Distills, doesn't dictate
It extracts the angle and writes a hook-first script — not a robotic read-through of the whole article. The output is built to retain viewers, not summarize.
Turn any article or URL into a short — automatically
Paste a link in chat. Claude reads the page, distills it into a tight short-form script with a real hook, and renders a finished vertical video — voiceover, captions and footage included. Perfect for turning blog posts, news and threads into daily content.
You type
Turn this into a 45-second short: https://example.com/blog/ai-trends-2026
…and Claude drives the whole pipeline below on your machine.
Why this beats a blank script box
Your content backlog, on tap
Every blog post, newsletter or thread you've written is now a short. Point Claude at your sitemap and batch a week of content from work you already did.
One chat message, finished mp4
No copy-pasting between a summarizer, a TTS tool and an editor. One link in, one ready-to-post video out, all local.
How Claude turns a link into a short
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Read and distill the source
Claude calls tool_url_to_short with your link. ViralMint fetches the page, strips the boilerplate and distills the substance into a short-form script with a hook — not a wall of text read aloud.
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Render with voice + captions
The pipeline generates a TTS voiceover, burns word-by-word captions, matches footage and mixes music — returning a job you wait on with wait_for_job.
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Collect the finished video
list_videos returns the mp4 plus AI-drafted title, description and tags. export_video gives you any aspect ratio you need.
MCP tools it calls:
tool_url_to_shortwait_for_joblist_videosexport_video Connect it in 4 steps
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Install ViralMint
Download the free, open-source desktop app (macOS / Windows / Linux) and open it. It bundles the whole pipeline — yt-dlp, Whisper, FFmpeg — and the MCP server.
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Open the in-app MCP page
It shows your loopback endpoint and a bearer token, with a ready-to-paste Claude Code command and a JSON config snippet for Cursor / Claude Desktop.
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Add the server to your agent
Paste the command. Your client loads ViralMint's tools, the built-in workflow recipes (this skill is one) and read-only resources like your balance and recent videos.
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Ask for the outcome
Type the prompt above. Claude runs the recipe end-to-end against the local app and hands you the finished mp4 — no clicking through the UI.
ViralMint skills vs typical agent video tools
| What matters | Typical paid agent tools | ViralMint |
|---|---|---|
| Agent tools / skills | Behind a paid tier | Free & open-source (AGPL) |
| Where it runs | Their cloud | Your machine (loopback MCP) |
| Your footage & data | Uploaded to their servers | Stays local — only AI calls leave |
| Pricing | Monthly subscription | Prepaid, pay-per-render at ~cost |
| Output watermark | On free tiers | Never |
| Script quality | Prompt → generic script | Grounded in real breakouts + your data |
highlighted column = clearer fit.
Frequently asked
What kinds of links work?
Blog posts, news articles, documentation, tweets/threads and most readable web pages. ViralMint fetches the page and works from the main text content.
Will it just read the article out loud?
No. It distills the source into a short-form script with a hook and a tight arc, the way a creator would adapt an article into a Reel — not a verbatim text-to-speech of the whole page.
Can I batch a whole blog into shorts?
Yes — give Claude a list of URLs (or your sitemap) and ask it to run them in sequence. Each one returns a separate finished video.
What does it cost?
Free app, prepaid per-render billing at roughly cost plus a small margin, no subscription. Claude estimates the cost before rendering.
Make article / url → short from a chat
Install the free ViralMint desktop app, connect it to Claude Code or Cursor, and run this skill — no subscription, no watermark, your footage never leaves your machine.