Manim Skills Repository

⚡ Quick Start: Add both Manim skills to your AI agent instantly:

npx skills add adithya-s-k/manim_skill

A comprehensive collection of best practices, patterns, and examples for both Manim Community Edition and ManimGL (3Blue1Brown's version). This repository provides battle-tested code examples and guidelines for creating mathematical animations.

📚 About the Two Versions

Manim Community Edition (manim)

• Repository: https://github.com/ManimCommunity/manim
• Focus: Community-maintained, stable, well-documented
• Best For: Production use, educational content, collaborative projects
• Command: manim CLI
• Import: from manim import *

ManimGL (manimgl)

• Repository: https://github.com/3b1b/manim
• Focus: Grant Sanderson's (3Blue1Brown) original version with OpenGL rendering
• Best For: Interactive development, 3D scenes, rapid prototyping
• Command: manimgl CLI
• Import: from manimlib import *

Important: These are separate, incompatible frameworks. Code written for one will not work with the other without modifications.

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🚀 Installation

Prerequisites (Both Versions)

1. Python 3.7+ - Required
2. FFmpeg - For video encoding
3. LaTeX - For mathematical typesetting (TeX Live, MiKTeX, or MacTeX)

Install FFmpeg

macOS:

brew install ffmpeg

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ffmpeg

Windows: Download from https://ffmpeg.org/download.html and add to PATH

Install LaTeX

macOS:

brew install mactex

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install texlive-full

Windows: Install MiKTeX from https://miktex.org/download

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Installing Manim Community Edition

# Using pip
pip install manim

# Using uv (recommended for this project)
uv pip install manim

# Verify installation
manim --version

Documentation: https://docs.manim.community/

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Installing ManimGL

# Using pip
pip install manimgl

# Using uv (recommended for this project)
uv pip install manimgl

# Verify installation
manimgl --version

Additional macOS (ARM) requirement:

arch -arm64 brew install pkg-config cairo

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🔌 Skills.sh Integration

This repository provides two AI Agent Skills that can be installed with a single command using skills.sh:

Install with npx (Recommended)

# Install Manim Community Edition best practices
npx skills add adithya-s-k/manim_skill/skills/manimce-best-practices

# Install ManimGL best practices
npx skills add adithya-s-k/manim_skill/skills/manimgl-best-practices

# Or install both
npx skills add adithya-s-k/manim_skill/skills/manimce-best-practices adithya-s-k/manim_skill/skills/manimgl-best-practices

What are Skills?

Skills are reusable capabilities for AI coding agents. Once installed, your AI assistant (like Claude, GitHub Copilot, or Cursor) automatically gains access to:

• ✅ Domain-specific best practices
• ✅ Working code examples
• ✅ Common patterns and anti-patterns
• ✅ Framework-specific knowledge

The skills follow the Agent Skills open standard and work across multiple AI tools.

When Skills Activate

manimce-best-practices - Automatically loads when:

• You import from manim import *
• You use the manim CLI command
• You work with Scene classes, mathematical animations, or LaTeX rendering
• You create educational videos or visual explanations with Manim Community

manimgl-best-practices - Automatically loads when:

• You import from manimlib import *
• You use the manimgl CLI command
• You work with InteractiveScene, 3D rendering, or camera frame control
• You use interactive mode with .embed() or checkpoint_paste()

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📖 Using This Repository

Repository Structure

manim_skill/
├── skills/
│   ├── manimce-best-practices/     # Manim Community Edition skills
│   │   ├── SKILL.md                # Skill metadata
│   │   └── rules/                  # Individual best practice guides
│   │       ├── animations.md
│   │       ├── scenes.md
│   │       ├── mobjects.md
│   │       └── ...
│   │
│   └── manimgl-best-practices/     # ManimGL skills
│       ├── SKILL.md
│       └── rules/
│           ├── animations.md
│           ├── 3d.md
│           ├── camera.md
│           └── ...
│
└── tests/
    ├── manimce/                    # Tests for Community Edition
    └── manimgl/                    # Tests for ManimGL

What's Inside Each Skill File?

Each .md file contains:

• Best practices for specific Manim features
• Working code examples (all tested!)
• Common patterns and use cases
• Pitfalls to avoid
• API differences between versions

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🎯 Quick Start Examples

Manim Community Edition

from manim import *

class BasicExample(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        circle = Circle()
        circle.set_fill(BLUE, opacity=0.5)
        circle.set_stroke(BLUE_E, width=4)

        self.play(Create(circle))
        self.wait()

Run it:

manim -pql scene.py BasicExample
# -p: preview after rendering
# -q: quality (l=low, m=medium, h=high)

ManimGL

from manimlib import *

class BasicExample(InteractiveScene):
    def construct(self):
        circle = Circle()
        circle.set_fill(BLUE, opacity=0.5)
        circle.set_stroke(BLUE_E, width=4)

        self.play(ShowCreation(circle))
        self.wait()

Run it:

manimgl scene.py BasicExample --write_file
# --write_file: save video output
# -s: skip to last frame
# -w: write file without opening

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🧪 Running Tests

This repository includes comprehensive tests to ensure all code examples work correctly.

Test Manim Community Edition Skills

# Test all files
uv run python tests/manimce/test_all_skills.py

# Test specific file
uv run python tests/manimce/test_all_skills.py animations.md

# Run with multiple workers (faster)
uv run python tests/manimce/test_all_skills.py -j 4

Test ManimGL Skills

# Test all files
uv run python tests/manimgl/test_all_skills.py

# Test specific file
uv run python tests/manimgl/test_all_skills.py 3d.md

# Run with multiple workers (use caution - can cause OOM)
uv run python tests/manimgl/test_all_skills.py -j 4

Note: Parallel testing with many workers can cause out-of-memory errors. Use 4-6 workers max, or test files individually.

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🔍 Key Differences Between Versions

| Feature | Manim Community | ManimGL | |---------|----------------|---------| | Import | from manim import * | from manimlib import * | | CLI Command | manim | manimgl | | Scene Base Class | Scene, MovingCameraScene | Scene, InteractiveScene | | Creation Animation | Create() | ShowCreation() | | Text Class | Text(), MathTex() | Text(), Tex() | | 3D Rendering | Limited | Full OpenGL support | | Interactive Mode | No | Yes (-se flag, .embed()) | | Camera Control | MovingCameraScene | self.camera.frame | | Configuration | Python config | YAML files | | Color Constants | Same | Same + variations (e.g., BLUE_A, BLUE_E) |

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📚 Exploring Skills

For Manim Community Edition:

Start with these guides in skills/manimce-best-practices/rules/:

1. scenes.md - Scene structure and lifecycle
2. animations.md - Basic animation patterns
3. mobjects.md - Creating and manipulating objects
4. colors.md - Color systems and styling
5. text.md - Text and LaTeX rendering

For ManimGL:

Start with these guides in skills/manimgl-best-practices/rules/:

1. scenes.md - Scene types and InteractiveScene
2. animations.md - Animation fundamentals
3. camera.md - Camera movement and 3D orientation
4. 3d.md - 3D object creation and rendering
5. interactive.md - Interactive development workflow

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🤝 Contributing

Found an issue with an example? Want to add a new best practice?

1. Ensure your code example works with the target Manim version
2. Add it to the appropriate skill file
3. Run the tests to verify: uv run python tests/<version>/test_all_skills.py <filename>
4. Submit a pull request

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📄 License

This repository is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Note: This license applies to the educational materials and code examples in this repository. The underlying Manim frameworks (Manim Community Edition and ManimGL) have their own respective licenses.

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🔗 Resources

Manim Community Edition

• Documentation: https://docs.manim.community/
• Discord: https://www.manim.community/discord/
• GitHub: https://github.com/ManimCommunity/manim

ManimGL

• Documentation: https://3b1b.github.io/manim/
• GitHub: https://github.com/3b1b/manim
• Tutorial Videos: Grant's YouTube channel

General

• 3Blue1Brown: https://www.youtube.com/@3blue1brown
• Manim Community: https://www.manim.community/

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⚠️ Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"Command not found: manim/manimgl"

• Verify installation: pip list | grep manim
• Check PATH configuration
• Try: python -m manim or python -m manimlib

LaTeX errors

• Install full LaTeX distribution (not basic)
• ManimCE: Try manim --tex_template <template> with different templates
• ManimGL: Check `custom_defaults.y