps an agent turn requests like:

• "Create a 10-second UGC short about our product"
• "Use my usual founder avatar and make 3 variants"
• "Generate a Reel for this feature"
• "Make a YouTube Short and publish it"

into a working production flow:

1. generate a short script
2. generate or reuse an avatar
3. render the video
4. apply subtitles
5. optionally publish to Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts

Why It's Different

Most video tools stop at "generate a clip".

citedy-video-shorts is built for agent workflows:

• MCP-first orchestration when available
• REST fallback for older setups
• reusable brand and avatar memory
• anti-repetition memory through lightweight run history
• built on Citedy's production shorts pipeline

Install

Claude Code, Codex, Droid, Antigravity, Cursor, OpenClaw, and more

npx @smithery/cli@latest skill add citedy/shorts

Codex / local agent setup

git clone https://github.com/citedy/shorts.git ~/.agents/skills/citedy-video-shorts

Get Your Agent API Key

This skill uses a Citedy Agent API key that looks like:

citedy_agent_...

Set it as:

export CITEDY_API_KEY=citedy_agent_your_key_here

Option A - Dashboard

1. Sign in at citedy.com
2. Open Settings -> Team & API
3. Create or copy your Agent API key
4. Export it as CITEDY_API_KEY

Option B - Register via API

curl -sS -X POST "https://www.citedy.com/api/agent/register" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"agent_name":"My Agent"}'

Then:

1. open the returned approval_url
2. approve the agent
3. copy the issued citedy_agent_... key
4. export it as CITEDY_API_KEY

Sanity Check

curl -sS "https://www.citedy.com/api/agent/health" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CITEDY_API_KEY"

Pricing

Step	Credits	USD
Script generation	1	$0.01
Avatar generation	3	$0.03
Video generation (5s)	60	$0.60
Video generation (10s)	130	$1.30
Video generation (15s)	185	$1.85
Merge + subtitles	5	$0.05
Publish to Instagram Reels	0	$0.00
Publish to YouTube Shorts	0	$0.00

Current end-to-end totals:

Output	Credits	USD
Full 10s short	139	$1.39
Full 15s short	194	$1.94

Notes:

• Publishing is currently free for both Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.
• Instagram publishing is temporarily set to 0 credits and may change later.
• 1 credit = $0.01 USD

Top up at citedy.com/dashboard/billing.

Quick Start

Tell the agent the outcome you want, not the pipeline steps.

Examples:

• "Create a 10-second UGC short about our AI SEO agent"
• "Use my founder avatar and make 3 short variants"
• "Generate a short and publish it to Instagram"
• "Make a YouTube Short from this angle"

If auth is already configured, the skill should proceed directly.

If auth is missing, use the Agent API key flow above.

Execution Model

Preferred Path

Use Citedy MCP tools when available:

• shorts.script
• shorts.avatar
• shorts.generate
• shorts.get
• shorts.merge
• shorts.publish

Fallback Path

If MCP is unavailable, the skill still works through Citedy's REST API.

That keeps older agent setups and direct API-oriented workflows working.

Persistent Memory

The package includes lightweight operational memory:

• state/UGC-BRAND.md
• state/UGC-AVATAR.md
• state/ugc-video-log.jsonl

These files help the skill:

• keep brand tone stable
• reuse the right avatar identity
• avoid repeating the same hook/avatar combination too often

Defaults

Unless the user says otherwise, the package assumes:

• duration: 10
• style: hook
• language: en
• aspect ratio: 9:16
• resolution: 480p
• publish: false

Package Contents

citedy-video-shorts/
├── SKILL.md
├── README.md
├── references/
│   ├── avatar-selection.md
│   ├── orchestration-rules.md
│   ├── prompt-styles.md
│   ├── publishing-playbooks.md
│   ├── transport-selection.md
│   └── troubleshooting.md
├── state/
│   ├── UGC-BRAND.md
│   ├── UGC-AVATAR.md
│   └── ugc-video-log.jsonl
└── scripts/
    └── self-test.sh

Publishing Requirements

Publishing requires connected social accounts.

Connect accounts in your Citedy dashboard before using publish flows:

• Instagram Reels
• YouTube Shorts

If no accounts are connected, the skill can still generate videos and return downloadable assets.

Validation

Run the package self-check:

bash scripts/self-test.sh

Compatibility

This package intentionally preserves the existing public surface:

• same skill name: citedy-video-shorts
• same production backend contracts
• same ability to run through direct REST if needed

What changed is the packaging and orchestration quality.

Notes

This public package is intentionally self-contained.

It should not depend on private local skills, workstation-specific paths, or internal-only documentation links.