Glossary
The words you meet in showtime's output, its delivery card and its docs, in alphabetical order. Each entry says what the word means here and where it lives on disk or which command makes it.
This page is for people using showtime. CONTEXT.md is the house vocabulary for whoever writes showtime itself: one word per idea, the near-synonyms to avoid, and the ambiguities it settles. The release check warns when the skill uses an avoided word. The two agree. This page adds the words a new user meets first (EDL, ledger, critic, look signature) and leaves the finer distinctions to CONTEXT.md: scene, shot, clip, beat and slot; mix, master, score and bed; board, storyboard and animatic.
The job folder#
Every request gets one folder, and nothing in it is overwritten: a second render is final-2.mp4. Each stage of a
job writes its own files. The 5-second test video makes the ones without a note; the others
appear when a job needs them.
showtime-out/hello-20261009-205903/
│
│ 0 Start ─────── SHOWTIME.md the ledger: goal, stage, verified vs assumed, open questions, next command
│ job.json the same for machines: versions, stage times, the latest file of each kind
│ AGENTS.md tells an agent that opens the folder later to read SHOWTIME.md first
│ CLAUDE.md (the same text)
│
│ 2 Plan ──────── project/voice/timeline.json with a voice-over: line and word times
│
│ 3 First look ── project/index.html, showtime.json the page and its settings
│ edit/edl.json instead of project/, for a footage edit
│
│ 4 Build ─────── final.mp4 the video; a new render is final-2.mp4
│ poster.jpg the still shown before it plays
│ final.work/ render.json: browsers, GPU, time per stage
│
│ 5 Verify ────── work/qa/final/ qa.json and sheet.jpg, the last qa verdict
│ review/round-1/ CRITIC.md and FINDINGS.md, the critic's round
│
│ 6 Deliver ───── receipt.md what the job took: rounds, renders, time, tokens
│ share.txt the receipt's one line; post copy above it when there is somewhere to post
│ exports/ platform copies, when you ask for them
Stage 1 (understand the request) reads your files and writes nothing new. The receipt and share.txt are written
when your agent records the delivery (showtime job note --stage deliver).
critic#
A fresh sub-agent that reviews a finished video. It gets one file, CRITIC.md, from showtime review-pack (contact
sheets, key frames, a loudness graph and the brief) and writes FINDINGS.md with a verdict. It never sees the
conversation, so it judges the video, not the intentions. In quality mode every finished video gets a critic round
before delivery. See finding and review.
crew#
Ten optional specialist sub-agents that ship with showtime: brand designer, creative director, critic, editor, motion designer, researcher, scriptwriter, sound designer, storyboard artist and voice director. They get file pointers, never the chat, and hand back files. Your agent stays the director: the only one who talks to you, keeps the ledger and renders. Say "no crew" to keep the whole job in one session, or "full crew" to use every member the job can. See crew.
delivery card#
The fixed summary at the end of every job: Done, Files, Length, Loudness, QA, Review, Findings, Look (what was
actually opened and seen), Cost, Assumed, what is cheap or costly to change, and three options for what to do next.
showtime receipt <job> --card fills in what showtime knows. See modes § 5.
draft#
A fast render for review: showtime render <project> --preview (at most 720p, fast encode). Timing and content are
real; picture quality is not. Not to be confused with a preview.
EDL#
An edit decision list: a JSON file that lists which stretches of your recordings to keep, in order, with captions,
cards and the output size. A footage edit keeps it at <job>/edit/edl.json. showtime edit cut writes it from a
transcript, showtime edit check checks it, and showtime edit render renders from it, so your original footage
is never changed. See editing.
export#
A platform version made from the final: showtime deliver exports <job> --targets youtube,reels,square
writes them into <job>/exports/, each to its platform's size, length and file limits.
final#
The full-quality render that qa checks: final.mp4. Renders never overwrite, so a re-render is final-2.mp4 and a
poster bake final.poster.mp4. Commands given a job use its latest final, and showtime qa prints which file that
is.
finding#
One problem the critic reports, with a timestamp and an id: a Blocker (r1-B1), a Should-fix (r1-S1) or a Polish
item (r1-P1). A video is not marked delivered while a Blocker or Should-fix is neither fixed nor
waived. Polish items never hold up delivery. showtime review-respond <job> lists them with their state.
first look#
The first thing you see, within minutes: a still, a contact sheet or a fast draft. It is there to catch a wrong direction early, before the full render. In quick mode your agent shows it and keeps going.
HTML video#
A single file that plays in any browser, offline: the same frames as the MP4, a player with chapters, keyboard
shortcuts, links to a moment, and questions that pause the video until the viewer answers. showtime export html
makes one from any project. See html-export.
job#
One request carried out end to end, in its own folder: showtime-out/<name>-<date>-<time>/. showtime job init
makes it. <job> in commands is that folder or just its name (launch means the newest launch-* job). A job
holds the ledger, the project or the EDL, the renders, the qa reports and the
receipt.
lean#
See quality and lean.
ledger#
The job's own record of where it stands: SHOWTIME.md for people and job.json for programs. It holds the goal,
the stage, what was verified and what was only assumed, the open questions and the next command. showtime job note
writes it at every stage; showtime status, qa and a resumed session read it. An agent that opens the folder later
starts there.
live figure#
A living diagram as one offline page people poke instead of watch: no player, the board is live
from the first frame. Hover a part, pick a step, turn a knob, and the numbers under it answer. showtime export html <project> --interactive makes one. See html-export § Live figure.
living diagram#
A system explained over time as an isometric figure: parts arrive in the order that explains them, flows and
labels move through them, the camera chooses what to look at. showtime new diagram starts one. See
diagram.
look#
showtime look <project|video|job> makes one small composite image (1280 px) of a video's key frames, and a brief
for a reviewer who answers in text. It lets your agent check the picture without filling its context with images.
The delivery card's Look line says what was opened and what was seen. See
looking.
look signature#
A named set of palette, type pair, motion feel and ground (glow, grid, vignette) that a new page project starts in,
when there is no brand kit or style reference. There are twelve: seven dark and five light. showtime picks one that
differs from the last six projects on this machine and the last five finished videos, so videos do not all look
alike. showtime new ... --look <id> chooses one, showtime signature list lists them, and
showtime signature apply <project> next swaps it. A brand kit always wins. See
color § 9.
poster#
The still a player shows before the video plays, and the frame a feed shows. "poster": <seconds> in
showtime.json picks it, and showtime render writes poster.jpg. A poster at 0 s means the video opens on a
complete frame. showtime deliver poster <job> --at <seconds> --bake puts a later frame at the start.
preview#
Watching a project live in the browser player: showtime preview <project>, with a scrubber and frame stepping. No
file is written. A quick file is a draft.
project#
A folder with index.html and showtime.json (plus its assets) that showtime render turns into a video. It is
the source your agent writes, never an output. showtime new <template> <dir> makes one from a
template.
quality and lean#
The review setting: how much your agent checks a video after making it. Quality (the default) gives every
finished video the full review: looks, qa and a critic round before delivery. Lean is a cheaper draft
pass: no critic unless the video is going to be published. Say "lean", or run showtime config mode lean to make it
the default. It is a separate setting from quick and studio.
quick and studio#
The asking setting: how much your agent asks before building. Quick (the default) states its assumptions in one line and starts; it asks only when a request could mean two different videos. Studio shows you options on a local board first (concepts, looks, music, a storyboard and an animatic) and waits for your picks. Say "show me options first" or "studio". It is a separate setting from quality and lean. See modes.
readback#
After a voice-over is made, showtime transcribes each line on your machine and compares it with the script. When a
name, an acronym or a number is heard differently, it warns. qa runs the same check. A word someone listened to
and found right is cleared in showtime.json: "readback": {"ok": ["JSON"]}. See
troubleshooting.
receipt#
receipt.md and receipt.json in the job folder: the request as typed, the assumptions, the review rounds, every
render, the wall time, and the tokens and cost when your agent's session log can be read (anything unknown says
"not reported by this agent"). showtime receipt <job> writes it. See
receipt.
signature#
Short for look signature, as in showtime signature.
splice#
Re-rendering only part of a finished video: showtime render <project> --job <job> --from 12 --to 18 renders those
seconds and puts them into the job's last full render, saved as the next final-N.mp4. An unchanged soundtrack is
reused. It is how a small fix stays fast.
studio#
See quick and studio.
template#
A starter project that showtime new copies, such as dom (a launch page), short (a vertical video), data (a
chart story) or film (a canvas film with its own score). showtime new with no arguments lists them all with their
size and length.
timeline.json#
The voice-over's timing, written by showtime voice script next to vo.wav: each line's start and its share of the
time, and every word's start and end. Scenes take their lengths from it (showtime retime <project> --from-voice <project>/voice/timeline.json), and captions and reveals land on its word times.
waive#
Closing a finding on purpose, with a one-line reason, instead of fixing it:
showtime review-respond <job> --waive r1-S2 "the pause is on purpose". Your agent asks you before it waives a
Blocker. Every waiver and its reason is listed in the receipt.