Skip to main content
HeyGen Skills are open-source agent skills that teach Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, and other AI agents how to drive HeyGen end-to-end. Your agent gets a face, a voice, and the ability to send video like a message — no glue code, no API wrangling. Each skill is a SKILL.md instruction file plus reference docs. The agent loads it on demand, follows the embedded workflow, and calls HeyGen through the MCP server or the CLI. You get production-grade output (correct aspect ratios, prompt engineering, voice matching) without writing the pipeline yourself.
Skills are the agent-native layer on top of HeyGen. The MCP server and CLI expose the tools; skills encode the expertise for using them well.

​
The Three Skills

heygen-avatar

Turn a photo or description into a persistent digital twin — a reusable face + voice identity for the agent, the user, or any named character.

heygen-video

Turn an idea into a scripted, prompt-engineered presenter video with your avatar delivering the message. Built on the v3 Video Agent pipeline.

heygen-translate

Localize a finished video into 175+ languages with voice cloning and lip-sync. The presenter keeps their face; their voice speaks natively.

​
How They Chain

The skills are standalone but compose into a full pipeline. They communicate through human-readable AVATAR-<NAME>.md files at your workspace root: heygen-avatar writes them, heygen-video reads them. 
Photo / Description          Avatar File              Finished Video           Localized Video
       │                        │                         │                         │
  heygen-avatar     →     AVATAR-NAME.md      →      heygen-video      →     heygen-translate
  (identity + voice)      (reusable state)           (script + video)        (175+ languages)
A single request like “Create my avatar and make a 30-second founder intro” runs heygen-avatar first (identity → avatar ready), then hands the avatar_id and voice_id to heygen-video. heygen-translate rides on top of any finished video whenever you need to localize it.
SkillWhat it doesInvokeReturns
heygen-avatarPhoto/description → persistent digital twin (face + voice)/heygen-avataravatar_id + voice_id
heygen-videoIdea → script → prompt-engineered presenter video/heygen-videoVideo share URL + session URL
heygen-translateExisting video → translated & dubbed version/heygen-translateTranslated video URL per language

​
Authentication

Skills support two auth modes with an explicit priority order. The skill detects the mode silently at session start.
PriorityModeTriggerBillingBest for
1CLI (API key)HEYGEN_API_KEY is setDirect API usage (separately metered)Agents, CI, scripts
2MCP (OAuth)MCP tools visible and no API keyExisting HeyGen plan creditsUsers already on a HeyGen plan
3CLI (fallback)heygen auth login sessionDirect API usageInteractive CLI users
Billing tradeoff: CLI mode bills against your HeyGen API usage. MCP mode consumes your existing HeyGen plan credits — no extra API billing. If HEYGEN_API_KEY is set, the CLI always wins.

​
Supported Agents

Skills install across 12+ agents via gh skill install — including Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, Junie, Goose, OpenHands, Amp, Cline, OpenCode, and Warp.

​
Get Started

Install the skills

Install across any agent with gh skill install, ClawHub, or git clone, then wire up auth.

Browse the source

Read the SKILL.md files and reference docs in the open-source repo.
Want a zero-effort install? Paste this into your agent: “Read https://raw.githubusercontent.com/heygen-com/skills/master/INSTALL_FOR_AGENTS.md and follow it. Ask me for any API keys you need.” The agent clones the repo, sets up auth, runs a verify test, and ends with a working video.