Find your niche's winning video formats with Claude (/formats-watchlist)
Hey, it's Cindy 🌱 This tool reads your whole watchlist and shows you the format distribution behind the winners, as a visual report you can drill into.
btw the waitlist for AI System Club is now open! If you're keen on using AI to automate your content, video editing, job search, business or build AI agents, feel free to sign up (only if you want to hehe). Ps. the waitlist gets first dibs:)
the setup, once
Connect Sandcastles to Claude
You need Sandcastles (Pro plan or above) connected to the Claude desktop app, with an analyzed watchlist. Full setup in the research machine guide.
Complete the connection once
Get the account-specific plugin. In Sandcastles, open Settings, then Connectors, then the MCP section and download the plugin ZIP. MCP access requires an eligible paid Sandcastles plan; check the current plan before buying.
Install in Claude Desktop. Open Customize, Plugins, Add, then Upload Plugin. Upload the ZIP. In the plugin page's Connectors area, choose Install, then Add for the prefilled Sandcastles connector.
Authorize your account. Open Customize, Connectors, find Sandcastles (Custom), choose Connect and complete the Sandcastles sign-in. Confirm the connected state before trying the workflow.
Populate a small watchlist. Use /channels-add with a few creator profile URLs and confirm the returned additions. Use /videos-watchlist to fetch a small sample. Ask Claude to list which examples need /analyze, show the proposed credit cost, and wait for your approval before running those analyses. Confirm that transcripts or analysis results exist before asking for topic, hook or format patterns.
Limit permissions and test. Review the connector's tools. Keep approval enabled for paid analysis or changes until you understand the action and credit cost. Ask Claude to list the available Sandcastles tools and read a small sample from your chosen creator or watchlist.
The official Sandcastles setup documents this installation route. Start with a small watchlist and a few analyzed examples. Ask Claude to identify missing inputs and the proposed credit-using analysis before expanding the sample; an empty dataset is not evidence that a niche has no winners.
These slash commands belong to the installed Sandcastles plugin, not native Claude. If a command is unavailable, describe the same request in plain language and ask Claude to use the connected tools. If sign-in fails, check browser pop-up permissions and organization connector restrictions. Do not paste account passwords or API keys into a prompt.
the workflow
Map the formats
📊 the formats prompt
/formats-watchlist Look back at the last 60 days of videos we've analyzed across my watchlist. Show me the distribution of the best-performing formats as a visual report, and under each format give me the links to the individual videos so I can watch them. Also call out any sub-flavors you notice inside a format, like "talking head but with a printed prop" versus plain talking head.
what comes back
The format report
A visual breakdown of which formats are winning in your niche and by how much, with the videos behind each bar one click away. The sub-flavor ask matters: "screen recording" as a category is bland, but "screen recording that opens on the finished result before the steps" is a directable difference you can copy tomorrow.
💡 Pro move: cross it with your own filming constraints. If the winning format is one you can batch-film (talking head + screen record), you've just found where the algorithm and your calendar agree.