End-tag now composited over final body footage (ProRes 4444 with alpha)
instead of concatenated as a black card. Updated idea-director,
edit-director, compose-director, and pipeline manifest with overlay-first
instructions. Default Google TTS voice changed from Neural2-D to
Chirp3-HD-Orus across tool code and docs.
User override during the audit runs made music and an end-tag MANDATORY
defaults for documentary-montage (narration stays optional). This commit
codifies those defaults into the pipeline manifest + director skills and
ships the Remotion end-tag component that the compose stage now
concatenates after the FFmpeg body.
Changes:
- pipeline_defs/documentary-montage.yaml: idea/edit/compose stages now
require music_plan and end_tag_plan to be present; opt-out requires
an explicit user note recorded in metadata.
- skills/pipelines/documentary-montage/idea-director.md: rewrote sections
4 (music MANDATORY), 5 (end-tag MANDATORY with shape
{text,palette,duration_seconds,render_engine:remotion,component:EndTag}),
6 (narration OPTIONAL), 7 (updated brief JSON shape), 8 (quality gate).
Common Pitfalls grew two entries covering silent-contract drift and
end-tag omission.
- skills/pipelines/documentary-montage/compose-director.md: section 4
now stops on music-contract violation; new section 4b documents the
two-engine flow (FFmpeg body -> npx remotion render EndTag -> ffmpeg
concat). Quality gate checks render_report.metadata.music_mixed and
end_tag_rendered.
- remotion-composer/src/components/EndTag.tsx (new): bold uppercase
typographic end-card with animated 0->100% underline draw-in and a
single left-to-right shimmer sweep. Supports cool_offwhite_on_black
and warm_ivory_on_black palettes. Renders at 1920x1080 @ 30fps.
- remotion-composer/src/Root.tsx: register EndTag as a first-class
composition (durationInFrames=165, 5.5s hold) so it can be rendered
standalone via the Remotion CLI with --props overrides.
New end-to-end pipeline for building thematic documentary montages from
a locally-indexed corpus of free stock footage (Pexels, Archive.org,
NASA). The agent builds a project-local corpus, CLIP-ranks candidates
per scene slot, edits with motion-aware arc logic, and composes via
ffmpeg. No paid APIs required for the full path.
Pipeline definition and director skills:
- pipeline_defs/documentary-montage.yaml: 5-stage manifest
(idea -> scene_plan -> assets -> edit -> compose)
- skills/pipelines/documentary-montage/: 6 director skills
(executive-producer + idea/scene/asset/edit/compose directors)
Corpus and retrieval infrastructure:
- tools/video/corpus_builder.py: multi-source stock fan-out with
resumable append-only corpus index
- tools/video/clip_search.py: CLIP ViT-B/32 retrieval —
rank_for_slot, find_similar_set, diversify, stats
- tools/video/stock_sources/: base + pexels + archive_org + nasa
adapters with a pluggable BaseStockSource contract
- lib/clip_embedder.py: CLIP wrapper
- lib/corpus.py: corpus schema, jsonl append/read, motion-score
caching
video_compose fix rolled in because any concat-based pipeline depends
on it:
- Replace ambiguous -to with -t duration (was double-trimming cuts)
- Force re-encode + normalize to 1920x1080 @ 30fps (was keyframe-
snapping with -c copy and breaking concat on mixed-source corpora)
- Add silent-audio anullsrc fallback for clips without an audio
stream
README: add Documentary Montage row to the pipeline table and bump
the pipeline count from 11 to 12.
Compose-director had contradictory instructions: Step 2 described Remotion
captions/audio, but Steps 5/5b gave detailed FFmpeg code that agents followed
instead. This caused three failures in production: FFmpeg subtitles instead of
Remotion CaptionOverlay, missing audio (mixed externally but never embedded in
Remotion props), and skipped audio verification in post-render review.
Changes:
- compose-director: Remotion is now DEFAULT for audio, captions, text overlays;
FFmpeg is labeled FALLBACK only. Post-render review has mandatory ffprobe gate
and audio transcription with explicit stop conditions.
- remotion.md: routing table updated (captions/audio → Remotion), added universal
Post-Render Verification Protocol for all pipelines (only 2/10 had one).
- scene-director, asset-director: added pitfall for AI-generated text in CTA
screens — must use Remotion text_card for verbatim text.
- image-provider-usage: added Recraft V4 caveat (style param causes 422 on fal.ai).
- recraft_image.py: documented the style parameter 422 issue inline.
Implements the 2026-04-02 transformation spec (Phases 1-8) and fixes all
critical bugs found during 5-pipeline E2E testing.
Governance & Decision Intelligence:
- Pipeline-specific stage order in checkpoint (replaces global STAGES list)
- Provider scoring engine (lib/scoring.py) with 7-dimension weighted ranking
- Decision log artifact enforced at proposal/idea stage across all 10 pipelines
- Delivery promise classifier prevents silent motion-to-still downgrades
- Structured shot language in scene_plan schema (camera, lens, lighting, DOF)
- Variation checker and slideshow risk scorer block samey output before render
- Creative intake, capability extension, and creative-intake meta skills
- Final self-review artifact with 5 mandatory checks before presenting output
- Source media review contract for user-supplied footage
Render & Theme System:
- Remotion AnimatedBackground now derives colors from playbook (no more hardcoded
dark blue fintech gradient on every video)
- video_compose builds custom ThemeConfig from playbook YAML colors/fonts —
custom playbooks flow through to Remotion automatically
- Explainer component wires theme to all child components (charts, cards, etc.)
- resolveAsset() handles absolute paths on Windows/Unix via file:// URIs
- RENDERER_FAMILY_MAP synced with actual Remotion compositions
Critical Bug Fixes:
- Windows npx subprocess: run_command() resolves .cmd wrappers via shutil.which()
- Silent renderer downgrade: Remotion failure now returns explicit error with
options instead of silently falling back to FFmpeg
- .env inline comment parsing strips trailing # comments from API keys
- concat_path UnboundLocalError in video_compose finally block
- audio_mixer and showcase_card capture=True kwarg bug
- Selector estimate_cost() calls fixed (_select_tool -> _select_best_tool)
- asset_manifest schema expanded with provider, license, subtype fields
- screen-demo subtitle_gen moved from required to optional tools
- Duration drift detection in post-render final review (>25% warns)
Add green_screen_processor (auto-detect + rembg fallback) and
green_screen_composite (4 layout presets with alpha compositing) tools
to automate the full keying-to-composite pipeline.
Remotion: add AnimatedBackground with gradient mesh and floating orbs
to Explainer, fix caption burn tool (remove entry point arg, auto-detect
dimensions, extend TalkingHead duration to 300s).
Update scene-director, compose-director, and asset-director skill docs
with green screen workflow steps and component constraints.
Scene-director rewrite: agent now watches footage, understands content, and proposes
creative overlays (charts, stats, key terms, comparisons) before building anything.
Presents enhancement plan to user for approval before proceeding.
Compose-director fixes from Round 1 verification:
- eye_enhance: now explicitly required, not silently skippable
- Caption positioning: explicit MarginV=160 for 9:16, never center
- Final encode: mandatory with target file size table
- ASR corrections: new Step 2b to scan transcript and build corrections dict
- Overlay compositing: new Step 3b for burning approved graphics onto footage
Asset-director rewrite: generates Remotion overlay assets (callouts, stat cards,
charts, comparisons) from scene plan. Includes overlay type → Remotion cut mapping
table and dark theme requirements.
Bug fixes found during subagent verification:
- remotion_caption_burn.py: fix run_command API, add npx.cmd for Windows
- visual_qa.py: fix run_command API (3 places), Windows /dev/null → NUL
New tools: face_tracker, visual_qa, eye_enhance, auto_reframe, remotion_caption_burn, showcase_card, silence_cutter. Updated audio_mixer with segmented_music operation and subtitle_gen with ASR corrections. Registered TalkingHead composition in Root.tsx. Rewrote compose/edit/scene director skills for full enhancement chain, Remotion captions, multi-clip assembly, and visual QA. Gitignore cleanup: exclude test demo-props, downloaded music, and generated images.
Add anime_scene rendering engine (AnimeScene + ParticleOverlay components) with multi-image
crossfade, 9 camera motion types, 5 particle systems, and cinematic lighting overlays.
Fix critical Remotion durationInFrames footgun by passing sceneDurationSeconds from parent.
Add audio offset/loop support in Explainer for skipping quiet music intros.
New tools: audio_energy.py analyzes per-second loudness via ebur128 to find optimal music
offset and detect when looping is needed.
Update all 6 animation pipeline skills (proposal, scene, asset, compose, executive-producer,
remotion.md) with battle-tested image_animation workflow including tool availability scan,
FLUX multi-image generation, composition JSON format, pre-render validation, and post-render
self-review.
Add 3 demo compositions (Candyland, Mori no Seishin, Deep Ocean) and anime-ghibli style
playbook. Update README with 3 anime video showcases and animation prompts. Add Animation
Pipeline section to PROMPT_GALLERY.md.
Prove that adding one API key (OPENAI_API_KEY) to the zero-key foundation
produces dramatically better videos for ~$0.69 each. Two compositions built:
The Abyss (deep ocean visual essay) and VOID (neural interface product ad).
New tools:
- audio_probe: ffprobe wrapper with probe_duration() helper
- composition_validator: pre-render checks (asset existence, audio-video sync)
- pixabay_music: royalty-free music scraper (no API key needed)
- freesound_music: Freesound API search + download
Remotion upgrades:
- BackgroundImageLayer: AI images behind data scenes with ken-burns + dark overlay
- Gradient support: all 9 components changed from backgroundColor to background CSS
- CaptionOverlay: word spacing fix, WhisperX word-level subtitles
- HeroTitle: reduced overlay opacity so background images show through
Process codified in agent skills:
- compose-director: audio acquisition flow (present user with voice/music/subtitle
options), mandatory pre-render validation, post-render self-review (extract
frames + transcribe + inspect + present findings to user)
- scene-director: narration duration budgeting (word budget from video duration)
- remotion skill: pre-render validation section
- TTS tool: now returns audio_duration_seconds in result
README updated with VOID product ad video embed.
Fix ComparisonCard and CalloutBox dark-theme passthrough in SceneRenderer.
Add 8 demo-props JSON files (3 fixed originals + 5 new compositions).
Update scene-director and compose-director skills with all 10 Remotion
scene types and zero-key rendering guidance. Document the proven
all-dark-background formula in remotion.md. Add cinematic renderer,
onboarding skill, prompt gallery, and demo render script.
- Add cross-pipeline Music Plan requirement to AGENT_GUIDE User-Facing Planning Protocol
- Add Step 5: Music Plan to cinematic idea-director with library/API/BYO options
- Add music plan resolution to cinematic quality gate
- Ensures agent surfaces music situation before production starts, not at asset stage
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