Building the in-a-hurry showcase video surfaced a real workflow gap:
bespoke-composition.md was Remotion-flavored throughout. A fresh agent
reading it for a music-driven hero piece would be routed straight to
Remotion atelier — missing that HyperFrames has no cut-schema and is
already atelier by its nature (every HF composition is a hand-authored
index.html with data-* timing and a GSAP timeline you write).
This commit reframes the doctrine to be runtime-aware:
- New "Atelier and the two runtimes" subsection explicitly separates
Remotion (atelier as escape hatch from cut-schema registry) from
HyperFrames (always atelier; composition_mode "atelier" is implicit).
Same principles apply in both cases; the rendering path differs.
- Step 3 (vocabulary) now routes to /hyperframes-animation for HF
projects — 36+ atomic rules (kinetic-beat-slam, 3d-text-depth-layers,
motion-blur-streak, ...), 15+ scene blueprints, 16 transition families,
7 runtime adapters (GSAP / Lottie / Three.js / Anime.js / CSS / WAAPI /
TypeGPU), and the html-in-canvas-patterns headline capability for 1–3
cinematic hero beats per video. Also points at /hyperframes-creative,
/hyperframes-media, /media-use, /hyperframes-cli.
- Step 4 (engine mechanics) adds HF-side gotchas alongside Remotion:
the data-* contract, mandatory class="clip", paused-timeline + seek
rule, lint/validate/snapshot verification primitives, stable-id
selectors over nth-of-type.
- Step 5 (render) split into per-runtime paths:
* Remotion atelier — auto-stage copy + bespoke contract (unchanged).
* HyperFrames — npx hyperframes init scaffold, beats workflow,
lint+validate+snapshot verification, npx hyperframes render.
Flags the known gap (F13): hyperframes_compose.render still requires
cuts[] from the templated path; call npx directly until the tool
grows a bespoke branch parallel to _render_via_atelier.
- Worked precedents section now lists both runtimes — Phantom Reach /
Compound Snowball / Library of Alexandria for Remotion atelier, plus
in-a-hurry for HyperFrames (kinetic-beat-slam + 3d-text-depth-layers
+ motion-blur-streak + css-distortion + html-in-canvas + Three.js
bloom).
## Remotion bump (mechanical, semver-safe)
remotion-composer: Remotion 4.0.441 → 4.0.484 (43 patch versions, all
within 4.0.x). Includes the seven core packages: remotion + @remotion/cli,
captions, google-fonts, media, player, transitions.
Smoke test: re-rendered the compound-snowball atelier composition through
the unchanged tool path; final_review status=pass, atelier checks clean.
Note: package.json also carries d3-geo@^3.1.1 forward — this line was
already in the working tree from prior unrelated WIP and is not part of
this bump. Removing it would leave package-lock mismatched, so it's
preserved as-is here; clean up separately when its consumer lands.
## HyperFrames skills re-vendor (0.4.2 → 0.7.17)
The runtime invoked by hyperframes_compose (`npx hyperframes`) was
already pulling 0.7.17 on every render, but the vendored skill docs the
agent reads were frozen at 0.4.2-era. This commit closes that gap.
Re-vendored from upstream commit 3351fb1a (tag v0.7.17, 2026-06-27):
Re-vendored core 4 (restructured upstream):
- hyperframes (slim entry; deep content moved to focused skills)
- hyperframes-cli (1 → 7 files; covers validate/inspect/snapshot/
benchmark/lambda natively, dropping the obsolete
OM-local validate patch)
- hyperframes-registry
- website-to-video (renamed upstream from website-to-hyperframes)
Newly vendored (8 strategic additions in 0.5–0.7):
- hyperframes-core composition contract (data-*/tracks/sub-comps)
- hyperframes-creative palette, type, narration, beat planning
- hyperframes-media TTS, BGM, SFX, transcription, captions, bg-remove
- hyperframes-animation all motion knowledge (rules, blueprints,
transitions, 7 runtime adapters)
- media-use agent Media OS (one `resolve` verb for
BGM/SFX/image/icon; project + global cache)
- motion-graphics short design-led motion patterns
- remotion-to-hyperframes migration guidance (directly relevant since
OpenMontage runs both runtimes)
- music-to-video beat-synced video using `hyperframes beats`
Intentionally NOT vendored (HF-workflow-specific; would compete with
OpenMontage pipeline routing): embedded-captions, faceless-explainer,
general-video, pr-to-video, product-launch-video, slideshow,
talking-head-recut. Re-evaluate per pipeline need.
PROVENANCE.md refreshed with the new vendor point + re-sync instructions.
## GSAP CDN pin
.agents/skills/hyperframes/SKILL.md: gsap@3.14.2 → gsap@3 (auto-latest 3.x
on jsdelivr; avoids future drift without breaking the API surface).
## Doctrine updates routing to new skill structure
- skills/INDEX.md — HyperFrames row expanded to enumerate the 12 vendored
skills and their roles.
- skills/meta/animation-runtime-selector.md — runtime decision matrix
updated for the rename (website-to-hyperframes → website-to-video) and
three new rows added: beat-synced music videos, Remotion→HF porting,
and the media-use resolve verb. The HyperFrames composition row in the
animation-library matrix split into four (core/creative/media/animation)
per the upstream skill structure.
- skills/core/hyperframes.md — Layer-2 routing skill rewritten to point at
the new focused skills and all website-to-hyperframes references renamed.
F12 — Hero-component spine is a templating anti-pattern. The first
atelier proof (alexandria-fire) leaned on a single candle as scaffolding
under every scene with different text below — same hero, different
caption — which is exactly the "branded slides" pattern atelier was
supposed to break. The signature device is meant to appear in ONE or
at most two beats (typically the climactic moment), not as the visual
scaffolding of every scene. Each scene must earn its own composition:
a different primary visual subject, a different scale, a different motion
register. Doctrine added as step 1.5 in skills/meta/bespoke-composition.md
("Plan each scene as its own composition") plus a reviewer
scene_distinctness gate enforced at compose stage — the reviewer samples
one representative frame per scene and refuses to pass if two or more
scenes share their primary visual subject.
F9 — Captions/on-screen-text dedup. When a SerifLine reads the script
verbatim AND auto-captions emit the same text, the piece looks amateurish
even when the rest is beautiful. Rule added under engine mechanics: decide
once per piece whether captions add meaning (numbers, names, translations,
attributions) or are accessibility subtitles echoing narration — never
both for the same content. Reviewer gate at compose stage compares active
caption text against on-screen text in the same time window.
Both gates are CRITICAL; the publish-stage check was updated to expect
six (was four) resolved atelier findings.
Self-audit of alexandria-fire under the new rules: 4 of 5 scenes share
the candle as their primary visual subject — would now flag CRITICAL
scene_distinctness and require re-planning. (Re-author the piece in a
follow-up; the doctrine is the deliverable here.)
Closes the two biggest gaps from the atelier audit: hero bespoke renders
were skipping every automated quality gate, and the templated→atelier
inversion was advisory rather than enforced.
F6 — _render_via_atelier now runs the full _run_final_review (technical
probe + visual spotcheck + audio spotcheck + duration drift + transcript
comparison) plus two atelier-specific doctrine checks:
- stock_reuse_check: rglobs the bespoke project tree for imports from
the stock creative registry (src/components, src/Explainer, etc.).
Any hit fails the render with status="fail" and names the offending
file — the doctrine bypass is now mechanically caught.
- art_direction_check: requires edit_decisions.bespoke.art_direction.
Missing → warning surfaced in final_review.issues_found; forcing
function for step 1 of skills/meta/bespoke-composition.md.
Verified end-to-end on the compound-snowball proof render: positive case
status=pass, atelier checks clean; negative case (deliberate stock import
+ missing art_direction) returns status=fail with both findings named.
F7 — skills/meta/reviewer.md gets a "Composition Authoring Mode Review"
section that enforces the inversion at every stage:
- proposal: composition_mode must be a presented decision with both
options; hero briefs default to atelier; templated for hero requires
an explicit sanctioned reason.
- scene_plan/edit: any stock cut.type in an atelier piece is CRITICAL;
bespoke.{entry, composition_id, art_direction} required.
- compose: consumes final_review.checks.atelier from F6; mandates a
recorded distinctness review (the human taste call the tool can't
automate — its absence is itself CRITICAL).
- publish: blocks ship on any unresolved atelier finding.
Engine knowledge stays reusable; creative components don't.
Introduce a hand-authored, project-local Remotion render path that bypasses
the cut-schema and the stock scene-type registry, for hero/bespoke videos
that must look distinct from one another.
- video_compose: composition_mode="atelier" (or renderer_family="bespoke")
routes to _render_via_atelier, which renders a project-local entry under
remotion-composer/projects/<slug>/ with an optional per-project public_dir
(skips copying the bloated shared public/). No cut-schema, no stock registry.
- skills/meta/bespoke-composition.md: routing skill — art direction
(visual-style) -> motion principles (Disney 12) -> engine mechanics
(remotion-best-practices + stock components read only as a mechanics codex)
-> atelier render. Doctrine: reuse engine knowledge, never creative components.
- AGENT_GUIDE: "Composition Authoring Mode" (templated vs atelier); default
atelier for hero work; scene-type catalog reframed as a mechanics codex.
- animation-runtime-selector + INDEX: authoring-mode-first pointers.
- base_tool.run_command: decode subprocess output as UTF-8/replace (Windows
cp1252 crashed the reader thread on Remotion's Unicode progress output).
- .gitignore: remotion-composer/projects/ (throwaway bespoke compositions).
The video-reference-analyst capability audit pre-locked Remotion as the
default composition engine ('Remotion is the default ... Never default to
FFmpeg when Remotion is available'). Because the analyst skill runs first
in any reference-led flow, this silently locked the runtime before the user
was ever offered a choice — violating the 'Present Both Composition Runtimes
(HARD RULE)' in AGENT_GUIDE.md, which forbids silently picking a default and
treats Remotion and HyperFrames as parallel, non-ranked runtimes.
It also omitted HyperFrames from the engine list entirely, so it was never
surfaced as an option in the reference-led path.
Update Step 2 (Capability Audit) to:
- add HyperFrames to the audited runtime list
- remove the 'Remotion is the default / preferred' framing
- defer engine selection to the AGENT_GUIDE 'Present Both' gate
- keep FFmpeg scoped to standalone ops, not composition
Closes#60
Separates creative grammar (renderer_family) from technical engine
(render_runtime) so HyperFrames can stand alongside Remotion as a
first-class runtime instead of masquerading as a Remotion sub-case.
Locks runtime choice at proposal stage and enforces it end-to-end: the
schemas require it, video_compose routes by it, the reviewer fails
closed on silent swaps, and a parametrized contract test walks every
pipeline manifest to ensure each planning-stage skill explains the
conversation to the user. Adds hyperframes_compose (scaffold/lint/
validate/render/doctor/add_block), a playbook -> CSS style bridge, and
vendored HyperFrames Layer 3 skills from commit d291358, pinned via
PROVENANCE.md for future re-sync. Final_review now records
render_runtime_used and runtime_swap_detected so compose lies are
catchable after the fact.
Mirror the official GSAP AI skills (greensock/gsap-skills, MIT) into
.agents/skills/ and add the Layer 2 wiring that makes them discoverable
from a fresh context.
GSAP covers animation needs that Remotion primitives strain at:
per-character text reveals (SplitText), SVG shape morphs (MorphSVG),
curved camera paths (MotionPath), stroke-reveal line drawing (DrawSVG),
layout-to-layout flight (Flip), and custom bezier easings (CustomEase).
Also becomes mandatory day-1 knowledge if we wire in HyperFrames later
(HF uses GSAP timelines as its native animation runtime).
Layer 3 adds (.agents/skills/):
- gsap-core, gsap-timeline, gsap-plugins, gsap-utils
- gsap-react, gsap-performance
- gsap-scrolltrigger, gsap-frameworks (situational)
- gsap/README.md — OpenMontage-specific framing and Remotion-safe usage
Layer 2 wiring (the discovery triggers):
- skills/meta/animation-runtime-selector.md — NEW routing meta-skill.
Decision matrix covering Remotion primitives, GSAP plugins, framer-
motion, Lottie, Manim, D3, TerminalScene. Enforces the "keep it
simple" bias: reach for GSAP only when the plugin genuinely earns
its bundle weight.
- skills/pipelines/explainer/asset-director.md — references GSAP for
kinetic typography, multi-step choreography, SVG line draws.
- skills/pipelines/animation/asset-director.md — references GSAP for
logo morphs, motion paths, FLIP transitions, custom easings.
- skills/pipelines/cinematic/asset-director.md — references GSAP for
cinematic camera moves, per-char title reveals, prestige easings.
- AGENT_GUIDE.md — adds a categorized Layer 3 skills table so a fresh-
context agent can find the right skill by what they're trying to do,
plus a pointer to animation-runtime-selector.md for routing.
Determinism: every GSAP use inside Remotion must drive timeline progress
from useCurrentFrame(), never requestAnimationFrame. Three Remotion-safe
patterns are documented in both the gsap/README and the selector skill.
Attribution: https://github.com/greensock/gsap-skills (MIT).
- AGENT_GUIDE.md: add "never read source code" rule — skills are the
interface, not .py files
- animation.yaml: add Layer 2 skill-first guardrail in assets stage
- video-reference-analyst.md: Step 4b now mandates Layer 2 before Layer 3,
explicitly forbids reading implementation code
- CinematicRenderer: add TikTok-style CaptionOverlay and separate music
track support (narration + music as independent audio layers)
- cinematic/types.ts: add CinematicCaptionConfig and music prop types
Chirp3-HD is near-free ($0.003 vs $0.30+ per script), expressive,
24kHz, and available without quota limits. ElevenLabs demoted to
voice-cloning-only recommendation.
New Step 4b requires the agent to read agent_skills from every tool
before writing generation prompts. Discovered during UAT: agent
generated video clips, images, and TTS without reading provider-specific
prompting guidance, violating AGENT_GUIDE governance.
Proposals must now specify clip duration strategy (prefer 10s over 5s
to halve API costs) and list Layer 3 skills that must be read before
generating assets. Both were governance gaps found during UAT.
Agent must run tts_selector preflight to check available providers
instead of defaulting to ElevenLabs. Supports ElevenLabs, Google TTS,
OpenAI TTS, and Piper (offline).
The agent must lock the audio approach (single narrator vs. character
dialogue vs. both) during Step 3, not defer it to script/compose stage.
Proposals now include voice casting with specific voice IDs.
Remotion is now the default composition engine for ALL final renders
when available — video clips, images, mixed content. FFmpeg is only
used as fallback when Remotion is not installed or for standalone
operations (trim, transcode). Also fixes three FFmpeg fallback bugs:
profile + copy codec conflict, stream order mapping, and segment
seeking for audio-first containers.
The reference analyst skill went straight from capability audit to
creative proposals with no research. This caused the agent to propose
concepts based solely on the reference analysis and its own knowledge,
missing content landscape context, technique best practices, and
subject-matter depth.
Added Step 3b between critical questions and creative proposals:
- Content landscape scan (3-5 similar existing videos)
- Style/technique research (AI model strengths, prompting patterns)
- Subject-matter research (facts, tropes, hooks)
- 2-3 minute time budget — lightweight, not full research-director
The AGENT_GUIDE establishes Remotion as the preferred composition engine
over FFmpeg, but the reference analyst skill was presenting them as peer
options. This caused the agent to default to FFmpeg during proposals.
- Capability audit template now labels Remotion as "preferred" and FFmpeg
as "fallback only"
- Added explicit composition engine priority note
- Proposal template separates Composition and Motion as distinct lines
Video analyzer now uses Farneback dense optical flow to classify each
scene as motion_clip, animated_still, or static_image. This lets the
agent correctly identify whether a reference video uses AI-generated
video clips vs still images with pan/zoom — and plan the right pipeline.
Changes:
- video_analyzer.py: new Step 3b with _classify_scene_motion() and
_read_frame_at() helpers; updated _needs_motion() to use per-scene
motion data instead of pacing heuristic alone
- video-reference-analyst.md: added Motion line to summary template
and instructions to read motion_type field before proposing tools
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)
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.
calesthio