Thumbnail ab tester
Skill rahulcommercial/claude-code-for-content-creators/skills/thumbnail-ab-tester
Claude Code skills for solo content creators — gameplay clips, Reels pipeline, IG captions, thumbnail A/B testing.
npx -y skills add rahulcommercial/claude-code-for-content-creators --skill thumbnail-ab-testerAssembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.
One thing to look at
- 0 stars0 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.
What its author says it does
Copied from the file, not written here
Generates multiple thumbnail concepts for the same clip and ranks them by hook strength using contrast, face presence, text legibility, and emotional cue heuristics. Trigger when user wants thumbnail options, A/B test thumbnails, or improve CTR on Reels/Shorts/YT.
SKILL.md
2.4 KB, 586 tokens by cl100k_base, as published. Nobody here has run it
Thumbnail A/B Tester
Generate 3-5 thumbnail concepts, score them, ship the winner.
When to use
- User has a video and wants 3+ thumbnail variants.
- User wants critique on an existing thumbnail.
- User wants to know which still frame from a clip is strongest.
Variant generation strategy
For one clip, produce variants across these axes:
| Axis | Option A | Option B | Option C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frame | Hook moment (start) | Climax (mid) | Payoff (end) |
| Text | One word | Short phrase | None (visual only) |
| Face | Tight crop (eyes visible) | Medium shot | Object only |
| Contrast | Dark bg + bright subject | Inverted | High saturation |
Pick one option per axis → 3-5 thumbnails total. Don't generate 30 — too much noise.
Scoring rubric (0-10 each, sum / 40)
| Factor | What to check |
|---|---|
| Hook clarity | Can a viewer read the story in < 1 sec? |
| Face / emotion | If a face: is the emotion strong & specific? |
| Text legibility | Readable at 320px wide (IG feed size)? |
| Contrast | Subject pops from background? |
Heuristics (the boring stuff that matters)
- Faces with visible eyes outperform face-from-behind ~2:1 on IG.
- Bright single-colour backgrounds (yellow, red) beat busy stills.
- Text on thumbnail: ≤ 4 words. Beyond that, no one reads.
- Avoid feed-camouflage: if your thumbnail looks like 5 others on the explore grid, it loses.
When to NOT use a thumbnail
- IG Reels cover image is shown on grid only, not feed. Optimise for grid coherence + first-frame hook in the video, not feed clicks.
- YT Shorts: thumbnail = first frame by default. Either accept it or pin a custom cover.
Output
Variant A — score 32/40
Frame: t=2.4s (climax)
Text: "₹4,300 in 14 min"
Notes: high contrast, specific number, face in lower third
Strongest factor: hook clarity
Variant B — score 28/40
...
Winner: A
Why: specific number + face emotion drives the highest CTR pattern.
What NOT to do
- Don't fabricate emotions / numbers in thumbnails. Clickbait that doesn't deliver tanks your reach next post.
- Don't use ©'d game promotional art as a thumbnail.
What ships with it
Read from the repository
Just SKILL.md. No reference files, no scripts.
Gives 0 of the 12 instructions most images graphics skills give in 586 tokens
Counted across 371 of the 372 authors here whose files we hold, read 2026-08-07
- Create a complete brand world in one imagein 19 of 371, across 5 files
- Infer the brand strategy before generatingin 19 of 371, across 5 files
- Use a clean presentation gridin 19 of 371, across 5 files
- Confirm connection status is activein 19 of 371, across 4 files
- Base the visual system on meaningin 17 of 371, across 3 files
- Make every panel feel connectedin 17 of 371, across 3 files
- Use very little textin 17 of 371, across 3 files
- Call RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS firstin 17 of 371, across 3 files
- Convert dash-format node IDs to colon formatin 17 of 371, across 5 files
- Match reference quality and rhythm if providedin 16 of 371, across 2 files
- Narrow scope or reduce depth to avoid oversized payloadsin 16 of 371, across 4 files
- Generate a simple and memorable logoin 15 of 371, across 1 file
Said here and by no other author read
- generate 3-5 thumbnail concepts for one clip
- score each thumbnail out of 40 total points
- evaluate hook clarity
- evaluate text legibility
- evaluate contrast
- pick one winner from the generated variants
Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once. Length counted with cl100k_base; the agent that loads this file may tokenize it differently.