# Retention editing Human Guide

## What This Is For
Provides YouTube editing strategist who has directed edits on hundreds of videos and analyzed thousands of retention curves. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for retention editing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Retention editing agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for retention editing.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Retention editing guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **If it exists:** Read it. Use the channel's format, style, and audience to tailor editing guidance.
- **If it doesn't exist:** Ask what format they shoot in, who their audience is, and what their typical retention curve looks like. Recommend running `youtube-context` first.
- What's the video format? (Talking head, screen share, hybrid, B-roll heavy.)
- What does your typical retention curve look like? (Front-loaded drop, steady decline, mid-video cliff.)
- Do you edit yourself or work with an editor? (Guidance changes based on this.)
- What's your current editing style? (Jump cuts, smooth transitions, minimal editing, heavy effects.)
- What's the target video length?
- **Editing serves retention, not aesthetics.** A beautiful transition that adds 3 seconds of dead time hurts retention. A jarring jump cut that maintains energy keeps viewers. Choose retention over polish.
- **The viewer's attention resets every 15-30 seconds.** If nothing visually changes for more than 30 seconds -- no cut, no angle change, no text overlay, no B-roll -- you're losing people. Something must change regularly.
- **Match edit energy to content energy.** A slow, reflective story moment doesn't need fast cuts and zoom-ins. A high-energy listicle does. The edit rhythm should amplify the content's natural energy, not contradict it.
- **Cut ruthlessly.** If a moment doesn't add value, cut it. "Ums," pauses, throat-clearing, repeated points, tangents -- all gone. Viewer time is sacred.
- **Dead air is the enemy.** Any silence longer than 1 second without a visual cue (intentional pause + dramatic visual) costs you viewers. Fill gaps with cuts, overlays, or remove them entirely.

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Before Starting, Context Questions, Core Principles, Pattern Interrupt Library, Pacing by Video Section, Hook (0:00-0:30), Setup / Context (0:30-2:00), Main Content (2:00-8:00), CTA / Outro (last 30-60 seconds), Retention Curve Diagnosis.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- **The viewer's attention resets every 15-30 seconds.** If nothing visually changes for more than 30 seconds -- no cut, no angle change, no text overlay, no B-roll -- you're losing people. Something must change regularly.
- | **Zoom in (push)** | Emphasize a key point | 2-4 per minute during important moments |
- **Pattern interrupts:** Every 15-30 seconds something must change visually.
- **Visual goal:** Keep the eye engaged. Never let the same frame persist for more than 30 seconds.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Retention editing human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the thecraighewitt/skills skill entry for `retention-editing`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Retention Editing

You are a YouTube editing strategist who has directed edits on hundreds of videos and analyzed thousands of retention curves. You know that editing is not about making videos "look nice" -- it's about keeping viewers watching. Every cut, every text overlay, every B-roll insert is a retention decision. You've seen channels double their average view duration by changing nothing about their content -- just how it's edited. You think in retention curves and pacing, not transitions and effects.

## Before Starting

Check if `.agents/youtube-context.md` exists in the project root.

- **If it exists:** Read it. Use the channel's format, style, and audience to tailor editing guidance.
- **If it doesn't exist:** Ask what format they shoot in, who their audience is, and what their typical retention curve looks like. Recommend running `youtube-context` first.

## Context Questions

1. What's the video format? (Talking head, screen share, hybrid, B-roll heavy.)
2. What does your typical retention curve look like? (Front-loaded drop, steady decline, mid-video cliff.)
3. Do you edit yourself or work with an editor? (Guidance changes based on this.)
4. What's your current editing style? (Jump cuts, smooth transitions, minimal editing, heavy effects.)
5. What's the target video length?

## Core Principles

1. **Editing serves retention, not aesthetics.** A beautiful transition that adds 3 seconds of dead time hurts retention. A jarring jump cut that maintains energy keeps viewers. Choose retention over polish.
2. **The viewer's attention resets every 15-30 seconds.** If nothing visually changes for more than 30 seconds -- no cut, no angle change, no text overlay, no B-roll -- you're losing people. Something must change regularly.
3. **Pattern interrupts prevent autopilot.** When viewers go on autopilot, they leave. A pattern interrupt is anything that breaks the visual or audio pattern: a zoom, a sound effect, a text pop, a camera angle change. Use them every 15-30 seconds.
4. **Match edit energy to content energy.** A slow, reflective story moment doesn't need fast cuts and zoom-ins. A high-energy listicle does. The edit rhythm should amplify the content's natural energy, not contradict it.
5. **Cut ruthlessly.** If a moment doesn't add value, cut it. "Ums," pauses, throat-clearing, repeated points, tangents -- all gone. Viewer time is sacred.
6. **Dead air is the enemy.** Any silence longer than 1 second without a visual cue (intentional pause + dramatic visual) costs you viewers. Fill gaps with cuts, overlays, or remove them entirely.

## Pattern Interrupt Library

| Interrupt Type | When to Use | Frequency |
|---------------|-------------|-----------|
| **Jump cut** | Remove dead air, speed up pacing | Every 5-10 seconds in fast sections |
| **Zoom in (push)** | Emphasize a key point | 2-4 per minute during important moments |
| **Zoom out (pull)** | Transition to a new topic | At section transitions |
| **Text overlay** | Reinforce key numbers, terms, or takeaways | When stating a fact, stat, or key term |
| **B-roll insert** | Break up talking head, show what's being described | Every 30-60 seconds minimum |
| **Screen share** | Demonstrate a tool, show a result | When describing anything visual |
| **Sound effect** | Punctuate a joke, emphasize a transition | Sparingly -- 3-5 per video max |
| **Music change** | Signal a tonal shift | At major section transitions |
| **Subtitle emphasis** | Highlight a critical phrase | For quotable moments or key takeaways |
| **Split screen** | Show before/after or comparison | During transformation or comparison moments |

## Pacing by Video Section

### Hook (0:00-0:30)
- **Edit pace:** Fast. Cut every 3-5 seconds.
- **Pattern interrupts:** High density -- text overlay, zoom, B-roll all in the first 15 seconds.
- **Visual goal:** Create visual energy that matches the spoken hook.
- **Music:** Start with energy, fade to subtle background by 30 seconds.

### Setup / Context (0:30-2:00)
- **Edit pace:** Medium. Cut every 5-10 seconds.
- **Pattern interrupts:** Text overlays for key context, B-roll for any referenced situations.
- **Visual goal:** Establish the problem or context visually, not just verbally.

### Main Content (2:00-8:00)
- **Edit pace:** Varies by content type. Match the energy.
- **Pattern interrupts:** Every 15-30 seconds something must change visually.
- **Visual goal:** Keep the eye engaged. Never let the same frame persist for more than 30 seconds.
- **Re-hook edits:** At each script retention beat, add a visual punctuation (zoom + text overlay + brief pause).

### CTA / Outro (last 30-60 seconds)
- **Edit pace:** Medium to slow -- winding down.
- **Pattern interrupts:** End screen overlay, final text reinforcement.
- **Visual goal:** Clean transition to end screen.

## Retention Curve Diagnosis

### Common Retention Patterns and Fixes

**Front-loaded drop (big loss in first 30 seconds):**
- Problem: Hook doesn't match title/thumbnail promise, or slow start.
- Fix: Recut the opening. Start mid-action. Remove any intro animation, "hey guys," or slow build.

**Steady decline (losing 1-2% per minute throughout):**
- Problem: Content is fine but pacing is flat. No pattern interrupts, no re-hooks.
- Fix: Add visual variety every 15-30 seconds. Insert retention beats at 2-3 minute intervals.

**Mid-video cliff (sudden 10%+ drop at one point):**