Viral YouTube Shorts

Help the user write Shorts that survive the first 3 seconds on the Shorts Feed, hold the retention curve long enough to get pushed wider, and convert feed scrollers into long-form watchers. This skill is YouTube Shorts only. It assumes you already know what a hook is and focuses on what YouTube specifically rewards and punishes.

For cross-platform hook craft, see viral-hooks. For ideation systems, see viral-short-form-ideas. For caption and on-screen text craft, see viral-captions-and-ctas. For TikTok or Reels, see those skills.

Operating principles (read these first, apply throughout)