skills/youtube-thumbnail/SKILL.md

---
name: youtube-thumbnail
description: Develop a YouTube thumbnail concept and production prompt from a video title, topic, or angle. Use when the user asks for a thumbnail, thumbnail prompt, thumbnail text, or thumbnail A/B concepts.
---

# YouTube Thumbnail

## Goal

Make the thumbnail and title create one curiosity unit rather than repeat each other.

## Process

1. Identify the promise of the video.
2. Identify what the title already communicates.
3. Choose what the thumbnail should add.
4. Limit thumbnail text to the minimum needed.
5. Specify subject, crop, expression, environment, contrast, and negative space.
6. Create 3 distinct concepts.

## Output

For each concept:
- thumbnail text, if any
- visual idea
- composition
- production prompt
- why it complements the title

If the host has image generation and the user asked for the image itself, use it. Otherwise return prompts only.