FeedReel

Local-first generator of one daily vertical short video from RSS feeds. FeedReel turns RSS feeds into a single 1080×1920 vertical video (YouTube Shorts / TikTok / Instagram Reels format), music only, with an auto "subscribe" outro — and a ready-to-paste title + description + hashtags you post manually.

Everything runs locally. The pipeline pulls your RSS feeds, deduplicates against past videos, and renders a fully code-generated video with Remotion. The editorial work (selecting items, writing the script/title/description) is done by the bundled agent skill (Claude Code, Codex, and compatible hosts).

Output	one output/<date>.mp4 (1080×1920 @ 30 fps, H.264/AAC) + output/<date>.txt
Rendering	Remotion (React/TSX), no external images
Audio	CC0 background music (SoundSafari/CC0-1.0-Music), fixed scene durations
Script & caption	written by the feedreel agent skill
Publishing	none — you post the MP4 manually using the generated caption

How it works

feedreel prepare  → fetch RSS + dedup (SQLite) → cache/items/<date>.json   (local, deterministic)
   ↓  (the "feedreel" skill reads the items and writes the script)
cache/scripts/<date>.json   { date, title, description, hashtags, segments[intro,item…] }
   ↓
feedreel render   → music + Remotion → output/<date>.mp4
                                     → output/<date>.txt  (title + description + hashtags + sources)
                                     + prints the caption to the terminal

The closing "subscribe" scene is appended automatically — you don't write it.

Requirements

• macOS / Apple Silicon.
• Node.js >= 20 and pnpm.
• ffmpeg / ffprobe on the PATH (music trim + mux).
• Claude Code, Codex, or another compatible agent host (to run the bundled skill).

Installation

pnpm setup

scripts/setup.sh is idempotent: it checks Node >= 20, installs dependencies, downloads the CC0 music tracks, vendors the OFL fonts, prepares the Remotion headless browser, creates the working directories, and creates config/feedreel.yaml from the example template if missing.

Configuration (private)

Your feeds live in config/feedreel.yaml, which is gitignored (your RSS feeds stay private). Start from the committed template:

cp config/feedreel.example.yaml config/feedreel.yaml   # then edit your feeds

The config describes a single video: format, language identity, editorial identity (label, emoji, accentColor, maxItems, subscribeText), the feeds list, the background music, and the scene durations (introSec / itemSec / outroSec).

Keep alternate feed sets in their own gitignored files and switch with FEEDREEL_CONFIG, e.g. FEEDREEL_CONFIG=config/feedreel.tech.yaml pnpm feedreel prepare.

Usage

Tell your agent "generate me the video" (or "génère moi la vidéo"). The feedreel skill drives the whole flow locally: prepare → write the script → render → report the MP4 and the copy-paste caption. Nothing leaves your machine except fetching the RSS feeds.

Under the hood it runs two commands (both accept --date YYYY-MM-DD, default today):

# 1) Fetch + dedup today's items → cache/items/<date>.json
pnpm feedreel prepare

# 2) The skill reads the items and writes cache/scripts/<date>.json

# 3) Build the video + caption → output/<date>.mp4 + output/<date>.txt
pnpm feedreel render

Deduplication is persisted in SQLite (feedreel.db): items are marked seen only after a successful render, so a second run on the same day won't repeat the same news, while re-running prepare before rendering is safe.

Configuration (environment variables)

All have defaults (see config/index.ts). Relative paths resolve from the project root.

Variable	Default	Role
FEEDREEL_CONFIG	config/feedreel.yaml	Active config file
FEEDREEL_OUTPUT_DIR	output	Rendered videos directory
FEEDREEL_CACHE_DIR	cache	items / scripts / audio cache
FEEDREEL_DB_PATH	feedreel.db	SQLite dedup database
FEEDREEL_MUSIC_TRACK	(config)	Override the background track
FEEDREEL_FPS / FEEDREEL_WIDTH / FEEDREEL_HEIGHT	30 / 1080 / 1920	Video format
FEEDREEL_FEED_TIMEOUT_MS	12000	Per-feed RSS timeout (ms)
FEEDREEL_LOG_FILE	—	If set, also logs to this file

Project layout

feedreel/
  config/        feedreel.yaml (private) · feedreel.example.yaml · schema.ts · load.ts · index.ts
  src/
    types.ts · log.ts · exec.ts · util.ts · cli.ts
    pipeline/    fetchRss · dedup · script · music · render · orchestrate
    remotion/    FeedReelVideo.tsx · scenes/{Intro,Item,Outro} · components/* · theme · fonts
  scripts/       setup.sh · vendor-*.mjs
  .claude/skills/feedreel/   canonical skill that drives generation
  .agents/skills/feedreel/   versioned Codex discovery link to the canonical skill

Licenses

Component	License
TypeScript, Node, tsx, vitest, rss-parser, better-sqlite3, zod, commander	MIT
ffmpeg / ffprobe	LGPL
Remotion	source-available (free for solo use; see Remotion's terms)
Fonts Unbounded, Hanken Grotesk, JetBrains Mono	SIL Open Font License (OFL)
Music	CC0 (SoundSafari/CC0-1.0-Music)

Manual skill invocation

These skills run when explicitly invoked: feedreel. Use $name in Codex or /name in Claude Code and OpenCode (with the plugin namespace when installed as a Claude plugin).

The skill bundle disables implicit selection in Codex and Claude Code. OpenCode V2 reads metadata.opencode/autoinvoke: "false". For OpenCode V1, merge these entries into permission.skill in ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json or the project configuration; retain unrelated permissions:

{
  "permission": {
    "skill": {
      "feedreel": "deny"
    }
  }
}

On OpenCode 1.18.30, these rules hide the skills from the agent and reject skill-tool loading, while explicit /name commands remain available. Installation with skills add does not apply this OpenCode V1 configuration.