youtube-thumbnail

YouTube Thumbnail Generate

One-shot thumbnail generation. Takes a concept (plus optional reference image and count), infers everything else, ships 3 variants and a manifest.

Inputs

Two things, ideally both in the user's first message:

1. Concept: what the thumbnail should show. A sentence or phrase. ("Claude Code Skills, why it changes everything for solo founders")
2. Reference image(s) (optional but recommended, may be multiple): a past thumbnail, a photo of Ben, a second subject, a style anchor, a real logo PNG, or any combination. Determines the mode AND all of them must be passed into the generation. Never silently drop a user-supplied reference; if they gave you one, it must end up in medias[]. If they gave you a LIST, read EVERY image in the list, then pass every relevant one (don't pre-select just one). Every reference image MUST be visually read with the Read tool before the prompt is built (see rule 2).

If the user mentions a reference image but does not provide a path or attachment, ASK for the path BEFORE doing anything else. Examples that require asking: "use my previous thumbnail as a ref" (which file?), "include the Anthropic logo" (where is the PNG?), "match this style" (which image?). Ask in one short line: "Got it, what's the file path for the reference image?" Do not guess, do not proceed, do not generate without seeing the path.

Optional third: variant count. Defaults to 3. Max 4.

If the concept is missing or genuinely unclear, ask ONE combined question:

"What should the thumbnail show, and how many variations do you want? (default 3)"

Do not split into multiple questions. Do not ask about mode, model, or palette; all of that is inferred or read from the style spec.

Identity Anchor (no Soul required)

Every new-with-ben thumbnail uses a reference photo of Ben as the identity anchor, passed as medias[0]. The photo lives at Projects/youtube/thumbnails/refs/ben_reference_{YYYY-QQ}.jpg.

If the user did NOT attach a photo of Ben and there is no ben_reference_*.jpg in refs/, ask once for a photo. Without it, new-with-ben cannot produce a faithful Ben rendering.