video-to-music

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from when this skill was listed. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: video-to-music
description: Score a video with original music using Sonilo — the model watches the cut and matches pacing, motion, and emotion, returning either the audio or a new video with the score muxed in. Use when the user has a finished video that needs a soundtrack. Every track is licensed and cleared for commercial use. For music with no video, use the text-to-music skill.
license: MIT
compatibility: "Requires Sonilo through either transport — the MCP server connected, or the `sonilo` CLI installed and signed in — plus credentials: a `sonilo login` sign-in, the hosted OAuth plugin, or SONILO_API_KEY. See the setup-api-key skill."
allowed-tools: Bash, Read, Write, mcp__sonilo__*
---

# Sonilo Video-to-Music

Hand Sonilo a finished video and it composes an original score to the cut —
pacing, motion, and emotion matched, with transitions and beat drops aligned to
the edit, at exactly the video's length. This is Sonilo's flagship capability.
Every track is licensed (music licensed via Shutterstock) and cleared for
commercial use on social, brand content, and advertising.

> **Setup:** See the [setup-api-key](../setup-api-key) skill to connect the Sonilo MCP server and authenticate — `sonilo login` (no key) or `SONILO_API_KEY`.

> ⚠️ **Cost:** every tool below makes an API call that may incur charges. Only call it when the user has actually asked for a generation. Check `get_account_services` (see the [account](../account) skill) if you're unsure whether free-trial runs remain.

## Transport: MCP or CLI

Pick one at the start of the session and stay on it. Do not mix the two inside
a single job, and do not announce the choice.

1. **Sonilo MCP tools visible in this session** (`video_to_music` and friends) — use them. This is the preferred path: it needs no shell, and it is the only one that survives a very long generation. If a call fails to authenticate — rather than failing on its inputs — this transport is not usable in this session: go to 2 instead of retrying it.
2. **No usable Sonilo MCP tools, but `sonilo account` exits 0** — use the CLI commands below. Same API, same account, same credential file. Probe with `sonilo account`, not `sonilo whoami`: whoami exits 0 even when signed out, so it cannot tell the two states apart.
3. **Neither** — stop and run the [setup-api-key](../setup-api-key) skill. Do not call `api.sonilo.com` with curl to work around it; both transports handle uploads, polling and retries that a bare request does not.

## Quick Start

### MCP tool call (recommended)

```
video_to_music(
    video_path="~/Desktop/trailer.mp4",
    prompt="Build suspense, then resolve with a warm cinematic finish"
)
```

Saves the generated file(s) to `SONILO_MCP_BASE_PATH` (`~/Desktop` by default) and returns the saved path(s) as text.

### Python (`pip install sonilo`)

```python
from sonilo import Sonilo

client = Sonilo()  # reads SONILO_API_KEY

score = client.video_to_music.generate(video="trailer.mp4", prompt="Build suspense, then resolve with a warm cinematic finish")
score.save("score.m4a")

# video_to_video_music: get the video back with the music muxed in
video = client.video_to_video_music.generate(video="trailer.mp4", prompt="cinematic, uplifting")
video.save("scored.mp4")
```

`preserve_speech=True` on `video_to_music` requires the async path — use `generate_async()` instead of `generate()` to get the extra `vocals`/`mux`/`ducked` outputs; see [sonilo-python's README](https://github.com/sonilo-ai/sonilo-python#preserve-speech-async) for the full pattern.

### JavaScript / TypeScript (`npm install sonilo`)

```ts
import { SoniloClient } from "sonilo";

const client = new SoniloClient(); // reads SONILO_API_KEY

const score = await client.videoToMusic.generate({
  video: "./trailer.mp4",
  prompt: "Build suspense, then resolve with a warm cinematic finish",
});

// video_to_video_music: get the video back with the music muxed in
const video = await client.videoToVideoMusic.generate({
  video: "./t