# Your First Short

The quickest way to see Slopify work: type a topic, press one button, and get a narrated, captioned 9:16 short of about a minute. Slopify picks the providers for you from what your computer already has.

**Where to find it:** the first-run screen (**Welcome to Slopify**) → **3 · Make your first short** → **Make a 60-second short**. On a fresh install it opens by itself; its address is `http://127.0.0.1:6969/welcome`.

## What you get

| Part | Details |
| --- | --- |
| Script | About 150 words, written from your topic by a text model. No web research. |
| Narration | Spoken by your voice provider, or by your computer's own voice when no voice key is saved. |
| Images | Four vertical images, one for each 15 seconds of the minute. |
| Video | A 9:16 short with word-by-word captions and the title on top, rendered on your computer. |
| Not made | No thumbnail, no PDF, no YouTube description and no further shorts. |

With the command-line tools it usually takes about five minutes.

## Before you start

You need three things. Slopify checks them when you press the button and tells you what is missing.

| Need | What Slopify uses, in this order |
| --- | --- |
| Text | Claude Code CLI (a Sonnet model when it has one), Codex CLI, Antigravity CLI, then an OpenRouter key. |
| Images | Codex CLI, then an OpenAI, Google, fal.ai or Replicate key. |
| Voice | Your first saved voice whose provider has a key. If none, the style's suggested OpenAI voice when an OpenAI key is saved. If there is no voice key at all, your computer's own voice (the **System voice**): macOS or Windows speech, or Piper, SVOX Pico, eSpeak NG or eSpeak on Linux. |

Command-line tools can't speak, but you don't need a voice key to start: with none saved, the short is narrated by your computer's built-in voice, for free. It sounds robotic, so add a key when you want a better voice. With ElevenLabs, Cartesia or Inworld, also save a voice in Settings → **Voices**. See [the system voice](Providers-and-Keys#the-system-voice).

To set these up:

1. Install and sign in to Claude Code, Codex or Antigravity CLI (see [AI CLIs](AI-CLIs)), or add keys in Settings → **Providers** (see [Providers and Keys](Providers-and-Keys)).
2. Optional: add a voice key in Settings → **Providers**. An OpenAI key is the simplest: the suggested voice works with it right away.
3. Back on the first-run screen, step **1 · What you have** shows which tools are ready and who will narrate.

## Make the short

1. Open the first-run screen.
2. On **2 · Pick a style**, press **Use this style** on one row:
   - **General**: a neutral explainer style, with the OpenAI voice `alloy` as its suggestion.
   - **Sleep lore**, **True crime**, **History** or **Science explainers**: that starter pack's script prompt, image style and suggested voice.
3. Go to **3 · Make your first short**. In **Topic**, type what the short is about, in a few words or a question (up to 200 characters). For example: `Why the sea glows at night`. A specific topic gives a sharper short than a broad one.
4. Press **Make a 60-second short**. The status line says **Starting your short…**.
5. Slopify creates the project and starts it. The step now says "Your short is being made." Press **Watch it being made** to open its page.

Pressing the button twice, or retrying after a dropped connection, opens the same project instead of starting a second one.

## What Slopify sets up for you

- **The project.** Its title is your topic, with a capital first letter. Its format is 9:16.
- **Library prompts.** The style's script and vertical-scene prompts are added to your Library (for General: **Starter · 60-second short** and **Starter · Vertical scene**). If you already have a prompt with that name and different text, the new one comes in as `<name> (2)`. Reusing them later changes nothing.
- **A saved voice.** The style's suggested OpenAI voice is added to Settings → **Voices** (for General: **Starter narrator**), unless you already have one with that voice. When the computer's own voice narrates, it is saved there too, named `<voice> (computer voice)`, so Play offers it later.
- **Settings.** Captions at the bottom, a slow zoom or pan on each image, half a second of silence at each end, and the volume levelled as in your Settings.

The pack's Play template is not added this way. To get it, press **Add to library** on the pack's row in step 2, or use Library → **Templates** → **Add pack**. **Make the full video on this topic** (below) also adds it.

## Watch it being made

The project page shows each step as it runs:

1. **Article**: the script is written.
2. **Narration**: the script is spoken.
3. **Images**: four vertical images are drawn.
4. **Video**: the words are timed against the narration and the short is rendered with word-by-word captions and the title on top.

Open the **Live** tab to see the steps, the script as it is written, the images as they land and the narration's waveform. Each running step says its time left. While it runs, Home also lists it under **Running now**, and the sidebar shows how many runs are going.

See [Project Page](Project-Page) for everything else on this page.

## Get the finished short

1. When the run is done, open **Video** on the project page.
2. Play the short in Slopify's own player. See [Project Page](Project-Page#the-players).
3. Press **Download** and pick **Video (.mp4)**, or press **Open folder** to see the file on your computer.

The file is also in the project's folder under your Projects folder (see [Where Your Files Live](Where-Your-Files-Live)).

## What it costs

- **Narration** uses your voice provider's credit, billed per character of the roughly 150-word script. The computer's own voice costs nothing.
- **Text and images** through a command-line tool count toward that tool's plan, not a per-call bill. Through API keys, they are billed by that provider.
- The project's **Cost** tab shows what each step cost. See [Costs and Run Cost](Costs-and-Run-Cost).

## If it refuses to start

The message names what is missing and where to fix it:

| Message starts with | Fix |
| --- | --- |
| No text model is ready. | Install Claude Code, Codex or Antigravity CLI and sign in, or add an OpenRouter key in Settings → Providers. |
| No image model is ready. | Install Codex CLI and sign in, or add an OpenAI, Google, fal.ai or Replicate key in Settings → Providers. |
| No voice is ready to narrate the short | Install `espeak-ng` (Linux) so the computer's voice can narrate, or add an OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Cartesia or Inworld key in Settings → Providers. |
| Your voice provider has no saved voice yet. | Add a voice in Settings → Voices, then try again. |
| Slopify can't list the models on this machine right now. | Restart Slopify and try again. |

If the run fails later, the project page and Home's **Needs you** say which step failed and offer the fix. See [Recovery and Retries](Recovery-and-Retries).

## Make the full video next

When the short is done, the project's next action is **Make the full video on this topic**. It opens Play set up for a long video: the same topic and title, the starter pack's Play template (added to your Library if it wasn't yet), and the text, image and voice providers the short used, since those are known to work on your computer. Nothing starts until you press **Start run**. See [Play Overview](Play-Overview).

## Change the short afterwards

It is a normal project: you can edit the script, change an image, pick another voice or caption style, and Slopify rebuilds only what the change affects. See [Editing a Project](Editing-a-Project) and [Video Editing](Video-Editing).

## Next steps

- Make a long video with more control: [Play Overview](Play-Overview).
- Cut shorts from a long video automatically: [Shorts](Shorts).
- Reuse the style: add the starter pack and pick its template on Play ([Templates](Templates)).
- Let Claude Code or Codex look after your runs, fix failures and answer reviews: [Agents (MCP)](Agents-MCP).

## Tips

- The first-run screen disappears once you have a real project. Your later shorts are made from Play, or from Shorts on a long video.
- Want to try without spending anything first? Open a sample project from the first-run screen ([First Launch and Welcome](First-Launch-and-Welcome#explore-the-samples)).

## Related pages

- [First Launch and Welcome](First-Launch-and-Welcome)
- [Providers and Keys](Providers-and-Keys)
- [AI CLIs](AI-CLIs)
- [Project Page](Project-Page)
- [Shorts](Shorts)
- [Costs and Run Cost](Costs-and-Run-Cost)