A Claude Code skill that helps you create mathematical animations with Manim — covering both ManimGL (3Blue1Brown's original library) and Manim Community.
- Write scenes from scratch — describe the animation you want and get working Python code
- Debug broken scenes — paste your code and get a diagnosis with a fix
- Navigate the API — know which classes, methods, and patterns to reach for without switching to docs
- Handle both versions — ManimGL and Community share a name but differ in imports, CLI, camera control, and key class names; the skill identifies which you're using and adapts
| Topic | Covered |
|---|---|
ManimGL (manimgl / from manimlib import *) |
✓ |
Manim Community (manim / from manim import *) |
✓ |
| 2D scenes, shapes, text, LaTeX | ✓ |
| Animations, transforms, transitions | ✓ |
Updaters and ValueTracker |
✓ |
| 3D scenes and camera control | ✓ |
ManimGL interactive shell (self.embed()) |
✓ |
| CLI flags and render quality options | ✓ |
| LaTeX setup and troubleshooting | ✓ |
First, add the marketplace (one-time):
/plugin marketplace add hartnady/manim-skill
Then install the plugin:
/plugin install manim@hartnady-plugins
The skill activates when you mention manim, manimgl, 3Blue1Brown, or 3b1b in the context of making or fixing animations — for example:
- "Write a manim scene that shows the Pythagorean theorem"
- "My manimgl camera zoom isn't working"
- "How do I animate a matrix transformation in manim community?"
- "I want to make a 3Blue1Brown-style explainer video"
ManimGL is Grant Sanderson's personal fork, used to produce 3Blue1Brown videos. It uses OpenGL for rendering, has an interactive IPython embed mode, and is installed as manimgl. Manim Community is a stable, well-documented fork maintained by the open-source community, installed as manim. They are not interchangeable — the skill knows the differences.