Screen Idle Video Cutter

Purpose

Use this skill to cut long static sections from screen recordings without spending tokens on video inspection. Prefer the bundled local script over manually reading screenshots or sampling video frames into the conversation.

Default policy:

• detect static screen regions locally with ffmpeg, Pillow, and numpy
• treat 15 seconds of low visual change as idle
• keep 5 seconds before and after every removed static section
• preserve dynamic or uncertain footage
• produce both an auditable report and an edited video

When To Use

Use this skill when the user wants to:

• remove long no-action pauses from a screen recording
• shrink tutorial, coding, meeting, or workflow videos
• create a cut list before final video editing
• avoid high-token visual review of long videos

Do not use it for cinematic footage, scene-change editing, highlight detection, audio-based silence removal, or content-aware storytelling cuts.

Default Workflow

1. Confirm the input path and output path if they are not obvious.
2. For important source videos, run a dry run first:

python3 scripts/screen_idle_cutter.py input.mp4 --output output.mp4 --dry-run --report report.json --segments segments.txt

1. Review the report at a high level: detected static spans, removed spans, kept spans, and saved duration.
2. Render the edited video:

python3 scripts/screen_idle_cutter.py input.mp4 --output output.mp4 --report report.json --segments segments.txt

1. If the result is too aggressive, rerun with a larger --min-static-seconds, lower --sample-fps, or higher --diff-threshold. If it misses obvious pauses, lower --diff-threshold or --min-static-seconds.

Core Command

python3 scripts/screen_idle_cutter.py input.mp4 --output output.mp4

Useful options:

--min-static-seconds 15
--guard-seconds 5
--sample-fps 1
--diff-threshold auto
--dry-run
--report report.json
--segments segments.txt

Token-Saving Rules

• Do not load the full video into context.
• Do not extract representative screenshots unless diagnosing a failed detection.
• Prefer the JSON report and segment list as the review surface.
• Keep first replies short: state the detected plan, command, and expected artifacts.
• Ask for confirmation only when overwrite behavior, paths, or cut aggressiveness are unclear.

Safety Rules

• Default to conservative cutting.
• Never remove a static span unless the removable interior remains positive after both guard windows are applied.
• Preserve all dynamic, uncertain, very short, or boundary-problem sections.
• Use --dry-run for irreplaceable videos before rendering.
• Do not delete or overwrite source videos.

Output Contract

The script should create:

• edited video at --output unless --dry-run is set
• JSON report at --report when requested
• ffmpeg concat segment file at --segments when requested

The report includes parameters, source duration, detected static spans, removed spans, kept spans, and estimated saved duration.