Show HN: Ottoclip – Treat product demos and guides like compiled code

1 points by ttruong 7 hours ago

Hi HN! At my last startup, we'd spend days creating demo videos and tutorials. Then we'd ship a product update that made them all outdated. This happened every few months. We eventually delayed creating new content because it was too much work to update them--even though it caused onboarding problems, support tickets, and misperceptions about our product.

The core problem is that traditional content production treats online products like physical products that rarely change. But online products aren't static--they're constantly evolving to meet user needs, so their content needs to be able to evolve too.

I built Ottoclip to solve this by treating product content like compiled code: you maintain the source script, and we compile it into content in multiple formats--narrated video, interactive demo, looping animation, and in-app guide. Ottoclip accomplishes this by handling the manual post-production work for you.

Here's how it works:

A browser extension records your actions as you use your product and generates a script with default narrations. You edit the narrations to add context. Hit generate and you get multiple content formats from that single source. When your product changes, just update the script and regenerate everything. No re-recording video. No syncing audio. No repositioning callouts.

The interesting technical bit: instead of baking the video, audio, and interactive elements together during production (like traditional video content), I built a player that combines them at playback time. This means you can:

* Use one video for all formats * Change the narration without touching the video * Opens the door for multi-language voice-overs from a single video * Makes it possible to stitch content on-the-fly for personalized demos

I'm also building a CLI tool so you can test your scripts locally and auto-update them when you deploy changes. Basically making content updates part of your CI/CD pipeline.

I've been using Ottoclip on Ottoclip since the first prototype and it's been freeing to not worry about content going stale as I add new features, which has allowed me to iterate faster. But I'm curious: does this resonate with you? What am I missing?

Try it at https://www.ottoclip.com or check out examples at https://www.ottoclip.com/gallery. Would love your feedback!