diff --git a/packages/cli/src/cli.ts b/packages/cli/src/cli.ts
index 372d13bfdf..ec9690a6af 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/cli.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/cli.ts
@@ -135,6 +135,7 @@ const subCommands = {
   validate: () => import("./commands/validate.js").then((m) => m.default),
   snapshot: () => import("./commands/snapshot.js").then((m) => m.default),
   capture: () => import("./commands/capture.js").then((m) => m.default),
+  "capture-video": () => import("./commands/capture-video.js").then((m) => m.default),
   lambda: () => import("./commands/lambda.js").then((m) => m.default),
   cloudrun: () => import("./commands/cloudrun.js").then((m) => m.default),
   cloud: () => import("./commands/cloud.js").then((m) => m.default),
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/capture-video.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/commands/capture-video.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f7210c3561
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/capture-video.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import {
+  MAX_VIDEO_BYTES,
+  VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE,
+  pickManifestEntry,
+  safeFilename,
+  type ManifestEntry,
+} from "./capture-video.js";
+
+const ENTRY = (index: number, partial: Partial<ManifestEntry> = {}): ManifestEntry => ({
+  index,
+  url: `https://cdn.example.com/video-${index}.mp4`,
+  filename: `video-${index}.mp4`,
+  width: 1920,
+  height: 1080,
+  heading: "",
+  caption: "",
+  ariaLabel: "",
+  preview: `assets/videos/previews/video-${index}-preview.png`,
+  ...partial,
+});
+
+describe("safeFilename", () => {
+  it("decodes percent-encoded chars", () => {
+    expect(safeFilename("Frame-2147227325%20(1).mp4")).toBe("Frame-2147227325_1_.mp4");
+  });
+
+  it("strips characters outside [A-Za-z0-9._-]", () => {
+    expect(safeFilename("video with spaces & symbols!.mp4")).toBe("video_with_spaces_symbols_.mp4");
+  });
+
+  it("preserves the extension and version markers", () => {
+    expect(safeFilename("hero.mp4")).toBe("hero.mp4");
+    expect(safeFilename("hero-v2.webm")).toBe("hero-v2.webm");
+  });
+
+  it("falls back when decodeURIComponent throws on a malformed sequence", () => {
+    // `%E0%A4%A` is a truncated UTF-8 multibyte sequence and throws URIError.
+    // We should keep the raw input rather than crashing.
+    expect(safeFilename("Bad%E0%A4%A.mp4")).toBe("Bad_E0_A4_A.mp4");
+  });
+
+  it("collapses runs of disallowed characters into a single underscore", () => {
+    expect(safeFilename("a   b___c")).toBe("a_b___c");
+  });
+});
+
+describe("VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE", () => {
+  it("matches common video content-types", () => {
+    expect(VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE.test("video/mp4")).toBe(true);
+    expect(VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE.test("video/webm")).toBe(true);
+    expect(VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE.test("video/quicktime")).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("matches application/* containers that CDNs commonly use", () => {
+    expect(VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE.test("application/mp4")).toBe(true);
+    expect(VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE.test("application/octet-stream")).toBe(true);
+    expect(VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE.test("application/x-mpegURL")).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("rejects HTML / JSON error pages that pretend to be videos", () => {
+    expect(VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE.test("text/html")).toBe(false);
+    expect(VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE.test("application/json")).toBe(false);
+    expect(VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE.test("image/png")).toBe(false);
+  });
+});
+
+describe("MAX_VIDEO_BYTES", () => {
+  it("is 250 MB", () => {
+    expect(MAX_VIDEO_BYTES).toBe(250 * 1024 * 1024);
+  });
+});
+
+describe("pickManifestEntry", () => {
+  it("returns no-selector when neither --index nor --url is given", () => {
+    const r = pickManifestEntry([ENTRY(0)], {});
+    expect(r.ok).toBe(false);
+    if (!r.ok) expect(r.code).toBe("no-selector");
+  });
+
+  it("looks up by the entry's `index` field, NOT array offset (manifest gaps)", () => {
+    // Captures with failed-preview entries skip the push, so `index` can have
+    // gaps. A user running `--index 3` after seeing `[3] hero` in --list
+    // should get the entry whose `index === 3`, even if it's not array[3].
+    const manifest = [ENTRY(0), ENTRY(2), ENTRY(3)]; // index 1 missing
+    const r = pickManifestEntry(manifest, { index: 3 });
+    expect(r.ok).toBe(true);
+    if (r.ok) expect(r.entry.url).toBe("https://cdn.example.com/video-3.mp4");
+  });
+
+  it("rejects a request for an index that's not in the manifest", () => {
+    const manifest = [ENTRY(0), ENTRY(2)]; // index 1 missing
+    const r = pickManifestEntry(manifest, { index: 1 });
+    expect(r.ok).toBe(false);
+    if (!r.ok) {
+      expect(r.code).toBe("no-match-index");
+      expect(r.message).toContain("index=1");
+      expect(r.message).toContain("available: 0, 2");
+    }
+  });
+
+  it("rejects a negative or non-integer index up front", () => {
+    expect(pickManifestEntry([ENTRY(0)], { index: -1 }).ok).toBe(false);
+    expect(pickManifestEntry([ENTRY(0)], { index: 1.5 }).ok).toBe(false);
+    expect(pickManifestEntry([ENTRY(0)], { index: "abc" }).ok).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it("accepts numeric-string indices (citty parses positional args as strings)", () => {
+    const r = pickManifestEntry([ENTRY(0), ENTRY(1)], { index: "1" });
+    expect(r.ok).toBe(true);
+    if (r.ok) expect(r.entry.index).toBe(1);
+  });
+
+  it("looks up by exact URL match", () => {
+    const manifest = [ENTRY(0), ENTRY(1)];
+    const r = pickManifestEntry(manifest, { url: "https://cdn.example.com/video-1.mp4" });
+    expect(r.ok).toBe(true);
+    if (r.ok) expect(r.entry.index).toBe(1);
+  });
+
+  it("rejects a URL that doesn't appear in the manifest", () => {
+    const manifest = [ENTRY(0)];
+    const r = pickManifestEntry(manifest, { url: "https://other.com/missing.mp4" });
+    expect(r.ok).toBe(false);
+    if (!r.ok) {
+      expect(r.code).toBe("no-match-url");
+      expect(r.message).toContain("missing.mp4");
+    }
+  });
+
+  it("when both --index and --url are passed, --index wins (CLI's declared priority)", () => {
+    const manifest = [ENTRY(0), ENTRY(1)];
+    const r = pickManifestEntry(manifest, {
+      index: 1,
+      url: "https://cdn.example.com/video-0.mp4",
+    });
+    expect(r.ok).toBe(true);
+    if (r.ok) expect(r.entry.index).toBe(1);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/capture-video.ts b/packages/cli/src/commands/capture-video.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6ad8ac9b74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/capture-video.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,289 @@
+import { defineCommand } from "citty";
+import { existsSync, mkdirSync, readFileSync, writeFileSync } from "node:fs";
+import { resolve, join, basename } from "node:path";
+import { c } from "../ui/colors.js";
+import { safeFetch } from "../capture/assetDownloader.js";
+import type { Example } from "./_examples.js";
+
+export const examples: Example[] = [
+  [
+    "Download the hero video (index 0) from a captured project's manifest",
+    "capture-video ./my-project --index 0",
+  ],
+  [
+    "Download a specific video by exact URL",
+    "capture-video ./my-project --url https://cdn.example.com/hero.mp4",
+  ],
+  ["List entries in the manifest without downloading", "capture-video ./my-project --list"],
+];
+
+/**
+ * The capture pipeline writes capture/extracted/video-manifest.json listing
+ * every <video> element on the source page (URL, dimensions, heading, caption,
+ * preview PNG) but deliberately does NOT download the mp4s — sites with
+ * dozens of feature videos would balloon the capture size to hundreds of MB.
+ *
+ * This command lets agents pull just the ONE video a beat needs (e.g.
+ * heygen.com's "Orb" hero animation at index 0) on demand. The downloaded
+ * file lands at capture/assets/videos/<filename-from-manifest> so beat
+ * compositions can reference it as `capture/assets/videos/<filename>` —
+ * same pattern as the captured SVGs and rasters.
+ */
+
+/** Max video size (250 MB) — a long social/marketing reel rarely exceeds 50 MB
+ * but allow headroom for higher-quality masters. Anything above this is almost
+ * certainly a misconfigured manifest URL pointing at the wrong asset.
+ */
+const MAX_VIDEO_BYTES = 250 * 1024 * 1024;
+
+/** Whitelist of content-types we accept. Anything else (XML/HTML error pages,
+ * tracking pixels, JSON, etc.) means the URL didn't actually point at a video.
+ */
+const VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE = /^(video\/|application\/(mp4|octet-stream|x-mpegurl))/i;
+
+// fallow-ignore-next-line complexity
+async function fetchToBuffer(url: string): Promise<Buffer> {
+  // safeFetch enforces SSRF protection (rejects private/metadata hosts AND
+  // re-validates on every redirect hop — a bare redirect:"follow" only checks
+  // the initial URL, so a public URL can 30x to 169.254.169.254 etc.).
+  const r = await safeFetch(url, {
+    signal: AbortSignal.timeout(120_000),
+    headers: { "User-Agent": "HyperFrames/1.0" },
+  });
+  if (!r) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `fetch blocked or failed (private/metadata host, redirect chain, or network error): ${url}`,
+    );
+  }
+  if (!r.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${r.status} ${r.statusText} for ${url}`);
+  const ct = r.headers.get("content-type") || "";
+  if (!VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE.test(ct)) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `unexpected content-type "${ct}" for ${url} — expected video/*. The URL probably doesn't point at a real video file.`,
+    );
+  }
+  const cl = r.headers.get("content-length");
+  if (cl && Number(cl) > MAX_VIDEO_BYTES) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `video too large (${Math.round(Number(cl) / 1024 / 1024)}MB > ${Math.round(MAX_VIDEO_BYTES / 1024 / 1024)}MB cap) for ${url}`,
+    );
+  }
+  const ab = await r.arrayBuffer();
+  if (ab.byteLength > MAX_VIDEO_BYTES) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `video body exceeds ${Math.round(MAX_VIDEO_BYTES / 1024 / 1024)}MB cap (got ${Math.round(ab.byteLength / 1024 / 1024)}MB) for ${url}`,
+    );
+  }
+  return Buffer.from(ab);
+}
+
+export function safeFilename(name: string): string {
+  // Manifest filenames sometimes carry URL-encoded chars (e.g.
+  // "Frame-2147227325%20(1).mp4"). Decode and replace anything that
+  // could be hostile on disk while keeping the extension intact.
+  let decoded = name;
+  try {
+    decoded = decodeURIComponent(name);
+  } catch {
+    /* keep raw */
+  }
+  return decoded.replace(/[^A-Za-z0-9._-]+/g, "_");
+}
+
+/** Exported for tests — matches the content types a real video URL returns. */
+export { VIDEO_CONTENT_TYPE_RE, MAX_VIDEO_BYTES };
+
+export interface ManifestEntry {
+  index: number;
+  url: string;
+  filename: string;
+  width: number;
+  height: number;
+  heading: string;
+  caption: string;
+  ariaLabel: string;
+  preview: string;
+}
+
+export type PickResult =
+  | { ok: true; entry: ManifestEntry }
+  | {
+      ok: false;
+      code: "no-selector" | "bad-index" | "no-match-index" | "no-match-url";
+      message: string;
+    };
+
+/**
+ * Pick a manifest entry from `--index N` or `--url URL`. Looks up by the
+ * entry's own `index` field (NOT array offset — `captureVideoManifest` can
+ * skip videos whose preview screenshot fails, leaving gaps in `index`).
+ */
+export function pickManifestEntry(
+  manifest: ManifestEntry[],
+  args: { index?: string | number | null; url?: string | null },
+): PickResult {
+  if (args.index != null) {
+    const i = Number(args.index);
+    if (!Number.isInteger(i) || i < 0) {
+      return {
+        ok: false,
+        code: "bad-index",
+        message: `--index ${args.index} must be a non-negative integer`,
+      };
+    }
+    const found = manifest.find((e) => e.index === i);
+    if (!found) {
+      const available = manifest.map((e) => e.index).join(", ");
+      return {
+        ok: false,
+        code: "no-match-index",
+        message: `no manifest entry with index=${i} (available: ${available || "none"})`,
+      };
+    }
+    return { ok: true, entry: found };
+  }
+  if (args.url != null) {
+    const found = manifest.find((e) => e.url === args.url);
+    if (!found) {
+      return { ok: false, code: "no-match-url", message: `no manifest entry with url=${args.url}` };
+    }
+    return { ok: true, entry: found };
+  }
+  return {
+    ok: false,
+    code: "no-selector",
+    message: "specify --index <N> or --url <URL> (or --list to see what's in the manifest)",
+  };
+}
+
+export default defineCommand({
+  meta: {
+    name: "capture-video",
+    description:
+      "Download a video referenced in capture/extracted/video-manifest.json (on-demand; the capture pipeline only writes the manifest + preview PNGs)",
+  },
+  args: {
+    project: {
+      type: "positional",
+      description: "Path to the captured project directory",
+      required: true,
+    },
+    index: {
+      type: "string",
+      description: "Manifest entry index to download (0-based)",
+    },
+    url: {
+      type: "string",
+      description: "Exact video URL to download (must match a manifest entry)",
+    },
+    list: {
+      type: "boolean",
+      description: "List manifest entries (index, dimensions, heading) and exit",
+    },
+  },
+  // CLI orchestrator: arg parsing + manifest layout detection + lookup + download
+  // + snippet output + error paths. Cyclomatic count is intrinsic to the surface,
+  // not accidental complexity.
+  // fallow-ignore-next-line complexity
+  async run({ args }) {
+    const projectDir = resolve(String(args.project));
+    // `hyperframes capture <url> --output <dir>` writes <dir>/extracted/...
+    // A W2H project nests its capture output under <project>/capture/extracted/... instead.
+    // Accept both so this command works on either layout without the user juggling subdirs.
+    const directPath = join(projectDir, "extracted", "video-manifest.json");
+    const w2hPath = join(projectDir, "capture", "extracted", "video-manifest.json");
+    const manifestPath = existsSync(directPath) ? directPath : w2hPath;
+    const isW2hLayout = manifestPath === w2hPath;
+    if (!existsSync(manifestPath)) {
+      console.error(
+        `${c.error("✗")} no video-manifest.json at ${directPath} or ${w2hPath}\n` +
+          `  Was this directory produced by \`hyperframes capture\`?`,
+      );
+      process.exitCode = 1;
+      return;
+    }
+    let manifest: ManifestEntry[];
+    try {
+      manifest = JSON.parse(readFileSync(manifestPath, "utf-8"));
+    } catch (e) {
+      console.error(`${c.error("✗")} video-manifest.json is malformed: ${(e as Error).message}`);
+      process.exitCode = 1;
+      return;
+    }
+
+    if (args.list) {
+      if (manifest.length === 0) {
+        console.log(c.dim("(manifest is empty — no <video> elements on the captured page)"));
+        return;
+      }
+      console.log(
+        `${manifest.length} video entr${manifest.length === 1 ? "y" : "ies"} in ${manifestPath}:`,
+      );
+      for (const e of manifest) {
+        console.log(
+          `  ${c.bold(`[${e.index}]`)} ${e.filename} — ${e.width}×${e.height}` +
+            (e.heading ? `\n      heading: "${e.heading}"` : "") +
+            `\n      url: ${e.url}`,
+        );
+      }
+      return;
+    }
+
+    const pick = pickManifestEntry(manifest, args);
+    if (!pick.ok) {
+      console.error(
+        `${c.error("✗")} ${pick.message}` +
+          (pick.code === "no-match-url" ? `\n  Run with --list to see what's available.` : ""),
+      );
+      process.exitCode = 1;
+      return;
+    }
+    const entry = pick.entry;
+
+    // Match the layout detected from where the manifest was found.
+    const outDir = isW2hLayout
+      ? join(projectDir, "capture", "assets", "videos")
+      : join(projectDir, "assets", "videos");
+    mkdirSync(outDir, { recursive: true });
+    const fname = safeFilename(entry.filename || basename(entry.url));
+    const outPath = join(outDir, fname);
+    const relPath = isW2hLayout ? `capture/assets/videos/${fname}` : `assets/videos/${fname}`;
+
+    // No upstream existsSync precheck — that's a TOCTOU race source by
+    // construction (CodeQL js/file-system-race). The atomic exclusive
+    // create below is the single source of truth for "already downloaded?"
+    // and "create new file" — there is no gap for another process to win.
+    console.log(
+      `${c.accent("▸")} downloading [${entry.index}] ${entry.filename} (${entry.width}×${entry.height})`,
+    );
+    console.log(`     from: ${entry.url}`);
+    try {
+      const buf = await fetchToBuffer(entry.url);
+      // `flag: "wx"` = exclusive create: throws EEXIST if outPath exists.
+      // Race-free check-and-create in one syscall.
+      try {
+        writeFileSync(outPath, buf, { flag: "wx" });
+      } catch (writeErr) {
+        if ((writeErr as NodeJS.ErrnoException).code === "EEXIST") {
+          console.log(`${c.warn("⚠")}  already downloaded: ${relPath} (skipping)`);
+          console.log(`     Delete the file and re-run to refetch.`);
+          return;
+        }
+        throw writeErr;
+      }
+      const sizeKb = Math.round(buf.length / 1024);
+      const sizeStr = sizeKb > 1024 ? `${(sizeKb / 1024).toFixed(1)}MB` : `${sizeKb}KB`;
+      console.log(`${c.success("◇")}  wrote ${relPath} (${sizeStr})`);
+      // `id` is required by the media lint rule (`media_missing_id`) and the
+      // producer's media discovery; without one the video renders frozen.
+      const snippetId = `video-${entry.index}`;
+      console.log(
+        `     Reference it from a beat composition as:\n` +
+          `       <video id="${snippetId}" src="${relPath}" data-start="0" data-duration="${entry.width === entry.height ? 5 : 4}" data-track-index="0" autoplay muted loop></video>`,
+      );
+    } catch (e) {
+      console.error(`${c.error("✗")} download failed: ${(e as Error).message}`);
+      process.exitCode = 1;
+    }
+  },
+});
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/help.ts b/packages/cli/src/help.ts
index 44acb3737d..34f1dd3b36 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/help.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/help.ts
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ const GROUPS: Group[] = [
       ["init", "Scaffold a new composition project"],
       ["add", "Install a block or component from the registry"],
       ["capture", "Capture a website for video production"],
+      ["capture-video", "Download a video referenced in a capture manifest"],
       ["catalog", "Browse and install blocks and components"],
       ["preview", "Start the studio for previewing compositions"],
       ["publish", "Upload a project and get a stable public URL"],