SKILL.md
Veo Video Generation
Generate video with Google Veo via the Gemini API, with cinematography control and synchronized audio.
Not the default video-generation route — a plain "generate a video of X" goes to Gemini Omni Flash. Come here for Veo's own controls.
export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-api-key"
SCRIPT="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/veo/scripts/generate_video.py"
uv run "$SCRIPT" "A neon hologram of a cat driving at top speed"
uv run "$SCRIPT" "Slow dolly shot, cinematic lighting" --image photo.jpgThe path goes through CLAUDEPLUGINROOT because this runs with the user's project as the working directory, not this one. A bare relative path does not resolve.
The script declares its own dependency inline (PEP 723), so uv run resolves it; there is no install step.
--help is the list of model variants, durations, and resolutions the script accepts. It is generated from the code, so it is current in a way this page cannot be — read it before choosing flags, and do not take a variant name from prose anywhere.
The script covers text-to-video and image-to-video, and nothing else. Video extension, first/last-frame transitions, and ingredients-to-video take more inputs than a CLI comfortably carries; timestamp prompting takes no parameter at all. None of the four are commands — they are code and prompt text to adapt in place, in [references/api-examples.md](references/api-examples.md) and [references/prompting-guide.md](references/prompting-guide.md).
Variant, duration, resolution — read the model table, not this page
Three things about a Veo generation are decided together, and all three move with each Veo release. No figures are given here on purpose; what follows is what to look up and where.
The variants are not one model at several prices. They differ in which inputs they accept, so a workflow needing a source video or reference images can be unavailable on a cheaper rung whatever its price per second. Check the accepted inputs before designing around a variant, not after.
Duration and resolution are not independent. The higher resolutions are offered at a restricted set of clip lengths, so shortening a clip can force the resolution down in the same command. The script rejects an invalid pair locally, naming both flags, instead of letting the request go out and come back rejected — so the error message, not this page, is where the current rule reaches you.
Audio is not reliably a lever. Whether it can be switched off at all, and whether switching it off changes the price, differs by model line — look it up in the same table before planning a silent render or budgeting around one.
All three live in one place: the model table on the Veo API page, with per-second figures on the Gemini API pricing page.
The Prompting Formula
For consistent, high-quality results, structure prompts using:
[Cinematography] + [Subject] + [Action] + [Context] + [Style & Ambiance]
Example
Medium shot, a tired corporate worker, rubbing his temples in exhaustion,
in front of a bulky 1980s computer in a cluttered office late at night.
The scene is lit by the harsh fluorescent overhead lights and the green
glow of the monochrome monitor. Retro aesthetic, shot as if on 1980s
color film, slightly grainy.For detailed cinematography language (camera movements, composition, lens techniques), see [references/prompting-guide.md](references/prompting-guide.md).
Audio
Veo builds the soundtrack from the prompt text. There is no audio parameter to reach for — dialogue, effects, and ambience are written into the same string as the picture, and the idioms for each are in [references/prompting-guide.md](references/prompting-guide.md).
Watermarking
Veo output is watermarked. Whether a given clip carries a visible mark on top of the invisible one varies by surface and by release, and it is not something to assume in either direction — generate one clip and look at it before promising a client an unmarked render.