general-video · diff
git:20260820.56c099a to v1.0.0
124 added, 102 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: general-video
- description: >
- The fallback workflow for authoring custom HyperFrames video compositions at
- any length or format — longer or multi-scene pieces, brand / sizzle reels,
- montages, title cards, static loops, and freeform compositions. Input- and
- length-agnostic. If a specialized workflow clearly fits the input — a
- marketed product, a website, a topic explainer, a GitHub PR, existing
- footage, a short motion graphic, or a Remotion port — prefer it (see
- /hyperframes); use this only as the general fallback when none fit.
- metadata: { "tags": "orchestrator, general-video, fallback, freeform, composition-authoring" }
+ description: >-
+ Use when author or edit a custom HyperFrames composition when no specialized workflow fits, or when BRIEF.md sets flow: companion. Use for longer or multi-scene pieces, brand and sizzle reels, montages, static loops, static title cards, footage remixes, and freeform builds. Use motion-graphics instead for a short unnarrated motion-first unit, including an animated title. Route fresh creation through hyperframes before using this skill.
+ author: HeyGen
+ coauthored: J StaR Films / Takomi
+ version: 1.0.0
---
- > **media-use**: Before sourcing audio/images, call `/media-use` to resolve BGM/SFX/images from the HeyGen catalog. Run `--adopt` first to register existing assets. See `/media-use` skill.
+ **Plugin installs:** Before setup or freshness commands, follow [plugin execution rules](../references/plugin-installation.md) when this skill is inside a HyperFrames plugin. Standalone installs keep the update instructions below.
- # general-video — general video workflow
+ # General video
- > **Confirm the route before you build.** This is the **fallback** for custom composition authoring. If the input clearly fits a specialized workflow, prefer it: marketed product → `/product-launch-video`; general site → `/website-to-video`; topic explainer → `/faceless-explainer`; GitHub PR → `/pr-to-video`; existing footage → `/embedded-captions` · `/talking-head-recut`; short unnarrated motion graphic → `/motion-graphics`; Remotion port → `/remotion-to-hyperframes`. **Out of scope**: live / at-render-time data, NLE-style editing of a finished video, or producing footage HyperFrames can't capture. Unsure? **Read `/hyperframes` first.**
+ Before relying on this workflow, run:
- **Build exactly what was asked.** A title card is a title card — not a title card + three supporting scenes + ambient music + captions. If extra scenes or elements would genuinely improve the piece, _propose_ them; don't add them silently. For small edits (fix a color, adjust one duration, add one element), skip the planning steps and go straight to the build.
+ ```bash
+ npx hyperframes skills update general-video
+ ```
- ## Approach
+ A successful no-op means the skill is current. Surface an update failure instead of continuing from memory.
- ### Discovery — open-ended requests only
+ ## 1. Apply cross-cutting source adapters
- For vague, exploratory requests ("make something for our brand", "a cool intro") — understand intent before picking colors:
+ - **Media:** For any audio, image, icon, logo, voice, grade, LUT, treatment/effect, caption, or media-operation need, load `/media-use` and follow `../media-use/references/resolve.md` (resolve, adopt, reuse) and `../media-use/references/setup-providers.md` (providers, auth). Vague footage feedback and named styles use `../media-use/references/media-treatments.md` before editing; do not improvise supported media effects with CSS/SVG/opacity. Before the first authenticated provider action, run `npx hyperframes auth status` and relay its output verbatim. If signed out, apply the gate in `../references/brief-contract.md`: collaborative waits for sign-in or an explicit offline choice; autonomous states the status and continues through an available offline provider. Surface a blocker when no offline provider can satisfy a required capability. Local adoption alone does not require an auth gate.
+ - **Figma:** If any input is a `figma.com` URL, run `/figma` first. Build from its exported assets, tokens, components, or storyboard frames. Do not use raw Figma connector calls because they skip SVG sanitization, media provenance, and brand-token binding.
- - **Audience** — who watches? developers / executives / general consumers?
- - **Platform** — where does it play? social (15s) / website hero / product demo / internal?
- - **Priority** — what matters most? motion quality / content accuracy / brand fidelity / speed?
- - **Variations** — one best shot, or 2-3 meaningfully different options (different pacing, energy, or structure — not just color swaps)?
+ These adapters do not change the workflow selected by `/hyperframes`.
- For specific requests ("add a title card", "fix the timing on scene 3"), skip discovery.
+ ## 2. Start from project state
- ### Step 1 — Design system → `hyperframes-creative`
+ Apply the first matching row; do not evaluate lower state rows:
- Establish the visual identity first. If the project has a design spec, read it (precedence `frame.md` → `design.md` → `DESIGN.md`; treat it as brand truth — exact colors, fonts, constraints).
+ | State | Action |
+ | ---------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
+ | Specific edit | Make the edit, preserve existing project decisions, then rerun affected checks. Do not reopen discovery. |
+ | `BRIEF.md` exists | Read it. If `workflow` names another workflow and `flow` is not `companion`, hand off. Ask no brief questions. |
+ | No brief, but `hyperframes.json` or `STORYBOARD.md` exists | Resume from files and recorded preferences. Backfill `BRIEF.md` only from known facts. |
+ | Fresh creation | Run `/hyperframes` and its intent layer. Return here only for `workflow: general-video` or `flow: companion`. |
- **If no spec exists, you MUST read BOTH `hyperframes-creative/references/house-style.md` AND `hyperframes-creative/references/video-composition.md` before choosing any color or font.** `house-style.md` gives the "interpret the prompt / generate real content" opener, lazy-default list, and layer recipe; `video-composition.md` gives the video-medium density / scale / **foreground detailing** (data bars, registration marks, monospace metadata, "8-10 elements, two the user didn't ask for") that separates "produced" from "generated." Reading only one is the most common miss — `video-composition.md` is the one agents skip, and it is exactly the one that prevents flat, centered, web-page-looking output. Do not self-invent a palette and skip these; crossing into `hyperframes-creative` is mandatory here, not an optional branch. From there, also pull a named style/mood → `references/visual-styles.md`, or the interactive picker → `references/design-picker.md`, as needed. The spec/style defines the **brand**, not the composition rules.
+ For a new project, choose a kebab-case directory name from the brief and scaffold before writing the brief:
- **Find the angle (vague brief, no spec):** before picking colors, write ONE sentence — what does this name/word/topic evoke, and what visual _world_ (metaphor, setting, instrument, motif) expresses it? E.g. a cybersecurity tool → vault doors / perimeter scan lines / lock tumblers; a meditation app → tide, breath, slow light bloom. Read the _meaning_ of the subject, not just its letters; pick a concrete angle over a literal restyle. This is the cheap substitute for prompt expansion (Step 2) on single-scene pieces, where expansion is correctly skipped — and it is the difference between a designed concept and a generic logo-on-a-gradient.
+ ```bash
+ npx hyperframes init "videos/<project>" --non-interactive --example=blank --skill=general-video
+ ```
- <HARD-GATE>
- Before writing ANY composition HTML, verify you have ALL FOUR:
- 1. **A visual identity** grounded in the spec or `house-style.md` — not invented on the spot. (Reaching for `#333`, `#3b82f6`, or `Roboto`? You skipped it.)
- 2. **A one-sentence concept angle** (the "find the angle" step) for anything beyond a trivial edit — not a literal restyle of the prompt words.
- 3. **A font pairing from the embed list** (`hyperframes-creative/references/typography.md` → "Fonts that embed") chosen on purpose — not `Inter`/`Helvetica Neue`/`system-ui` by default, and never an un-embedded display font you're just hoping renders (un-bundled names embed only if auto-captured locally — and cloud renders won't capture them).
- 4. **A foreground/density plan from `video-composition.md`** — the anchor-to-edges, 8-10-elements, foreground-metadata, background-texture rules. (Centered stack on a flat color with fewer than ~6 elements and no edge-anchored detail? You skipped it — that is the generic tell.)
- </HARD-GATE>
+ Then write `BRIEF.md` at the project root using `../references/brief-format.md`. In an existing project, the root is the directory containing `hyperframes.json`. Record only the confirmed preference-backed fields named by the brief format, using `node <MEDIA_DIR>/scripts/prefs.mjs record --hyperframes <PROJECT_ROOT>`; never record inferred defaults. Here `<MEDIA_DIR>` is the installed `/media-use` skill directory and `<PROJECT_ROOT>` is the directory containing `hyperframes.json`. If the intent layer adopted a recipe, apply it now with `node <MEDIA_DIR>/scripts/recipe.mjs use --hyperframes <PROJECT_ROOT> --name <name>` and do not ask again.
- ### Step 2 — Prompt expansion → `hyperframes-creative`
+ ## 3. Interpret the run shape
- Run for every multi-scene composition (skip for single-scene pieces and trivial edits). Ground the request against the design spec + house style into a consistent intermediate that downstream work reads the same way. See `hyperframes-creative/references/prompt-expansion.md`.
+ Use only the canonical terms from `../references/brief-contract.md`:
- ### Step 3 — Plan
+ | Field | Meaning | Effect |
+ | -------------- | ------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
+ | `flow` | Who drives | `automation`: choose and execute the route. `companion`: co-create in conversation. |
+ | `storyboard` | Plan, sketch, and review before build | `yes`: run plan and sketch review (`storyboard.html`). `no`: build without it. |
+ | derived `mode` | How checkpoint gates behave | Follow the brief contract. Never ask the user to name a mode. |
- Before writing HTML, think at a high level:
+ Do not invent synonyms for these states. An ongoing “just build it” signal is handled by the intent layer and arrives as `flow: automation`, `storyboard: no`.
- 1. **What** — the viewer experience: narrative arc, key moments, emotional beats.
- 2. **Structure** — how many compositions, sub-comp vs inline, which tracks carry video / audio / overlays / captions. For the monolithic-single-file vs modular-sub-comp call, see `hyperframes-core/references/composition-patterns.md` § Two Architectures (rule of thumb: ≥3 hard scene cuts, or any reused scene → modularize; a short single-scene piece stays one file).
- 3. **Rhythm** — name the pattern before implementing (e.g. `fast-fast-SLOW-SHADER-hold`); see `hyperframes-creative/references/beat-direction.md`.
- 4. **Timing** — which clips drive duration, where transitions land, the pacing.
- 5. **Layout** — build the end state first (see below).
- 6. **Animate** — then add motion via `hyperframes-animation`.
+ - For `flow: automation`, choose the route and state it in one line in the first progress update.
+ - For a specific edit, make the edit without inventing a new route.
- ## Layout Before Animation
+ For a hard cut, trim, splice, or reorder of existing footage, duplicate the same
+ video source into multiple clip elements. On each copy, set the source range
+ with `data-media-start` plus `data-duration`, then set authored placement/order
+ with `data-start`. Each video segment keeps its sound: the sound stays on the clip (`data-has-audio="true"`), so cutting the video cuts its sound. `/hyperframes-core` owns this temporal
+ edit; use `/hyperframes-keyframes` only for visual-property animation such as
+ zoom, punch, pan, crop, mask, or `clip-path` on an inner wrapper.
+ Copy the full contracts from `../hyperframes-core/references/creator-editing-recipes.md`.
- Position every element where it sits at its **most visible moment** — fully entered, correctly placed, not yet exiting. Write that as static HTML + CSS first. **No GSAP yet.**
+ ### Companion flow
- **Why:** if you position elements at their animated start state (offscreen, scaled to 0, opacity 0) and tween to where you _think_ they land, you are guessing the final layout — overlaps stay invisible until render. Build the end state first and you see and fix layout problems before adding motion.
+ When `flow: companion`:
- 1. **Identify the hero frame** for each scene — the moment the most elements are simultaneously visible. That is the layout you build.
- 2. **Write static CSS** for that frame. The content container must fill the scene with padding, not absolute offsets:
+ - Read `BRIEF.md` and reconcile accepted `## Assets` and `## Customizations` with project artifacts. Complete accepted work that is still pending; leave completed work alone; do not offer an accepted capability again as if it were new.
+ - **Arrive as the director, not the contractor.** A user who chose companion chose involvement and quality; the honest response is the best version you can design, not the smallest one you can defend. The first plan is the ceiling treatment: the story arc (borrow the nearest genre lens — menu § Genre lenses), the design spec, each scene's motion treatment cited by name (§ 5's plan discipline), the transitions, the audio identity — music and sound marks, or deliberate silence — the user's material placed, and a designed open and close. Say what each layer adds in one line; flag the expensive ones (render time, sign-in, billing) as you name them. The user trims a treatment down; they should never have to assemble one approval by approval.
+ - **The ceiling belongs to the concept, not the toolbox.** Every layer must serve the brief's message — a treatment that would dress any video the same way is decoration. Craft rises to the ceiling; content never grows past what was asked (§ 6).
+ - Between checkpoints, `../references/capability-menu.md` works two ways. As the trigger list: offer a relevant capability when the user mentions its input or the build reaches its need. As each pass's upgrade channel: a plan, sketch, or build checkpoint may carry one or two traced offers pointed at material the user is looking at ("scene 3's stat wants the count-up treatment"). Read it before offering; never dump the full catalog.
+ - After the user accepts a capability, produce its artifact and record the decision in the matching `BRIEF.md` body section immediately. Rewrite a frontmatter field and record the confirmed preference only when the user explicitly changes it.
+ - Keep the same storyboard, validation, final-preview, and render-approval gates. Companion changes who steers, not what quality requires.
- ```css
- .scene-content {
- display: flex;
- flex-direction: column;
- justify-content: center;
- width: 100%;
- height: 100%;
- padding: 120px 160px; /* padding positions content; fills any scene size */
- gap: 24px;
- box-sizing: border-box;
- }
- ```
+ ## 4. Load required knowledge before each stage
- Never use `position: absolute; top: Npx` on a content container — it overflows when content is taller than the space. Reserve absolute positioning for decoratives.
+ These reads are mandatory when their condition matches:
- > ⚠ **The `width/height: 100%` above only resolves if every ancestor has a resolved height.** The root `<div data-composition-id>` and any wrapper between it and `.scene-content` must be sized (`position: relative; width: 1920px; height: 1080px` on the root — see `hyperframes-core` → "Root must be sized"). Skip this and the flex container collapses to ~0, content piles into the **top-left corner**, and the first glyph clips at x=0 — while `lint`/`inspect` still report 0 issues. And **always keep the `padding`** (≥80px) on `.scene-content`: it is the title-safe margin. Never replace it with bare `gap`.
+ | Condition | Read before acting |
+ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
+ | Any composition HTML or scene layout | `/hyperframes-core`; use `references/determinism-rules.md` for its layout contract |
+ | Any non-trivial creation or visual treatment | `/hyperframes-creative` → `references/house-style.md` and `references/video-composition.md` |
+ | Any motion, animation, or scene transition | `/hyperframes-animation`; follow its routing to the matching rules, adapters, blueprints, or transition references |
+ | `storyboard: yes` | `../references/storyboard-format.md` and `../references/review-loop.md` |
+ | Any media asset or operation, including narration, BGM, SFX, captions, grading, or transforms | `/media-use`; for framework playback and placement also read `/hyperframes-core` → `references/variables-and-media.md` |
+ | Multi-scene assembly | `../references/production-loop.md` |
+ | `flow: companion`, before the first plan | `/hyperframes-creative` → `references/story-spine.md` and `references/house-style.md`; the nearest genre lens and the full `../references/capability-menu.md` — the ceiling treatment is designed from these, not recalled |
+ | A companion capability offer, capture, beat grid, generative video, map, publishing, or cross-workflow capability | `../references/capability-menu.md` |
+ | A design spec exists, before final approval | `/hyperframes-creative` → `references/design-adherence.md` |
- 3. **Add entrances** — animate FROM offscreen/invisible TO the CSS position with `gsap.from()` (in sub-compositions prefer `gsap.fromTo()` so the start state is explicit; see `hyperframes-core/references/sub-compositions.md`). The CSS position is ground truth; the tween is the journey to it.
- 4. **Exits are transition-handled** — per the scene-transition rules in `hyperframes-animation/transitions/`, only the **final** scene animates elements out; between scenes the transition IS the exit.
+ Do not replace these reads with recollection. Progressive disclosure saves context only when the matching reference is actually loaded.
- **Shared space across time:** if element A exits before element B enters in the same area, both still need correct CSS positions for their respective hero frames — timeline ordering keeps them from coexisting, and the layout step catches accidental overlap. Layered glows/shadows and z-stacked depth are _intentional_ overlap; the step is about catching _unintentional_ collisions (two headlines on top of each other, content bleeding off-frame).
+ ## 5. Execute the composition
- ## Build — delegate to the domain skills
+ Use this dependency order. Skip a stage only when its input is absent.
- This maps the skill's full surface (see the `description`) to its references — non-exhaustive; when an intent isn't listed, route through `hyperframes-creative` (look/concept), `hyperframes-animation` (motion), `hyperframes-core` (contract), `hyperframes-media` (audio/captions). **The first row is ADDITIVE — read it AND your intent row, not one or the other.**
+ 1. **Plan.** State the viewer arc, structure, rhythm, and duration driver. Use one file for a short single scene; use sub-compositions for three or more hard scene cuts or any reused scene. Read `/hyperframes-creative` → `references/story-spine.md` for narrated arcs, `references/beat-direction.md` for rhythm, and `/hyperframes-core` → `references/composition-patterns.md` for structure. For an open-ended multi-scene brief, expand the prompt through `/hyperframes-creative` → `references/prompt-expansion.md`. A multi-scene plan cites each scene's shape: a blueprint id from `/hyperframes-animation` → `blueprints-index.md` when one fits, or the named rules it composes from `rules-index.md` when none does — motion names come from those indexes, never invented. Story truth decides which scenes exist; the citation dresses them. **Search the live catalog before you plan to build any named look yourself**: for every look, effect, treatment or transition the brief names — "CRT scanlines", "glitch", "film grain", "shimmer sweep", "confetti burst" — run `npx hyperframes catalog --query "<the look, in plain English>" --json` and read the top results before the plan names how that look gets built. The search needs **nothing installed**: no project, no prior `add`, no account. It ranks the whole hosted registry (~400 blocks and components) from any directory, so it also applies to a look the user asks for mid-build. Blocks the plan names are installed at stage 3; hand-author a look only after a search for it came back with nothing that fits. A multi-scene plan is also recorded as the dispatch artifact: one `## Frame N` block per scene in `STORYBOARD.md` — `status: outline`, a declared `src:`, the blueprint/rules citation, and the beat text — **even when `storyboard: no`**. The block is the dispatch unit; the storyboard sheet is only the review surface.
+ 2. **Review the plan when requested.** For `storyboard: yes`, run the shared review loop over those blocks. For `storyboard: no`, continue without a plan pause or sketch sheet. When a plan pause happens anyway, fold the sub-agent delegation grant (needed by codex for step 4's dispatch) into that pause rather than stopping again later.
+ 3. **Resolve dependencies.** Install registry blocks before parallel work. Stage user assets, adopt existing media, and resolve only what the brief requires. Start audio early when its timings drive duration.
+ 4. **Build scenes.** For a short single-scene piece, implement the scene at its most visible moment before adding motion (the confirmed wireframe, when present, is that end state and must not be redrawn), then animate from its cited blueprint or rules — read the full recipe body (`/hyperframes-animation` → `blueprints/<id>.md`, `rules/<id>.md`) before writing motion.
- | Building… | Read first (in order) |
- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
- | **ALWAYS — every non-trivial piece, on top of your intent row below** | `hyperframes-creative/references/house-style.md` + `references/video-composition.md` (also gated in Step 1 / HARD-GATE; the "produced, not generated" foreground detailing) |
- | **Kinetic typography / text-forward** | `hyperframes-animation/techniques.md` (kinetic type) + `adapters/gsap-easing-and-stagger.md` + `rules/kinetic-beat-slam.md` |
- | **Title card / lower-third / overlay / PiP / text-behind-subject** | `hyperframes-creative/references/composition-patterns.md` + (for the centered/sized frame) `hyperframes-core` → "Root must be sized" |
- | **Logo / brand-mark reveal** | `hyperframes-animation/rules/svg-path-draw.md` (draw-on) + `rules/3d-text-depth-layers.md` + `rules/scale-swap-transition.md` |
- | **Data / stats / numbers** | `hyperframes-animation/rules/counting-dynamic-scale.md` + `rules/stat-bars-and-fills.md` + `hyperframes-creative/references/data-in-motion.md` |
- | **Product / app / UI demo** | `hyperframes-animation/rules/3d-page-scroll.md` + `rules/cursor-click-ripple.md` + `rules/press-release-spring.md` |
- | **Audio-reactive / music-driven** | `hyperframes-creative/references/audio-reactive.md` (pre-extract bands; map to motion) |
- | **Narrated / voiceover / music / SFX / captions** | `hyperframes-media` → the shared audio engine `scripts/audio.mjs` (one call = TTS + BGM + SFX → `audio_meta.json`); caption authoring + asset placement via `hyperframes-core`. See **Audio** below. |
- | **Multi-scene / transitions** | `hyperframes-animation/transitions/overview.md` **then** `transitions/catalog.md` (you are not done after the overview — the GSAP recipe is in the catalog) |
- | **Modular / sub-compositions** | `hyperframes-core/references/composition-patterns.md` + `references/sub-compositions.md` |
+ **Dispatch pays for itself only at scale.** Authoring packets and warming fresh worker contexts costs real minutes and tokens: a film of up to ~6 short scenes builds FASTER inline, in this context, one scene after another (measured: 5 short scenes ≈ 9 min inline vs ≈ 21 min packetized). Fan out only when the plan exceeds that — more scenes, or individually heavy ones — and then give each worker **2–3 scenes**, not one, and spawn **all workers in a single wave** (a second wave nearly doubles the window). When dispatching:
- ### Audio: one engine (TTS · BGM · SFX)
+ `node <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/frame-packets.mjs --project "$PROJECT_DIR" --storyboard "$PROJECT_DIR/STORYBOARD.md"`
- Only when the piece calls for it (per "build exactly what was asked" — no ambient music on a title card). Don't hand-roll TTS or vendor a copy: write a neutral `audio_request.json` and call the shared engine in `hyperframes-media`. It auto-degrades on one switch — HeyGen credential present → HeyGen TTS + music/SFX **retrieval**; absent → ElevenLabs/Kokoro TTS, Lyria/MusicGen BGM **generation**, and the bundled SFX library. Full flag list + request/meta schema: the header comment of `hyperframes-media/scripts/audio.mjs`.
+ The builder writes one bounded packet per scene under `.hyperframes/frame-packets/` (the scene's exact storyboard block + the blueprint body + every cited rule recipe, inlined) and `_role.md` (`../references/frame-worker-core.md` + this skill's `sub-agents/frame-worker.md`, concatenated verbatim — the complete worker role). Dispatch the workers — 2–3 scene packets each, all in one wave (`../references/subagent-dispatch.md`); each worker's prompt carries `_role.md` and its packets — paste them in full, or hand the file paths for the worker to read first (equivalent either way) — plus a dispatch context with `PROJECT_DIR`, its `frame_id`s, and canvas size. WAIT on every scene's `compositions/<frame_id>.html` + `compositions/<frame_id>.motion.json`. Workers read only their packets and the design truth file; they never open `STORYBOARD.md` or the skill documents. With no delegation channel, fall back serially: process one packet at a time in this context, still working from the packet alone.
- ```jsonc
- // audio_request.json — one line per narrated segment; `id` is yours (joins audio_meta back)
- {
- "lines": [
- { "id": "s1", "text": "Your opening line.", "sfx": ["whoosh"] },
- { "id": "s2", "text": "The next beat." },
- ],
- "bgm": { "query": "calm cinematic underscore" }, // omit "mode" → auto (retrieve if HeyGen, else generate); "none" to disable
- }
- ```
+ 5. **Merge motion sidecars.** Collect the workers' `compositions/<frame_id>.motion.json` files and carry their durations and exit/entry vectors into assembly; where the doctrine chain (`/motion-doctrine`) is installed, translate them into the project ledger before stamping seams.
+ 6. **Assemble.** Mount scenes, media, transitions, captions, and audio using the production loop. Real voice duration overrides estimates. When a music bed plays under any voice track, carve the bed before verifying: `/hyperframes-audio` → `scripts/carve.mjs --comp index.html`. A volume duck alone does not finish the mix.
+ 7. **Verify.** Use `npx hyperframes lint` for fast feedback after the first HTML pass and structural changes. For the final gate, run `npx hyperframes check`; it reruns lint internally, so do not run a redundant standalone lint immediately before it. For sub-compositions, inspect midpoint snapshots. For multi-scene work, review the animation map.
+ 8. **Final approval.** Open the final Studio preview only after checks pass. Ask whether to render or revise. Render only after approval.
- ```bash
- # <MEDIA_DIR> = the installed hyperframes-media skill dir (sibling of this skill)
- node <MEDIA_DIR>/scripts/audio.mjs --request ./audio_request.json --hyperframes . --out ./audio_meta.json
- ```
+ ## 6. Gates that always apply
- Then read `audio_meta.json`: mount each `voices[].path` + (`bgm.path`, `sfx[]`) as `<audio>` tracks and use `voices[].words` for captions, all per `hyperframes-core` (audio tracks + caption authoring). If BGM took the generate path (`bgm_pending: true`), run `hyperframes-media/scripts/wait-bgm.mjs` before final render.
+ ### Keep scope exact
- ## Output checklist → `hyperframes-cli`
+ Build what the user asked for. A title card is not a title card plus three scenes, music, and captions. Offer additions before adding them.
- - [ ] `npx hyperframes lint` and `npx hyperframes validate` pass (block on results)
- - [ ] design adherence verified if a spec (`frame.md` / `design.md`) exists — checklist in `hyperframes-creative/references/design-adherence.md`
- - [ ] `npx hyperframes inspect` passes, or every overflow is intentionally marked
- - [ ] contrast warnings addressed; for multi-scene work, review the animation map (`hyperframes-animation/scripts/animation-map.mjs`)
- - [ ] deliver the preview; render to MP4 only on explicit request
- - [ ] surface the preview **only at handoff** (it is the stable, final preview); don't pop one mid-build — build-phase snapshots are headless
+ ### Establish design before HTML
+
+ Resolve the design source in this order: `frame.md` → `design.md` → `DESIGN.md`. Treat the first file found as brand truth.
+
+ When no design spec exists, complete all four items before writing composition HTML:
+
+ 1. Ground the visual identity in `house-style.md` and `video-composition.md`.
+ 2. Write one sentence naming the concept angle for every non-trivial creation.
+ 3. Choose an embeddable font pairing from `/hyperframes-creative` → `references/typography.md`; do not assume an unbundled display font exists in cloud rendering.
+ 4. Define the focal element, edge anchors, supporting detail, and background treatment.
+
+ Match density to the requested format and message. Density examples are guidance for produced frames, not permission to invent claims, scenes, or a fixed number of elements.
+
+ For a named style or mood, read `/hyperframes-creative` → `references/visual-styles.md`. When the user needs to choose visually and no shipped preset fits, read `/hyperframes-creative` → `references/design-picker.md` and run the interactive design selection there.
+
+ ### Preserve the composition contract
+
+ Timed elements use `class="clip"`; the root and relevant ancestors are sized; each composition registers one paused, seek-safe timeline on `window.__timelines`; rendering is deterministic. Do not use render-time network fetches, clocks, or unseeded randomness.
+
+ ### Borrow workflows safely
+
+ When the piece resembles a shipped workflow, borrow its genre references as examples. First run `npx hyperframes skills update <workflow-name>`. Borrow its story shape and taste, not its private scripts, pipeline state, or directory contract. The generic build remains owned by this skill.
+
+ ## 7. Done
+
+ A run is complete only when:
+
+ - requested scope is implemented;
+ - for `flow: companion`, the treatment is delivered, not just the scope: every scene's cited blueprint or rules realized, the audio identity present (or the silence chosen and said), the open and close designed rather than defaulted;
+ - `npx hyperframes check` passes, including its built-in lint stage;
+ - design adherence is reviewed against `/hyperframes-creative` → `references/design-adherence.md` when a design spec exists;
+ - contrast findings are resolved;
+ - sub-composition snapshots are inspected when applicable;
+ - an autonomous handoff includes an inspected contact or snapshot sheet; multi-scene sheets use scene midpoints;
+ - the handoff names the final preview or rendered artifact as applicable and reports the actual duration for a time-based deliverable;
+ - `hyperframes-animation/scripts/animation-map.mjs` is reviewed for multi-scene work;
+ - the user approves the final Studio preview before render;
+ - the rendered file is verified when a render was requested.
+
+ After final approval, offer once to freeze the run as a recipe, following `../references/review-loop.md` § 4.