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Background Video Hero

A muted looping video behind the headline that stays readable and loads politely.

simple Media & Video

What it adds

A decorative looping video layer behind hero content, with a still image fallback and strict load conditions.

What your agent is told to do

5
  1. 1

    Treat the video as decoration. The headline, subheading, and call to action must be fully legible and functional if the video never loads at all.

  2. 2

    Give the hero a fixed height or aspect ratio through the app's Media Aspect Ratio System before anything loads, so the page does not reflow when the video or the poster arrives.

  3. 3

    Always set a poster image that is the first frame of the loop, so the transition from still to motion is invisible rather than a visible swap.

  4. 4

    Load the video only after the page is interactive and only on connections and screens where it makes sense. Everywhere else, the poster image is the hero.

  5. 5

    Do not add controls, sound, or a pause button that does nothing. A background video must be muted, must loop, and must carry no audio track at all so it cannot compete with anything the user is playing.

Edge cases it handles

8
  • Honour reduced motion and data saver preferences by showing the still image and never requesting the video. Reuse the app's Reduced Motion Support rather than checking the preference again in this component.
  • Text over moving video loses contrast at unpredictable frames. Put a fixed overlay or gradient between the video and the text and verify contrast against the brightest frame in the loop, not against an average.
  • Do not download the video on small screens or metered connections. A hero video is the largest asset on most marketing pages, and a phone on cellular data pays for it before seeing a word of the copy.
  • A loop whose last frame does not match its first produces a visible jump every few seconds. Either cut the source so the seam matches or cross-fade the restart.
  • Pause playback when the hero scrolls out of view and resume when it returns. A video decoding off-screen drains battery for nothing.
  • The video element must be hidden from assistive technology and excluded from the tab order. It carries no information and should not be announced or focusable.
  • Encode a small, short loop rather than a long high-bitrate clip scaled down in the browser. Compress the source through whatever the app already uses for media rather than uploading a raw export.
  • If the video fails to load or decode, the poster must remain rather than collapsing to a blank or black hero.

Definition of done

9
  • Hero text and calls to action are legible and functional with the video absent.
  • The hero reserves its dimensions before any media loads and the page does not shift.
  • Reduced motion and data saver preferences result in the still image with no video request.
  • No video is requested on small screens or metered connections.
  • Text meets contrast requirements against the brightest frame of the loop.
  • The loop restarts without a visible seam, and playback pauses when the hero leaves the viewport.
  • The video is muted, has no audio track, and is hidden from assistive technology and the tab order.
  • The feature matches the existing design system.
  • No existing functionality is broken.

Related features

How it works

  1. 1

    Copy the link

    Grab the Markdown instruction URL for this feature.

  2. 2

    Give it to your AI

    Paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Lovable — whatever you build with.

  3. 3

    It inspects, then implements

    Your agent reads your existing app first, then adds the feature to fit it.

Works with your stack

These instructions are written to adapt. They tell the agent to detect your framework, match your existing design system, and reuse what you already have — rather than assuming a particular stack.

Need it tighter than that? Customize the feature and tell it exactly what you're running.