In short:
ak-youtube-thumbnail-designreuses your video brief, brand colors and the face or logo images you approved, picks a visual direction by niche and style, then makes the image through the image provider you have installed. Each variant comes with its design reasoning and one CTR hypothesis to test, not a promise of higher CTR. It only makes thumbnails: no video editing, no channel art, no end screens.
Disclosure: I maintain AgentKit and have an affiliate relationship with it: the AgentKit link in this post is an affiliate link; buying through it gets you 30% off.
Summary
Use it when you have a video about to go live and need a thumbnail, either one image to use right away or a few variants for an A/B test. You do not need it to edit a video, make channel art or build an end screen: the skill turns those down.
flowchart LR
A["Video brief + brand"] --> B["ak-youtube-thumbnail-design"]
B --> C["Checked 1280x720 thumbnail"]
C --> D["You approve or give feedback"]
D --> B
D --> E["Use it on the video, test CTR"]
B --> F["Video editing, channel art: out of scope"]Four concepts to know:
| Concept | Question | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Niche and style | What area is the video in, and which visual direction fits? | tech diagram for a video explaining a system architecture, cooking before-after for a video turning a plain dish into a showpiece |
| Text on the image | What can viewers read when the image shrinks to a stamp in the suggestions column? | "WORTH IT?" instead of the full video title |
| Approved reference images | Where do the face and logo on the image come from? | The portrait you attach and the channel logo in your brand docs |
| CTR hypothesis | Why might this variant get more clicks, and what should be tested? | "A surprised face on the left and big text on the right will stand out more in the mobile feed than a text-only version" |
Sample prompt for one thumbnail for a new video:
/ak-youtube-thumbnail-design tech facecam
Video: review of budget noise-cancelling headphones <product name>.
Text on the image: "WORTH IT?"
Channel: <channel name>, brand colors <color code 1>, <color code 2>.
Approved face image: <portrait path>.This skill has no flags.
Below is the detailed version: the run flow, 4 situations with prompts, the change history by ak release, and common pitfalls. The detailed version and the interactive page are for subscribers. Your agent can also search them through the portal's MCP.
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Use this piece in your agent
Get an API keyCopy the text below and paste it into Claude Code, Codex or whichever agent you use. The agent reads the piece and checks it against the repo you have open.
Read "ak-youtube-thumbnail-design: readable YouTube thumbnails that meet the specs" on modernEngineer and apply it to this repo.
1. Call the content_get tool of the modernengineer MCP server with locale "en", slug "ak-youtube-thumbnail-design". If the modernengineer MCP server is not connected, stop and walk me through connecting it from https://modernengineer.dev/en/mcp.
2. Summarize the main steps of the piece and point out which apply to this repo.
3. Propose concrete changes and ask me before editing any file.Connect MCP in Claude Code (once)
claude mcp add --transport http modernengineer \
https://api.modernengineer.dev/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer <API key>"Reading the full piece over MCP needs an API key from a subscriber account or one that bought this guide. Without access, the agent only gets the opening.
- Version
- v1.0.0
- Updated
- 22/10/2026
- Licence
- All rights reserved
- Slug
- ak-youtube-thumbnail-design
