Kaleidoscope

A Claude Code skill that makes a narrated teaching video about a topic.

Every picture is 3D, in one clay look, with the same silent mascot in every video. One agent checks the script before the voice is made.

Sample frames of the adapted styles and the drawing library

_{Code draws every frame in all 29 styles, without a video model, and makes the music and the sound effects. The voice runs on your own computer, with or without a GPU.}

Open the gallery page

Pipeline

How a video is made: (a) plan and build, (b) review and render

What makes it different

A new style for each part	Characters that act	Checked before render

Each idea gets the style that explains it best, for example a newsreel for the history of an idea and Manim for a formula.	Objects can have faces and move like real objects. The tank rolls in, and a block drops and settles.	Claude reads contact sheets like this one. Then a fact checker, a first-time learner and four picture checkers review the video.

Try it

In Claude Code, in the conversation where the topic came up:

Make a video explaining how the EKF fuses wheel odometry and the IMU.

Make a video on I2C for the BNO085, and tell its history as a 1920s newsreel.

Styles

Kind	Styles
Maths and diagrams	`math-manim` `signal-graph` `pixel-grid` `single-line` `shape-morph` `whiteboard` `blueprint`
Characters and stories	`flat-vector` `line-boil` `paper-cutout` `pixel-art` `midcentury-toon` `watercolour` `risograph`
3D and space	`isometric` `iso-infographic` `toy-3d` `teardown` `desktop-flythrough` `transit-map`
Data and evidence	`data-story` `data-physical` `briefing-board` `telestrator` `swiss-type` `dark-keynote` `hud-terminal` `film-crt` `newsreel`

styles/README.md says which style fits which kind of idea.

Install

npx kaleidoscope-video

The setup checks your machine, asks 4 questions (folder, voice, Manim, script agent), shows the plan, and installs only what you choose. It works without a GPU: then the Kokoro voice speaks and the CPU draws the frames.

Later, in Claude Code, /setup-kaleidoscope changes the voice, the GPU or the temperature guard.

INSTALL.md has the manual setup.

How a video gets checked

The engine measures, and a reader looks. A long build starts only after both.

Step	Stops on
`make look` after each edit	a collision on any frame of a changed scene, text covered by a 3D thing, a loose hand, a walk that goes wrong, a sentence that says something moves when nothing moves
`make build`	a changed scene with no look, then any collision or scene error
`make final`	a source that changed after the look or the build, an open overlap, or movement strips that nobody read

Each image from a look has a CHECK digit, and the gates open only with the digits of all images, so a look
must read each one. reference/faults.md lists every fault that has happened and what
stops it now, and make selftest plants each one and confirms that the engine catches it.

Repo layout

Path	What it holds
`SKILL.md`	the workflow the agent follows, step by step
`bin/`, `package.json`	the setup that `npx kaleidoscope-video` runs
`setup/`	the `/setup-kaleidoscope` skill: voice, GPU and temperature guard
`SOUND.md`	the background music and the sound effects: rules, approved tracks and sounds, levels
`agents/`	the script agent; the install links it into `~/.claude/agents`
`engine/`	the self-test in `test/`, the command line `make.mjs`, the page runtime, fonts, the voice in `tts/`, the music in `music.mjs`, the sound effects in `sfx.mjs`, Manim in `manim/`, and the project template
`reference/`	the engine API, the script rules and the fault register
`styles/`	one guide per style, the clay kit and the shared drawing code in `styles/library/`, and the credits
`gallery/`	one sample project, with its pictures in `png/`, 30 s previews of the music tracks in `music/` and of the sound effects in `sfx/`

Credits

Kaleidoscope is under the MIT licence: see LICENSE.
We adapted 11 styles from Lemo-Opuscar by LemoLab and took details from it for 3 more.
Its MIT licence is in styles/LICENSE-opuscar.
explainroo times the words, Chatterbox speaks the narration,
and Manim Community draws the maths scenes. The fonts use the SIL Open Font License.