Skill by Mage · YouTube Thumbnail

Thumbnails that get the click and tell the truth

The skill brainstorms concepts across 16 proven frameworks, renders variants with your face identity-locked on Mango 3, and makes surgical edits and headlines afterward.

Try in Claude ↗

Requires the Mage connector ↓

Claude

Design thumbnails for my video “I learned to surf in 30 days”, with my face kept exact: shocked, hyped, and a giant-wave version.

Three concepts: shock with a curling wave behind you, hype riding your first wave, and a size-difference shot of you under a colossal wave. Mango 3 at 16:9 with your face identity-locked, 405 Gems. Go?

Go.

Using skill · YouTube Thumbnail

Frameworks: posed portrait, action shot, size difference

Identity lock on your photo

Generating 3 variants with Mango 3

Three variants: shock · shoreline, hype · first wave, fear · giant wave. Want a headline on your pick?

Shocked surfer at the shoreline with a curling wave

The surfer riding her first wave, grinning

A tiny surfer under a colossal wave, with a worried close-up

Examples

Variants you can test, edits that stay put

One face across every concept, and a headline added in a surgical edit that changed nothing else.

The shock variant with the headline 30 Days?! — Shock + headline · GPT Image 2.5 Flare

Shocked at the shoreline — Shock · Mango 3

Hyped on her first wave — Hype · Mango 3

Size difference with a colossal wave — Size difference · Mango 3

How it works

How to use the YouTube Thumbnail skill

Share the topic and your face
The video’s title or topic, and a link to your photo or your saved @character.
Pick a concept
The skill brainstorms truthful concepts across 16 frameworks (before/after, size difference, social UI, and more) and picks the strongest information gap.
Get variants, then refine
Variants differ by emotion or take. Then change only an expression, a background, or add a 2–4 word headline.

Runs on

Mango 3 GPT Image 2.5 Flare

Setup

Set up Mage in your agent

Connect Mage

Add the Mage connector to Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Grok, or Cursor, and sign in with your Mage account.

Open MCP setup →

Add the skills

In Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and other agents, add every Mage skill with one command, or install the Claude Code plugin.

npx skills add mage-space/skills

/plugin marketplace add mage-space/skills

/plugin install mage@mage

Ask for it

Describe the job, or run /mage-youtube-thumbnail.

Use Mage to design YouTube thumbnails for my video "I learned to surf in 30 days" with my face kept exact: shocked, hyped, and a giant-wave version. My photo: https://www.mage.space/skills/youtube-thumbnail/input.jpg

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Will my face look like me?

Every prompt identity-locks each face to its photo: same bone structure, eyes, skin, and hair, with no beautifying. Mango 3 holds a face best across variants.

Does it add text to the thumbnail?

Only when you ask. Headlines are 2–4 words, added to your pick with GPT Image 2.5 Flare in an edit that changes nothing else.

Does it make Shorts and Instagram covers?

Yes: 9:16 for Shorts and Reels, with faces in the upper two-thirds, and 4:5 for the Instagram feed.

Can I attach my photo to the chat?

Mage can’t read files attached to a chat, so share a direct link to the image instead, such as your store’s product image URL. Agents that run commands, like Claude Code and Cursor, can upload a file from your computer.

How much does it cost?

The skill is free and open source. Each generation it starts is paid in Gems from your Mage account at the model’s listed price, and your assistant quotes the total before it creates anything.