Speed is the whole game
News shorts win on recency. From 'cover the latest in X' to a rendered vertical explainer is one conversation — fast enough to post while the story is still being searched.
"Cover the latest in my niche" — and it's a video
No link required. Claude scouts the news in your niche, picks one specific fresh story (not a roundup), writes an original 30–60s explainer grounded in the article's facts, and renders it — while the story is still today's.
You type
Make a short about the biggest AI news today.
…and Claude drives the whole pipeline below on your machine.
Why this beats a blank script box
Grounded, not hallucinated
The script is written from a saved article's actual text, kept in the library as the render's source transcript — so the video's claims trace to the story, and the visuals match it.
An angle, not a roundup
The skill's instructions force one specific story over a listicle — the format that actually holds attention for 45 seconds — and Claude names its pick so you stay in control.
How Claude turns news into a short video
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Scout the news
scout_news sweeps Google News, Bing News and Hacker News for your niche, with query expansion for recall — no URL needed from you.
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Pick ONE strong angle
Claude chooses the freshest, most specific story and tells you which article it's building on and why — you can override before anything bills.
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Ground the script in the article
save_news_articles stores the article text as a transcript, and Claude writes an original hook-first 30–60s script from its facts — distilled, not read aloud. You tweak it in chat for free.
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Render while it's still news
generate_smart_video renders the script over story-matched visuals (transcript-aware scene retrieval), returning the file plus AI-drafted title, description and tags.
MCP tools it calls:
scout_newslist_scout_resultssave_news_articlesgenerate_smart_videowait_for_job 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.
FAQ
Frequently asked
Where does the news come from?
ViralMint's news scout searches Google News, Bing News and Hacker News for your query (with optional expanded queries and source filters), extracts each article's text and summary, and returns them as ranked results Claude can read.
What if I already have the article link?
Use the Article → Short skill instead — it skips the scouting and builds the video straight from your URL. News → Short is for 'the latest in X' when you don't have a link yet.
Can it do several stories at once?
Yes — pick multiple articles from the scout results and Claude renders one short per article, confirming the count and rough cost before starting the batch.
What does a news short cost?
Scouting and script-writing are free to iterate; a stock-footage render is the base case. Blending in AI images or AI video clips for a premium look bills per generation — Claude quotes it first.
Make {skill.name.toLowerCase()} 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.