The hooks skill: scored YouTube hooks for the first 15 seconds

The first 15 seconds decide the video. You can spend a weekend on the body and lose everyone before the second sentence, because the opening described a topic instead of promising something.

hooks writes the opening properly. It runs the Kallaway framework, a hook system built around what a viewer actually wants. So it starts by mapping your video to the desire underneath it, then writes five variations from different angles. It takes the strongest two or three and builds out the full alignment: the visual in the first three seconds, the spoken line, and the text overlay, all pointing at the same idea at the same time. Then it scores each one and tells you which to use, with a reason.

One folder in our public freeskills repo, free, and there's no setup after you copy it.

Clone the repo and copy the folder across.

Open a new Claude Code session and the skill is live. That's the whole install. No API keys, no config.

Type /hooks followed by what the video is about. If all you give it is a topic, it asks exactly one question: what's the most surprising thing in this video that your audience probably doesn't know. That answer becomes the core material, so give it the real one, not the safe one.

What comes back: the desire it mapped to, the top hooks written out with visual, spoken, and overlay for each, a score for each against a short checklist, all five variations listed for reference, and a direct recommendation. It doesn't save a file, the output is what you read. A good first result gives you a spoken line a fifth grader could read out loud and an overlay that adds something instead of repeating it.

Give it the topic and the surprising bit in the same message and you skip the question.

If a video underperformed, the opening is the first place to look. Paste what you said and let it score the existing line before rewriting.

Cheapest test there is. Get the openings first, and if none of them land, the video idea needs work before you set up a camera.

The spoken version of what this skill does and why it's worth having.

1. 1Hook: there's a brand new free Claude skill that takes you from an opening line that loses people in four seconds, to a scored hook with the visual and the overlay written for you.
2. 2Mechanism: you give it your video topic and it asks you one question back, which is the most surprising thing in this video that your audience doesn't know. It maps that to what people actually want and packages it one step away so it doesn't read like an ad. Then it writes five hooks in five shapes, scores each one, and hands back the top three with the spoken line, what's on screen, and the text overlay, plus a straight call on which to use.
3. 3Transformation: people stay past your first sentence. The videos you already know how to make start getting watched instead of skipped.
4. 4Close: the hook is free, one of 55 skills. If you want the other 14 minutes of the video sorted too, Claude Code Club is 9 dollars a month. Link below.

Tonight: install it, run it on the next video you're planning, and write the recommended hook on a sticky note before you film. One hook per video. Pick one and commit.