short-video-maker: An Open-Source Automated Short-Video Creation Tool 154

What is short-video-maker?

short-video-maker is an open-source automated short video creation tool that takes text input and combines text-to-speech, automatic subtitle generation, background videos, and music to generate TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. It supports running via NPX or Docker, with multiple run modes and environment variable configurations. It provides a REST API and Model Context Protocol (MCP) service, built on technologies such as Remotion and Whisper CPP.

short-video-maker Features

• Generates complete short videos from text prompts.

• Text-to-speech.

• Automatic subtitle generation and styling.

• Searches and selects background videos via Pexels.

• Background music support, with selectable genre/mood.

• Provides a REST API and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.

How short-video-maker Works

• Uses Kokoro TTS to convert text to speech.

• Uses Whisper to generate accurate subtitles.

• Finds relevant background videos from Pexels.

• Uses Remotion to compose all elements.

• Renders professional-looking short videos with precise subtitle timing.

Running

Using NPX (Recommended)

GPU-enabled run mode:

LOG_LEVEL=debug PEXELS_API_KEY= npx short-video-maker
Requires Node.js to be installed, and starts quickly via the npx command.

Using Docker

CPU version:

docker run -it --rm --name short-video-maker -p 3123:3123 \
  -e PEXELS_API_KEY= \
  gyoridavid/short-video-maker:latest

NVIDIA GPU version:

docker run -it --rm --name shorts-video-maker -p 3123:3123 \
  -e PEXELS_API_KEY= --gpus=all \
  gyoridavid/short-video-maker:latest-cuda

Environment Variables

• PEXELS_API_KEY: API key used to fetch background videos from Pexels.

• PORT: Port for the API/MCP server, defaults to 3123.

• LOG_LEVEL: Server log level, defaults to info. Options include trace, debug, info, warn, error.

• WHISPER_VERBOSE: Verbose mode for Whisper, defaults to false.

Examples

Sample JSON input:

{
  "scenes": [
    {
      "text": "Hello world! Enjoy using this tool to create awesome ai workflows",
      "searchTerms": ["rainbow"]
    }
  ],
  "config": {
    "paddingBack": 1500,
    "music": "happy"
  }
}

Output is a hello_world.mp4 file.

short-video-maker Applications

• Social media content creation: Quickly generate short videos for platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

• Education: Produce course previews, learning resources, or language-learning videos.

• News and media: Generate news summaries, feature stories, or breaking news videos.

• Commercial marketing: Used by businesses for product promotion and brand advertising. For example, a beauty brand can base short videos on product introduction copy.

• Education and training: Teachers or educational institutions can create instructional short videos.

Github: https://github.com/gyoridavid/short-video-make