Summary

This project provides a unified meta-layer for programmatic video generation, transforming HTML, CSS, data, articles, or code into local MP4 videos. It targets developers and coding agents, simplifying video creation by abstracting rendering engines and offering a flexible, fee-free solution.

How It Works

html-video acts as an abstraction layer, enabling coding agents to select templates and generate videos. Its core innovation is a pluggable engine architecture with a single render(input, ctx) interface. The default Hyperframes engine uses headless Chromium and ffmpeg for local MP4 rendering. The pipeline fetches source material, agent-driven content-graph generation (storyboarding), per-frame HTML creation, and final video assembly, isolating engine-specific steps for future extensibility.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Installation: Requires Node.js. Install with pnpm install, build with pnpm -r build, launch studio via node packages/cli/dist/bin.js studio.
• Prerequisites: Auto-detects coding agents on PATH or uses Anthropic API key. Optional MiniMax API key for AI soundtrack.
• Links: Studio at http://127.0.0.1:3071. Discord and Open Design team website for community/details.

Highlighted Details

• Supports 13+ coding agents, with seamless switching.
• Local MP4 rendering via headless Chromium/ffmpeg; no cloud costs or per-render fees.
• 21 curated, license-clean templates (data viz, titles, promos).
• Optional AI soundtrack (music/narration via MiniMax) mixed into MP4.
• Transforms article URLs or GitHub repos into videos by fetching content server-side.
• Content-graph for multi-frame storyboarding.

Maintenance & Community

An official project by the Open Design team, it shares their agent meta-layer philosophy. Community access is via Discord. Roadmap includes integrating Remotion and Motion Canvas adapters.

Licensing & Compatibility

Licensed under Apache-2.0, permitting commercial use without fees or seat limits. Templates are explicitly license-clean, ensuring compatibility with commercial projects.

Limitations & Caveats

Only the Hyperframes rendering engine is fully implemented. Adapters for planned engines like Remotion and Motion Canvas/Revideo are under development.