How to make videos with Kiro

1. Keep the channel in one workspace: .kiro/settings/mcp.json with the cliptude entry, the three skills in .kiro/skills/, and a steering file with inclusion: fileMatch on videos/**/*.md that names your template and thumbnail reference video.
2. Ask Kiro to use /cliptude-script to research the topic and write the narration to videos/<episode>.md.
3. Add a File Save hook on videos/*.md with an agent action: "Call list_templates and estimate_credits for the saved script and report the credits." Kiro fires it whenever the agent saves or edits a script, so every draft comes with a price.
4. Add a Pre Tool Use hook with the matcher @cliptude/create_job and an agent action that reminds Kiro to show the full Cliptude review and wait for your confirmation. Then ask Kiro to make the video: create_job returns the review, you confirm, and Kiro sends it again with the review_token.
5. Kiro polls get_job until the video is ready. Before sharing it, ask for open_editor_project and view_scenes from the first scene to the last; fix any wrong shot with run_agent, then render_project.
6. For the next episode in Kiro CLI, kiro-cli chat --resume picks up the previous conversation in that folder, with the same steering, skills and server.

Source: Kiro docs: Hook types

Kiro supports Agent Skills: folders with a SKILL.md file. At startup it loads only each skill's name and description, and it activates a skill when your request matches that description. You can also type / and the skill name, such as /cliptude-script, to load it directly.

Workspace skills live in .kiro/skills/ and work in the IDE, CLI, Web and Mobile. Global skills live in ~/.kiro/skills/ and work in the IDE and CLI. If both have a skill with the same name, the workspace one wins.

The skills CLI has a kiro-cli target that writes to exactly these folders, so one command installs all three Cliptude skills. In the IDE you can instead open Agent Steering & Skills, click +, choose Import a skill, then GitHub, and paste a skill folder's URL: Kiro needs a subfolder, not the repository root, so import the three folders one by one.

Steering files are the always-on counterpart. Put channel rules (your template name, thumbnail reference, tone) in .kiro/steering/cliptude.md; set inclusion: fileMatch so they load only when Kiro works on your script files. Kiro powers bundle skills with an mcp.json; Cliptude does not publish a Kiro power, so use the skills plus the mcp.json entry above.

npx skills add cliptude/cliptude -a kiro-cli

https://github.com/cliptude/cliptude/tree/main/mcp_server/skills/cliptude
https://github.com/cliptude/cliptude/tree/main/mcp_server/skills/cliptude-script
https://github.com/cliptude/cliptude/tree/main/mcp_server/skills/cliptude-plan

Source: Kiro docs: Agent Skills

Both connect to the same Cliptude server and read SKILL.md skills. Kiro is the cheaper way to try it, with a free tier and a choice of models, and its hooks and per-project mcp.json suit a repo that holds a channel's scripts. Claude Code suits you if you already pay for Claude and want a video job to run on a schedule in the cloud with your computer off; Kiro's scheduled tasks are built around opening pull requests on a repository.

Source: Kiro pricing

Kiro Free is $0 a month with 50 credits, open-weight models and Claude Sonnet 4.5, with limits. Paid plans are Pro at $20 a month (1,000 credits), Pro+ at $40 (2,000), Pro Max at $100 (5,000) and Power at $200 (10,000). Paid plans can buy extra credits at $0.04 each, and monthly credits do not roll over. On your first upgrade from Free to Pro, the rest of that month is free and you get 500 trial credits to use within 12 months.

Kiro credits pay for the agent's work: reading, writing the narration, calling tools. The video itself is charged to your Cliptude credits, on a plan from $19; Cliptude has no free plan.

Source: Kiro pricing

Kiro is an AI-powered development environment. One agent runs across the Kiro IDE (built on Code OSS), Kiro CLI, Kiro Web and a mobile preview, with specs, steering files, hooks, skills, powers and MCP servers. You sign in with GitHub, Google, AWS Builder ID or AWS IAM Identity Center, and you do not need an AWS account.

Kiro IDE or Kiro CLI for Cliptude?

Either. Both read the same mcp.json and skills folders. The IDE shows the MCP panel and a Re-authenticate button; the CLI suits scripted runs such as kiro-cli chat --no-interactive.