name: heygen-avatars
description: Best practices for HeyGen - AI avatar video creation API. Use when creating AI avatar videos, generating talking head videos, or integrating HeyGen with Remotion.
tags: [heygen, video, avatar, ai, api, text-to-video, remotion]

HeyGen Avatars

AI avatar video creation using HeyGen API for talking head videos, avatar generation, and text-to-video workflows.

Quick Start

// Check remaining quota
const response = await fetch("https://api.heygen.com/v2/user/remaining_quota", {
  headers: { "X-Api-Key": process.env.HEYGEN_API_KEY! }
});

// Generate avatar video
const video = await fetch("https://api.heygen.com/v2/video/generate", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "X-Api-Key": process.env.HEYGEN_API_KEY!,
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    video_inputs: [{
      character: { type: "avatar", avatar_id: "your-avatar-id" },
      voice: { type: "text", input_text: "Hello world!", voice_id: "your-voice-id" }
    }],
    dimension: { width: 1280, height: 720 }
  })
});

When to use

Use this skill whenever you are dealing with HeyGen API code to obtain domain-specific knowledge for creating AI avatar videos, managing avatars, handling video generation workflows, and integrating with HeyGen's services.

How to use

Read individual rule files for detailed explanations and code examples:

Foundation

• rules/authentication.md - API key setup, X-Api-Key header, and authentication patterns
• rules/quota.md - Credit system, usage limits, and checking remaining quota
• rules/video-status.md - Polling patterns, status types, and retrieving download URLs
• rules/assets.md - Uploading images, videos, and audio for use in video generation

Core Video Creation

• rules/avatars.md - Listing avatars, avatar styles, and avatar_id selection
• rules/voices.md - Listing voices, locales, speed/pitch configuration
• rules/scripts.md - Writing scripts, pauses/breaks, pacing, and structure templates
• rules/video-generation.md - POST /v2/video/generate workflow and multi-scene videos
• rules/video-agent.md - One-shot prompt video generation with Video Agent API
• rules/dimensions.md - Resolution options (720p/1080p) and aspect ratios

Video Customization

• rules/backgrounds.md - Solid colors, images, and video backgrounds
• rules/text-overlays.md - Adding text with fonts and positioning
• rules/captions.md - Auto-generated captions and subtitle options

Advanced Features

• rules/templates.md - Template listing and variable replacement
• rules/video-translation.md - Translating videos, quality/fast modes, and dubbing
• rules/streaming-avatars.md - Real-time interactive avatar sessions
• rules/photo-avatars.md - Creating avatars from photos (talking photos)
• rules/webhooks.md - Registering webhook endpoints and event types

Integration

• rules/remotion-integration.md - Using HeyGen avatar videos in Remotion compositions