How to add a QR code overlay with Claude

A white card with a scannable QR code and "SCAN TO SHOP" underneath slides up into the bottom-right corner and stays there for the last five seconds.

Get this effect

  1. Switch to Code in your Claude Desktop App

  2. Install the skill (once)

    Show the prompt
    Install the Recharm video effects skill: download https://recharm-growth-staging.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/website/downloads/recharm-video-effects.zip and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills
  3. Ask for the effect

    Add a QR code overlay to input.mp4
    Label: SCAN TO SHOP

Several videos, several effects, one ask

Put your clips in the folder, mention them with @, and ask for everything at once. Claude runs one tested script after another on each clip, then joins them.

Add a qr code overlay to @clip1.mp4, put a sale badge on @clip2.mp4, give @clip3.mp4 a VHS look, then join all three with crossfades.

Settings you can change

Ask Claude to change any of these, or edit them at the top of the script.

SettingDefaultWhat it does
LINKhttps://recharm.comWhat the code opens, up to 53 characters.
LABELSCAN TO SHOPThe line under the code.
START1.0Second the card appears. It stays to the end, so leave at least 5 seconds for viewers to scan.
SLIDE0.4Seconds the card takes to slide up and fade in.
MODULE5Pixels per QR square. Keep it a whole number so the squares stay crisp for phone cameras.
MARGIN24, 60Gap in pixels from the right and bottom edges of the frame.

Without the skill

Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the script itself.

Show the prompt
Add a QR code overlay to input.mp4. Encode "https://recharm.com" as a version 3 QR code (29x29 squares, low error correction) and draw each square as exactly 5x5 pixels, black on white, with a 4-square (20 pixel) white quiet zone all round, so the code is 185 pixels square. Put it on a pure white (255, 255, 255) card with 18 pixel rounded corners, 185 pixels wide and 229 pixels tall, with "SCAN TO SHOP" in black bold 18 pixel text centered under the code, and a soft dark drop shadow 6 pixels below it. Place the card so its right edge is 24 pixels from the right of the frame and its bottom edge 60 pixels from the bottom. At 1.0 seconds it slides up 40 pixels into place while fading in over 0.4 seconds (ease out), then stays until the end. Keep the rest of the frame untouched. If no QR library is installed, write the encoder in plain Python. Draw the card and text with Pillow (not ffmpeg's drawtext filter), composite it with ffmpeg, keep the audio and save it as output.mp4.

Run it without Claude

This is the exact script we tested. Save it as qr-code-overlay.py and run:

python3 qr-code-overlay.py input.mp4 output.mp4
Show the script
#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""QR code overlay: a white "SCAN TO SHOP" card with a scannable QR code slides up into the bottom-right corner.

Usage: python3 qr-code-overlay.py input.mp4 output.mp4
Needs ffmpeg, Pillow and numpy (pip install pillow numpy). The QR code is encoded right here, so no QR library.
"""
import json
import math
import subprocess
import sys
from pathlib import Path

import numpy as np
from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageFilter, ImageFont

LINK = "https://recharm.com"   # what the code opens (up to 53 characters)
LABEL = "SCAN TO SHOP"         # line under the code
START = 1.0                    # second the card appears; it stays to the end
SLIDE = 0.4                    # seconds it takes to slide up and fade in
MODULE = 5                     # pixels per QR square; whole pixels keep the edges crisp for phone cameras
MARGIN = 24, 60                # gap from the right and bottom edges of the frame, in pixels
FONTS = ["/System/Library/Fonts/Supplemental/Arial Bold.ttf",     # macOS
         "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf",  # Linux
         "C:/Windows/Fonts/arialbd.ttf"]                          # Windows
FONT_FILE = next((f for f in FONTS if Path(f).exists()), None) or sys.exit("No bold font found: add one to FONTS")


# --- QR encoder: version 3 (29x29 squares), low error correction, byte mode, mask 0 ---

def gf_mul(x, y):
    """Multiply in GF(256), the arithmetic QR's Reed-Solomon error correction uses."""
    z = 0
    for i in reversed(range(8)):
        z = (z << 1) ^ ((z >> 7) * 0x11D)
        z ^= ((y >> i) & 1) * x
    return z


def error_correction(data, n=15):
    divisor, root = [0] * (n - 1) + [1], 1
    for _ in range(n):
        for j in range(n):
            divisor[j] = gf_mul(divisor[j], root) ^ (divisor[j + 1] if j + 1 < n else 0)
        root = gf_mul(root, 2)
    rem = [0] * n
    for b in data:
        factor = b ^ rem.pop(0)
        rem.append(0)
        rem = [r ^ gf_mul(c, factor) for r, c in zip(rem, divisor)]
    return rem


def qr_matrix(text, size=29, capacity=55):
    payload = text.encode()
    bits = "0100" + f"{len(payload):08b}" + "".join(f"{b:08b}" for b in payload) + "0000"
    data = [int(bits[i:i + 8].ljust(8, "0"), 2) for i in range(0, len(bits), 8)]
    data += [0xEC, 0x11] * ((capacity - len(data)) // 2) + [0xEC] * ((capacity - len(data)) % 2)
    codewords = data + error_correction(data)

    grid = [[None] * size for _ in range(size)]   # grid[y][x]: True dark, False light, None free for data
    for i in range(size):                         # timing lines
        grid[6][i] = grid[i][6] = i % 2 == 0
    for cx, cy in [(3, 3), (size - 4, 3), (3, size - 4)]:   # finder squares with their light borders
        for dy in range(-4, 5):
            for dx in range(-4, 5):
                if 0 <= cx + dx < size and 0 <= cy + dy < size:
                    grid[cy + dy][cx + dx] = max(abs(dx), abs(dy)) not in (2, 4)
    for dy in range(-2, 3):                       # alignment square
        for dx in range(-2, 3):
            grid[22 + dy][22 + dx] = max(abs(dx), abs(dy)) != 1
    fmt = 0b01000                                 # level L, mask 0
    rem = fmt
    for _ in range(10):
        rem = (rem << 1) ^ ((rem >> 9) * 0x537)
    fmt_bits = [((fmt << 10 | rem) ^ 0x5412) >> i & 1 == 1 for i in range(15)]
    for i in range(15):                           # format info, twice
        x, y = [(8, 0), (8, 1), (8, 2), (8, 3), (8, 4), (8, 5), (8, 7), (8, 8), (7, 8),
                (5, 8), (4, 8), (3, 8), (2, 8), (1, 8), (0, 8)][i]
        grid[y][x] = fmt_bits[i]
        x, y = (size - 1 - i, 8) if i < 8 else (8, size - 15 + i)
        grid[y][x] = fmt_bits[i]
    grid[size - 8][8] = True                      # the one always-dark square

    stream = [(c >> (7 - k)) & 1 == 1 for c in codewords for k in range(8)]
    i = 0
    for right in range(size - 1, 0, -2):          # zigzag up and down two columns at a time
        right -= right <= 6
        for vert in range(size):
            y = size - 1 - vert if (right + 1) & 2 == 0 else vert
            for x in (right, right - 1):
                if grid[y][x] is None:
                    grid[y][x] = (i < len(stream) and stream[i]) != ((x + y) % 2 == 0)
                    i += 1
    return np.array(grid, bool)


def card():
    """White rounded card: the code with its quiet zone, the label underneath, and a soft shadow."""
    code = qr_matrix(LINK)
    quiet = 4 * MODULE
    side = code.shape[0] * MODULE + 2 * quiet
    label_h = round(side * 0.24)
    cw, ch = side, side + label_h
    pad = 16
    img = Image.new("RGBA", (cw + 2 * pad, ch + 2 * pad))
    shadow = Image.new("RGBA", img.size)
    ImageDraw.Draw(shadow).rounded_rectangle([pad, pad + 6, pad + cw, pad + ch + 6], 18, fill=(0, 0, 0, 110))
    img.alpha_composite(shadow.filter(ImageFilter.GaussianBlur(8)))
    draw = ImageDraw.Draw(img)
    draw.rounded_rectangle([pad, pad, pad + cw - 1, pad + ch - 1], 18, fill="white")
    squares = Image.fromarray(np.where(code, 0, 255).astype(np.uint8)).resize(
        (code.shape[0] * MODULE,) * 2, Image.NEAREST)
    img.paste(squares, (pad + quiet, pad + quiet))
    font = ImageFont.truetype(FONT_FILE, round(label_h * 0.42))
    draw.text((pad + cw / 2, pad + side + label_h * 0.32), LABEL, font=font, anchor="mm", fill="black")
    return img, pad


def overlay(t):
    img = Image.new("RGBA", (w, h))
    p = min(max((t - START) / SLIDE, 0), 1)
    if p > 0:
        ease = 1 - (1 - p) ** 3
        x = w - MARGIN[0] - full.width + pad
        y = h - MARGIN[1] - full.height + pad + round(40 * (1 - ease))
        layer = full.copy()
        layer.putalpha(layer.getchannel("A").point(lambda a: round(a * ease)))
        img.alpha_composite(layer, (x, y))
    return img


def probe(path):
    info = json.loads(subprocess.check_output(["ffprobe", "-v", "error", "-select_streams", "v:0", "-show_entries",
                                               "stream=width,height,r_frame_rate:format=duration", "-of", "json", path]))
    s = info["streams"][0]
    num, den = s["r_frame_rate"].split("/")
    return s["width"], s["height"], s["r_frame_rate"], float(num) / float(den), float(info["format"]["duration"])


def render(src, out):
    """Draw overlay(t) on every frame of src and save to out, keeping the audio."""
    ff = subprocess.Popen(["ffmpeg", "-y", "-v", "error", "-i", src,
                           "-f", "rawvideo", "-pix_fmt", "rgba", "-s", f"{w}x{h}", "-r", rate, "-i", "-",
                           "-filter_complex", "[0:v][1:v]overlay=shortest=1,format=yuv420p[v]",
                           "-map", "[v]", "-map", "0:a?", "-c:v", "libx264", "-crf", "18", "-c:a", "copy", out],
                          stdin=subprocess.PIPE)
    for i in range(math.ceil(duration * fps)):
        ff.stdin.write(overlay(i / fps).tobytes())
    ff.stdin.close()
    if ff.wait():
        sys.exit("ffmpeg failed")


src, out = sys.argv[1:3]
w, h, rate, fps, duration = probe(src)
full, pad = card()
render(src, out)

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