The hook is the highest-leverage line in any piece of content. On a feed, attention is the scarce resource and the hook is the only thing competing for it — if the opening fails, nothing else you made gets seen. The opening earns a reason to continue; the body still has to deliver it.
Two ideas run through everything here:
- A hook works by opening a gap. Curiosity, tension, stakes, dissonance, self-relevance — the hook creates something the reader needs to resolve, and the only way to resolve it is to keep going. Hooks are about the mechanism, not the template. "The secret to X nobody tells you" is a dead template because it names a mechanism (curiosity) without earning it.
- A hook is a promise, and the content must pay it off. A hook that overpromises wins the tap and loses the trust — and can disappoint the audience. The strongest hooks are extracted from the truth of the content, not bolted on top of it.
Step 0 — Read the foundation first
Load brand-profile.md and voice.md. A hook in the wrong voice still fails; the fingerprint
and "never" list apply to the opening line as much as the body. If neither exists, run
brand-profile (and voice-builder if samples exist) first. Read any identity story, continuity and
delivery rules too. Caption/text, music, CTA and dialogue choices take precedence over format defaults.
Step 1 — Pin the format and its cutoff
A hook for a caption first line is not a hook for a video's first three seconds. Identify the
format and the constraint it imposes (see references/formats.md):
- Caption — one line before the "…more" cutoff (~125 chars on Instagram).
- Video — the opening moments: first frame, visible action and sound, plus text only when the brief permits it. Check muted comprehension honestly; dialogue-led meaning can depend on sound.
- Carousel cover — slide 1 is the hook; it must promise the swipe.
- Thread opener — the first post must promise the thread's payoff.
- YouTube — title + thumbnail together.
- Email — subject + preview text, mobile-truncated.
Step 2 — Find the hook in the content
Don't invent a hook and hope the content matches. Mine the actual material for its strongest raw element:
- the most surprising fact or result,
- the highest stakes or cost,
- the most specific number or detail,
- the sharpest point of view,
- the most relatable moment.
That element is the hook's raw material. This is what keeps hooks truthful and makes them feel earned rather than baited.
Step 3 — Generate many, across different mechanisms
Write 5–10 candidate hooks, deliberately using different mechanisms from
references/mechanisms.md (curiosity gap, contrarian, stakes, specificity, identity, story,
mistake, transformation, question, timeliness, authority). Variety is the point — the goal is
to find the strongest angle, not to reword one idea ten times. For a video-script handoff, develop 3–5 executable opening
variants, unless the user requests a different number. Each includes first frame/cast, performed
action, exact first words (or none), SFX/music as allowed, approximate timing, and a bridge into the
body. Change the staging, entry point or observable event, not just the sentence or mechanism label.
Keep the variants alternative ways into the same approved premise; do not add them as extra shots.
Step 4 — Score and select
Run the candidates through the rubric in references/scoring.md and keep the best 1–2. The
rubric checks the gap, specificity, truth, format cutoff and voice: would a stranger need the next
beat? For video, can the named cast perform the action within its time, from its initial pose, and
finish in a state that connects to the body? Discard
the rest without sentiment — most hooks you write should die.
Step 5 — Tune to format and voice; confirm the payoff
Polish the winner for the format (fit the caption preview; stage the video action and exact audio, with text only if permitted; make the carousel cover legible at a glance). Re-check it sounds like the brand. And confirm the content actually delivers what the hook promises — if it doesn't, change the hook, not the truth.
Deliver options, recommend one
Give the user 2–3 distinct hooks built on different mechanisms, then recommend one with a one-line reason tied to the goal/format. When feeding a script that requests 3–5 variants, deliver that set with the same recommendation; a user asking for one still receives one. Real alternatives beat a single take, and seeing different mechanisms helps the user feel why one lands hardest.
Video example — three different performed openers
Premise: a courier brings a ringing parcel into a clinic; the doctor treats the parcel. No captions. These fictional alternatives preserve that payoff:
| Mechanism | Opening visual/action | Exact audio | Bridge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Urgency | Courier recoils as the parcel rings, then looks at the clinic doorway | “Please stop ringing.” + ring | Braces doorway to enter |
| Failed solution | Courier muffles parcel under sleeve; ringing gets louder; uncovers it | No dialogue; fabric scrape + louder ring | Turns toward doorway |
| Absurd command | Courier taps parcel to shush it; parcel answers; courier points it at clinic | “Inside. Now.” + single ring | Carries it through doorway |
Budget each selected performance's actual time in short-form-video-script. A three-second target is not permission to rush a physical action or truncate a line. Recommend the opener that makes the problem and next action clearest; do not claim the choice is proven viral. If an option changes a required prop, cast member or payoff, label that story revision for re-review before motion.
Quality bar — self-check
- Does the hook open a gap a stranger needs to close?
- Is it specific (a real number, detail, or claim), not vague?
- Is it true — does the content pay it off without a bait-and-switch?
- Does it land inside the format's cutoff (chars, or the first 3 seconds)?
- Does it sound like them (fingerprint hit, "never" list respected)?
- Did you generate several mechanisms and pick the strongest, not settle for the first?
If it doesn't pass "would a stranger need the next beat?", it isn't a hook yet.
Edge cases
- Thin or vague content: ask what the single most surprising / highest-stakes element is. Don't fabricate a hook the content can't support.
- Nothing surprising in the content: that's a content problem, not a hook problem — say so, and either find the relatable angle or suggest sharpening the post itself.
- Sensitive/regulated topics: no fear-mongering, no overstated claims; respect the brand's compliance guardrails even in the opening line.
- Video with no captions: keep text absent; make the visual situation readable and use the approved dialogue/SFX. Note what a mute viewer misses instead of silently changing the format.
- Tempted to overpromise for reach: don't. A truthful, slightly less sensational hook that the content delivers beats a viral-bait line that burns trust and bounces.
Related skills
brand-profile,voice-builder— read first; supply voice and guardrails.caption-writer— uses this for the first line; this skill is the deep version.reels-script,tiktok-script,short-form-video-script— use this for the opening seconds.thread-writer— uses this for the thread opener.experimentation-and-ab-testing— when the stakes justify it, test the top 2–3 hooks on a real audience (YouTube's native thumbnail Test & Compare; rotating hooks across similar posts). The rubric picks your best guess; audience data outranks the rubric.
References
references/mechanisms.md— the hook mechanism taxonomy (why each one works).references/formats.md— hook craft by format and the cutoffs that govern each.references/scoring.md— the scoring rubric, the generate-and-select method, anti-patterns.references/examples.md— content → many hooks → scored → chosen, worked end to end.
