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manim-skill

by Yusuke710 · Yusuke710/manim-skill

Claude autonomously plans, writes, renders, and refines Manim animations — go from 'explain this concept' to a video file without touching Python.

A skill that runs the full Manim loop inside Claude Code. You describe a concept; Claude drafts scene code, invokes manim to render, inspects the result, and iterates until it matches your intent. Built for 3Blue1Brown-style math/CS explanations.

▶ Watch demo 📦 Install 💡 Use Cases

Why use it

Key features

Live Demo

What it looks like in practice

manim-skill.replay ▶ ready
0/0

Install

Author repository · Claude Skills documentation

Use Cases

Real-world ways to use manim-skill

Animate the intuition behind a math or CS concept

👤 Educators, YouTubers, students explaining to themselves ⏱ ~45 min intermediate

When to use: A concept is easier with motion than with words (gradient descent, sorting, Fourier).

Flow
  1. State the concept
    Use manim-skill. Animate gradient descent on a 2D loss surface — ball rolling, learning rate visibly affects step size.✓ Copied
    → Scene plan + code + low-q preview rendered
  2. Iterate
    Slower at first, faster once it's in the valley. Label the axes.✓ Copied
    → Code updated, re-rendered preview
  3. Final render
    Looks good — render at 1080p60.✓ Copied
    → High-q mp4 produced

Outcome: An explainer video you can embed in a blog post.

Pitfalls
  • Manim code has breaking changes across versions — Pin your manim version in requirements; the skill's prompts assume recent Community Edition
Combine with: filesystem

Build a series of scenes for a longer explainer

👤 Video creators working on a single concept over multiple shots ⏱ ~180 min advanced

When to use: You have a 5-minute script and need 10+ scenes to go with it.

Flow
  1. Feed the script
    Use manim-skill. Here's my script. Break into scene beats and propose a Manim scene per beat.✓ Copied
    → Ordered scene plan
  2. Render in batches
    Render scenes 1-3 at preview quality; show me.✓ Copied
    → Three low-q mp4s
  3. Consolidate
    Ok, lock scenes 1-3. Move to 4-6.✓ Copied
    → Work proceeds; locked scenes untouched

Outcome: A full scene library ready for final render.

Pitfalls
  • Rendering high-q for every iteration wastes time — Iterate at -ql (low) and only go -qh once locked

Combinations

Pair with other MCPs for X10 leverage

manim-skill + filesystem

Organize a project's scenes, renders, and drafts

Keep scenes in project/scenes/, renders in project/renders/preview or /final.✓ Copied

Tools

What this MCP exposes

ToolInputsWhen to callCost
plan_scenes concept or script First step on any new project 0
write_scene scene spec Per-scene code generation 0
render_manim scene file, quality Preview and final renders local CPU/GPU
refine_scene scene + feedback Iterating on animation 0

Cost & Limits

What this costs to run

API quota
None
Tokens per call
Moderate — code iterations
Monetary
Free; local compute only
Tip
Always iterate at low quality. Final render once.

Security

Permissions, secrets, blast radius

Credential storage: None
Data egress: None from skill

Troubleshooting

Common errors and fixes

manim import errors

Manim CE vs GL — make sure you're on Community (pip install manim), not the legacy 3b1b version

Verify: python -c 'import manim; print(manim.__version__)'
Render hangs or is very slow

Use -ql for iteration; -qh only at end. Check ffmpeg presence.

Verify: ffmpeg -version
Weird layout — objects overlap

Use positioning primitives (next_to, align_to) rather than raw coords

Alternatives

manim-skill vs others

AlternativeWhen to use it insteadTradeoff
After Effects / Motion CanvasYou want visual timeline toolsNot code; not LLM-friendly
paperbanana-skillStatic academic diagrams rather than animationsDifferent output

More

Resources

📖 Read the official README on GitHub

🐙 Browse open issues

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