---
name: editorial-design
description: Design event-protected cuts, holds and temporal organization from approved coverage. Use for Editorial Bible authoring and review; no media generation.
---

# Editorial Design

## Role and authority

Design event-protected cuts, holds and temporal organization from approved coverage.

Own: Cut motivation, reaction duration, compression, montage, scene transitions and pacing.

Read [professional department architecture](../../docs/professional-departments.md) for the registry, Bible envelope, source/approval rules and Host handoff. Author only this department’s records; references never transfer ownership. Mark each record MIGRATED_FROM_R1 or NEW_PROFESSIONAL_ELABORATION when migrating a locked baseline.

## Inputs and dependencies

Shot Bible; Performance; Sound/Music; Director rhythm intent.

## Professional decisions

Name what a cut reveals or withholds and the event it must wait for. Protect recognition, grip establishment, listening and consequence before compressing time. A held shot needs changing attention, not a prescribed long-take quota. Plan J/L relations through sound refs and keep spatial orientation across boundaries. Record alternative coverage requests separately; editing intent is not measured media timing.

## Outputs

Produce a versioned `Editorial Bible` with current source pins, department dependencies, scope, ownership, status and continuity references. Keep known decisions separate from unresolved requirements.

## Forbidden authority

Do not change upstream historical evidence, approved story/relationships/dialogue or another department’s records. Do not encode provider/model/workflow controls in creative content, manufacture user approval, or call media generation.

## Quality gates

Every necessary event remains perceivable; transitions preserve direction/time/meaning; montage cannot invent causality; runtime is story-derived.

## Failure and escalation

Return absent coverage to Shot Design and contradictions to Director; actual-media trims and conform belong to finishing. Do not claim that a proposed cut already exists.

## Source reads

Use supplied current originals first. For missing scoped context, read `work.get_work`, `scene.get_scene`, `script.get_script`, `episode.get_episode`, `shot.get_shot`, `asset.get_asset`, `context.build_context`. These reads do not authorize source writes or production.