3brown1blue

3brown1blue

Generate 3Blue1Brown-style Manim explainer videos from topics or slide decks, or install the Manim skill into your AI coding tool.

Install the skill (recommended)

The primary use: install 27 rule files, templates, and safe wrappers into your AI tool so it generates production-quality animations.

pip install 3brown1blue
3brown1blue install

Supports: Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot

Then just ask your AI: "make a video explaining backpropagation" -- the skill handles layout templates, production rules, visual design principles, and common gotchas automatically.

Generate from a topic

Two-step pipeline: plans the video first (research, curriculum, scene plans, style contract), shows you the plan for review, then generates Manim code.

# one-shot with uvx (no permanent install)
uvx '3brown1blue[anthropic]' generate "Fourier transforms" --render

# or with Claude Code (no API key needed)
3brown1blue generate "attention mechanism" -p claude-code --render -q h

Generate from slides

Extract content from a PowerPoint deck, plan a video, and generate Manim code. Auto-detects whether vision extraction is needed for diagram-heavy slides.

pip install '3brown1blue[slides]'
3brown1blue from-slides lecture.pptx -p claude-code --render

The pipeline: extract text + speaker notes + images -> plan with scene templates -> review/edit the plan -> generate Manim code -> render.

Supported providers

Provider	Install extra	Env var	Notes
Claude Code	none	none	Uses claude -p, no API key needed
Anthropic	[anthropic]	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
OpenAI	[openai]	OPENAI_API_KEY
Google Gemini	[openai]	GOOGLE_API_KEY	OpenAI-compatible API
Groq	[openai]	GROQ_API_KEY	OpenAI-compatible API
Mistral	[openai]	MISTRAL_API_KEY	OpenAI-compatible API

What the skill includes

• 24 rule files: animations, equations, visual design, production quality, 3D, graphs, updaters, troubleshooting, and more
• 3 templates: equation explainer, paper explainer, shared style.py
• Safe wrappers: drop-in replacements for crash-prone Manim APIs
• 12 gotchas: documented crashes and silent bugs with fixes
• 22 visual patterns: extracted from 422 frames of 3Blue1Brown videos

CLI reference

3brown1blue generate TOPIC [OPTIONS]
3brown1blue from-slides DECK [OPTIONS]
3brown1blue install [--platform] [--force]
3brown1blue uninstall [--platform]
3brown1blue update [--platform]
3brown1blue status

Common options for generate/from-slides:

  --provider  -p   claude-code | anthropic | openai | google | groq | mistral
  --model     -m   generation model (provider default if omitted)
  --plan-model     planning model (same as --model if omitted)
  --api-key   -k   API key (or set the provider env var)
  --output    -o   output file  [default: scene.py]
  --render         run manim after generation
  --quality   -q   l=fast | m=medium | h=1080p | k=4K  [default: l]

Showcase

See generated videos: 3brown1blue-showcase

Prerequisites

pip install manim
# macOS: brew install mactex
# Linux: apt install texlive-full
# Windows: install MiKTeX

License

MIT