HOW TO — 5 / 6
If you already have your own AI agent, AKARI Video becomes “a video factory that grows inside your usual agent”. There is no special API. The only integration is files, so the brain can be Claude Code, Codex, opencode or Cursor Agent.
1 — The idea
edit.json. The app is a lens on top of itAll of the edit's state lives in edit.json at the project root (plus captions.json for captions and review.json for annotations). The app, the renderer and the agents all do the same thing: read and write these files.
2 — Three entry points
In the desktop app's AI partner area you can run Claude Code and Codex. You can also choose opencode, Cursor Agent, Muse Code CLI (Meta) and others. From Settings you can update a CLI agent to its latest version.
Adds it straight to your own Claude Code session. Once installed, /akari is available.
akari in the terminal
Type akari in a project folder and it opens the project and starts your AI agent (creating the project automatically if there isn't one).
claude plugin marketplace add AkariLabs/akari-video
claude plugin install akari@akariThe marketplace fetches the whole public repository, so the first run takes a little while. To update, run claude plugin update akari@akari. Once it's in, type /akari in a session (it checks where you are and suggests the next step), or just say “I want to start a new video project”.
| Agent | How to call it |
|---|---|
| Claude Code | /akari, or say “I want to start a new video project” |
| Codex | When you open an AKARI Video project, it discovers skills automatically from .agents/skills/ and .codex/skills/. You say the same thing |
| opencode | Say “I want to start a new video project” (the create-project skill kicks in) |
| Cursor Agent | When you open the project in Cursor, it discovers skills automatically from .cursor/skills/ and elsewhere. You say the same thing (there is no Cursor-specific /akari) |
The public repository has an AGENTS.md and a CLAUDE.md for agents. An agent that opens the repository reads these first and proceeds from there.
3 — Main CLI commands
npm i -g akari-video (or the installer on the Install page) gives you the akari command. Run akari --help to see all of it.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| akari new <dir> [--scaffold] | Creates an empty project. In v1.5.0 this is --template (from the next release it's --scaffold; the old name stays as an alias) |
| akari new <dir> --from <playbook> | Starts a new video from the playbook of a finished video |
| akari status / akari doctor | Checks the connection state and diagnoses required parts |
| akari playbook list | apply | Lists playbooks, or applies one to a project already in progress |
| akari template export | list | Exports a bundle to the shelf as a “template”, or lists them. In v1.5.0 this is akari playbook template (from the next release it's akari template export; the old name stays as an alias) |
| akari project sync | check | scene add | Syncs and checks the project's manifest, and adds a scene |
| akari recipe list | plan | Shows the procedures for tools and the candidates for connections |
| akari captions … | Everything around captions (for example, captions migrate-look pins the caption look) |
| akari store connect | Links your Lab account (so free assets and ones you've obtained become usable) |
| akari tools install whisper | voice | Prepares the transcription model and the voice engine for speaker separation |
| akari clean | Lists and deletes disposable intermediate files (list only by default) |
| akari update | Checks for updates |
4 — The skills
The workflow is split into 28 skills. You don't have to think about them, because the right skill kicks in from what you say, but you can also call one explicitly. What each skill handles, when it triggers and which outside tools it connects are all in the skill catalog (a one-page map on GitHub).
| Stage | Skills |
|---|---|
| Entry | akari |
| Planning | research-plan |
| Setup | create-project・setup-library・setup-audio-library・declare-audio・setup-remote・setup-chat-approval・connect・manage-connections |
| Analysis | analyze-footage・analyze-project |
| Edit planning | edit-plan |
| Expression and generation | overlay-authoring・generate-narration・generate-media・beat-sync-edit・bake-3d・design-world・critique-cut |
| QA and review | edit-lint・compile-review-session・address-review |
| Export | render-cut・export-nle |
| Making assets, recording playbooks | harvest-asset・record-playbook |
| Development | verify (for contributors) |
5 — To other editors
BETAImport into real editing software hasn't been verified yet. The output follows the format specifications, but if it won't load in your environment, please tell us on Issues.
This is a one-way export for people who want to finish the AI's edit in the editor they're used to (changes made after export don't come back into AKARI Video):
dropped[] of export-report.json (nothing is silently lost)Source of truth for the spec: the export-nle contract (GitHub)
6 — Going deeper
The edit.json schema, the project structure, how the preview and export match, and the rules for the asset library: the source of truth for the design is all in the GitHub docs/. Hand your agent “read this contract” and it becomes the foundation for extending or automating things.