Ask an agent to make a video
4 minute read · Chats & Local Agents
A coding agent in a project chat can prepare and submit a video request for you. It picks a compatible model from your saved OpenRouter account, checks the estimated cost against a budget, waits for the result and reviews the returned clip. The chat keeps its own provider and model.
- Before you ask
- Write a request with a budget
- How the budget is enforced
- Approval depends on the access mode
- Follow the job and its result
- What the agent's review proves
Before you ask
- Connect an OpenRouter account in Settings → AI providers. Video requests use that account's API key and the provider's own billing. A chat subscription with another provider is not API access for video.
- Open a project chat with a local coding agent that is connected to Vortex tools. Direct OpenRouter chats, SSH-hosted runs and Plan mode do not submit agent video requests.
- Attach the images, videos or written brief the clip should follow.
For manual generation with saved Versions, select a video model yourself instead; see images, video and audio.
Write a request with a budget
Describe the result, the material to preserve, the length and the destination format, then state the most you want to spend on that request:
“Make an 8-second vertical clip from the attached product photo. Keep the label readable and the camera slow. Spend at most $3.”
The agent lists the saved accounts and current video models, inspects your attachments and chooses a model, frames, reference roles, duration, resolution, aspect ratio and sound only from the options that model advertises. Your explicit requirements take precedence. It should explain its choice and the estimated total before submitting. When you give no budget, it must choose a modest ceiling for that request and tell you what it is before spending.
How the budget is enforced
Before any paid request, the agent asks Vortex for a quote with the exact materials and settings. The request is blocked, with No paid request was submitted, when:
- the estimate is above your limit;
- the model publishes no usable video price; or
- the request needs a source video or audio input, continuation, upscaling or more than one output, because those cannot be estimated automatically.
Prices are checked again just before submission. The estimate is conservative and excludes unverified promotions, but the provider does not enforce a hard dollar cap on each request. After completion the job records the reported charge as within the limit, exceeded or not reported. An exceeded charge is reported to you; nothing is regenerated automatically.
Approval depends on the access mode
| Access mode | What happens before submission |
|---|---|
| Plan | Models and quotes can be read. Generation is refused until you switch to Build. |
| Supervised or Auto-edit | An approval card titled Generate video with OpenRouter shows the account, model, prompt, settings, materials, reason, budget and estimate. |
| Auto or Full access | The paid request is submitted without a separate approval. Include the budget in your message. |
Read the approval details before accepting. Changing the attached materials while an approval is waiting cancels that submission. A stable request ID prevents a retried call from paying twice.
Follow the job and its result
The request appears under Background tasks in the chat as Generate video, with the status Running, Finished, Failed, Stopped or Interrupted. The chat resumes automatically when the job finishes. A job can run for up to 40 minutes. Jobs and their progress belong to the computer that started them.
The returned MP4 is saved as an encrypted generated file on the agent's reply, with playback and download controls. It is not added to Versions.
If Vortex restarts during a job, the job is marked interrupted. Ask the agent to resume it: resuming checks the provider job already recorded and downloads a finished result. It never submits a new paid request. Review what happened before asking for another attempt.
What the agent's review proves
After the job, the agent plays the clip muted from start to end in an isolated, offline viewer and checks:
- duration, dimensions, resolution and aspect ratio against the saved settings;
- whether playback completed and whether frames were dropped;
- whether the audio track decodes, with level and peak readings;
- 12 frames sampled across the clip.
It then compares the frames with your source images and brief, and reports subject fidelity, action and timing, camera, unwanted changes, motion between samples, and audio as passed, failed or unverified with timestamps. Full review covers clips up to 60 seconds and 17 megapixels.
Frame-rate, quality presets, motion between samples and what the audio actually says remain unverified. Audio levels do not prove speech, music or synchronization. Watch and listen to the clip yourself before publishing it.
Related guides: permissions and approvals, background scripts and results, generation versions.