PDF → summary video#

Take a PDF URL and produce a short summary video. Internally this routes through article-to-video once the PDF text has been extracted by Revid's scraper.

When to use this skill#

• Source is a public PDF URL (whitepaper, paper, ebook, slide export).
• Goal is a 30–90 s summary, not a full reading.
• For HTML articles use revid-article-to-short.
• For local PDFs the agent must first upload to public storage (S3, Supabase Storage, etc.) so Revid can fetch it.

Inputs#

FieldRequiredNotesurlyesPublic PDF URL (must be reachable, no auth)aspectRationoDefault 9:16``targetDurationnoDefault 60 (s); raise to 90 s for dense papers

Step-by-step#

1. Confirm the URL ends in .pdf or returns Content-Type: application/pdf.
2. Set source.scrapingPrompt to bias the summary toward what the user cares about ("Focus on the methodology section", "Focus on the executive summary", "Pull the 3 biggest takeaways").
3. POST /render with the payload below.
4. Poll /status.

API call template#

http

POST /api/public/v3/render
Host: www.revid.ai
Content-Type: application/json
key: $REVID_API_KEY

json

{
  "workflow": "article-to-video",
  "source": {
    "url": "{PDF_URL}",
    "scrapingPrompt": "Extract the executive summary and the 3 biggest takeaways. Skip references and appendices."
  },
  "aspectRatio": "9:16",
  "voice":    { "enabled": true, "stability": 0.65, "speed": 0.95, "language": "en-US" },
  "captions": { "enabled": true, "position": "middle", "autoCrop": true },
  "music":    { "enabled": true, "syncWith": "beats" },
  "media": {
    "type": "stock-video",
    "density": "medium",
    "animation": "soft",
    "quality": "pro",
    "imageModel": "good",
    "videoModel": "pro"
  },
  "options": {
    "targetDuration": 60,
    "summarizationPreference": "summarize",
    "soundEffects": true,
    "hasToGenerateCover": true,
    "coverTextType": "title"
  },
  "render": { "resolution": "1080p", "frameRate": 30 }
}

Examples#

• examples/whitepaper.json
• examples/run.sh

Failure modes#

SymptomFixscrape failedPDF behind auth or login wall. Re-host the PDF on public storage.Summary skips the section the user cares aboutTighten scrapingPrompt (be specific: section names, page ranges).Visuals are abstract / off-topicPDFs rarely have crawlable hero images. Pre-render a few key figures as images and pass them in media.provided.Voice rushes through technical termsLower voice.speed to 0.9.

See also#

• revid-article-to-short for HTML.
• revid-script-with-custom-media for full visual control.