SkillVerdict
All verdicts

hyperframes

Install with caution heygen-com/hyperframes

HeyGen's HTML-to-video skill is capable and Apache-2.0, but it drives an unpinned npx CLI with usage telemetry and optional paid cloud rendering.

Verified · Repo on GitHub

What it does

The entry skill of HeyGen's HyperFrames framework, which renders HTML compositions to MP4 by seeking a paused animation timeline frame by frame, so the same input gives the same video. SKILL.md holds a 12-point render contract (no timers, no network fetches, no unseeded randomness), a work loop (lint → check --json → snapshots → preview → render only after you approve) and routes to its sibling skills (hyperframes-cli, hyperframes-registry, media-use) and to reference files per kind of video.

Who made it / license / last checked

HeyGen (heygen-com/hyperframes, about 75K GitHub stars on 30 Oct) · License: Apache-2.0 (repo LICENSE) · Repo last commit checked: 2026-11-04

Install

claude plugin install hyperframes@hyperframes
# or, any agent:
npx skills add heygen-com/hyperframes

Both lines are in the repo README. The README tells agents to prefer npx hyperframes skills update, which installs the core set (hyperframes, hyperframes-cli, hyperframes-registry, media-use). Requirements per README: Node.js 22+ and FFmpeg. We did not run any of it.

What files / scripts it runs

Not a markdown-only skill: SKILL.md (7,125 bytes) plus 76 more files — references/ (story, spec, sound, review…), assets/frame-presets/ (HTML caption skins and OFL fonts) and three scripts in scripts/: plugin-cli.mjs (finds the plugin's CLI release), bake-basemap.mjs (map backgrounds; pulls tiles from ArcGIS and CARTO and libraries from jsDelivr) and locate.mjs (finds an object in an image with an ffmpeg grid; its optional auto mode sends the image to Google's Gemini API when GEMINI_API_KEY is set). Everything else runs through npx hyperframes <command>, which downloads a headless Chrome.

Pros

  • A real quality loop: a written render contract plus check --json, snapshots and a review step
  • Stops at the preview and waits for your approval before rendering, unless you ask for no stops
  • Apache-2.0, very active repo from a known company

Cons

  • Every action is npx hyperframes … with no pinned version: you run whatever npm serves that day
  • Usage telemetry is on by default; its own docs say it is linked to your HeyGen account once you sign in (npx hyperframes telemetry disable or HYPERFRAMES_NO_TELEMETRY=1 turns it off)
  • The CLI skill tells the agent to file feedback reports to a public channel after renders unless telemetry is off
  • Cloud rendering and media generation bill your HeyGen account; the skill checks your plan usage at the start of each new video

Alternatives

Remotion (React-based; the HyperFrames README names it as its inspiration — not reviewed here); a plain screen recording for simple product demos.

Notes

Skills.sh listed hyperframes at 1.3M installs (#5) on 30 Oct 2026, and seven of the top 21 entries we could read that day were listed under heygen-com/hyperframes. Three of them (hyperframes-animation, hyperframes-core, hyperframes-creative) have no folder in the current repo; we did not establish why.

Sources

Verified on 2026-11-04 from the repo history (repo commit 1ff4cef, 2026-11-04; folder commit 6857bb0, 2026-11-04; sizes are git blob bytes). Since 30 Oct: the skill no longer tells the agent to install, update or remove skills itself (commit 6857bb0): init runs with --skip-skills and the agent tells you which update command to run. It also points to a new /reverse-any-video skill. Same files, same telemetry and cloud costs. Verdict unchanged. Previous check on 2026-10-30, from a fresh clone of the repo (commit f7db6ba, 2026-10-29) and the skills.sh leaderboard fetched that day. Repo last-commit is a repo date, not a per-skill release date. Install counts are distribution, not quality.