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Turn a short draft into the brief its author would have written. The drafts are usually Stewdio composition work (motion, 3D, shaders, footage); the method applies to any generative brief.

A good brief is references plus beats. The idea lives in the thing pointed at (recreate this <mp4>, in the texture of embroidery <img>) and the beats say what turns into what: a committed look, a copied move, a real thing, and a turn. Not more words, not more numbers. The voice is lowercase, imperative, numbered, no filler. A new brief stays under ~150 words counted above refs:, an edit note under ~50; over the cap, drop the optional lines (realism, params, a frame line restating a default) before tightening, never a beat or the turn.

Files in references/:

• finding-references.md: roles, the fence, are.na seeds and loop, Pinterest, Sketchfab, vetting. Read before step 2.
• vocabulary.md: the author's own words, per slot. Borrow while writing.
• examples.md: before / after pairs from real sessions. Read when unsure of the shape.
• patterns.md: corpus evidence and past failures behind the rules. Optional.

Procedure

1. Classify the draft.

   mode	signal	output shape
   brief	"create", "recreate", a new comp or scene	aesthetic line + numbered beats + frame line + refs + assets
   batch	"create N comps", "variations", "fill the gaps"	brief + per-item one-liners + dedupe rule + shared constraints
   delta	"make X more/less Y", "get rid of", "fix", "move to"	target + change + magnitude + direction + keep-clause
   image feedback	a screenshot / contact sheet is attached	one line per observation, each naming its frame or time
   sequence	"at Ns", "after the X exits", beats across time	brief with a time anchor on every beat, duration cap
   housekeeping	rename, push, export, "check the render"	leave as is; add the exact format or target

   Brief, batch and sequence go through steps 2-8. Delta and image feedback skip to step 6, searching only when the change brings in a new look or move.

2. Ground the look: five images, before any beat. One aesthetic, sheeted, and five stills from it that each do a job: the overall look, palette, material or surface, composition, a detail or motif. Never blend two aesthetics; if a second keeps winning tiles, switch to it wholesale. Its name goes in the prompt's first line.

   • No fence (the draft says nothing about the look): browse his umbrellas and CARI's named aesthetics and pick for remarkable, not for matching the draft's words.
   • A fence (the draft names a style, a brand or a medium, or attaches a reference): the word is the are.na query and the pick is the best instance inside it, never a different aesthetic and never a screenshot of it. It fences palette, material, type and components, not layout, scale, camera or the move. The first line names a child of the user's word (in stripe-gradient dark). How to decode and query it, and what to do when the queries come back as junk: "The fence" in finding-references.md.
3. Ground the motion: three moving references. gif / mp4 from the motion channels, each a move worth copying ("would he put this in mo-graph?"), covering three jobs: the main mechanic, the turn, the exit or camera. If no exit or camera move passes after three channels, m3 takes another beat and the camera is written in words. The fence never applies to motion. Then, as the beats need them: a copy reference or asset for anything recognisable (a real UI, product, artwork, a Sketchfab model) and a ui reference for interfaces. A user attachment fills its slot. Look at every candidate before it gets a role.
4. Decide each reference's use, then write the beats. For all eight: which beat it feeds and exactly what is taken (a3's wet-stone texture is the canvas surface, m1 0.0-1.6s is beat 1 at 1.5x slower, subject swapped for cards). A reference with no beat is cut. The motion refs give the beats their order and timing; each image sits on the beat where its quality first shows. Include the turn: a beat where something is revealed, changes medium, zooms out to a larger whole, or becomes something else (the painting unravels into a single thread which becomes a running silhouette). Enter, animate, hold is not finished. When the draft already holds a transformation (snaps into, comes back as), that verb is the turn: make it the biggest beat and add no second metaphor. A ≤5 s clip carries one idea (extra ideas go into the material and the camera, not the plot) and the action fills it: end hold under 1 s; a turn over by 1.6 s means compressed beats or a missing second half.
5. Add ideas. On a bare draft, expected: a prop that makes the subject specific, a real asset, a camera move tied to a reveal, a second beat that answers the first. Write them as beats; mark the one or two real forks [? ...].
6. Fill the slots (checklist below). Inferable from the file, the previous comp, an attachment or the conversation: silently. Missing and creative: a [? best default] placeholder in the prompt. Missing and routine (duration, aspect, file): default it inline, no marker; no file named means in stewdio, new file <topic>,.
7. Rewrite in the house shape (templates below), keeping the author's wording where it exists.
8. Output three things and nothing else: the prompt in a fenced block; a "fill-ins" list (max three creative forks, each with the choice made and the one alternative worth considering; never duration, loop or aspect); one line pointing at .context/refs/<topic>/ with the contact sheets so the user can veto a pick. <topic> is a two- or three-word kebab slug of the subject (coffee-menu). If a real thing is needed and absent (the user's own app, product, logo), say so in one line above the prompt and name the stand-in used. No technique, no advice.

After the first draft

The prompt is not the end. When it has been run and the first result exists (this agent built it, or the user comes back with it), close that reply by sending the user into Stewdio to iterate there, instead of into another long prompt. Once per brief, on the first result only: never in the step 8 reply, and not again after each edit.

• Link the project. The File's url exactly as the Stewdio tool returned it (create_file, list_files), with the file and comp name, so one click opens the comp. Never build or guess a url.
• Name the first moves for this comp, two or three, not a feature list: the params it exposes, by name, as sliders; the beat most worth retiming, by its time, on the timeline (keyframes, easing); a comment pinned on a frame for anything the agent should change.
• Offer the way back. A short note in their own words; it goes through delta or image-feedback mode before it is applied.
• Built outside Stewdio: say it can be taken into Stewdio to refine by hand, link https://www.stewdio.ai, and offer to rebuild it there from the same prompt and refs.

first draft is in stewdio: <File url> (<file>, <comp>)open it and keep going there:- sliders: <exposed params, by name>- timeline: <the beat most worth retiming> at ~<N>s, drag its keyframes or swap the easing- or pin a comment on a frame, or send a note like `<a delta that fits this comp>`, and it gets tightened and applied

No pitch, no feature tour, no questions about the prompt.

Slot checklist

Opener slots first; they decide the result. Edit-loop slots after.

Standing defaults, never written out: white bg (black for the math-graph family); no fade, drop shadow, rounded corners, annotation text, UI chrome or guiding lines; 1:1 for social posts, 16:9 for the graph and carousel families; ~5 s for a loop, 3-4 s for an inserted beat, under 15-20 s for a sequence; real assets for recognisable objects, stylised on top. The look outranks them: an aesthetic with its own ground (paper stock, a counter, dark-mode navy) replaces the white bg on the frame line, and light that belongs to the look (raking light across paper) is not a drop shadow.

Templates

Brief

in stewdio, <file>, [<comp>,] [at <N>s / after <beat>,] create the following, in <aesthetic from a1>[, using <technique>]:
1. <subject (c1 / asset), its state at 0s> <enters like m1: mechanic>2. <main action from m1, subject swapped> [at ~<N>s]3. <the turn: reveals / turns into / zooms out to show ...>4. <exit or end state>
<realism demand if it matters>; <camera if it moves>; <pace in his words><frame only where it differs from the defaults>; the whole thing ~<N>s[expose params for <list>]
refs:- a1 <path>: look, <what it sets: overall look, framing of beat 1> (<url>, channel <slug>)- a2 <path>: palette, <used where> (<url>, channel <slug>)- a3 <path>: material, <which surface in which beat> (<url>, channel <slug>)- a4 <path>: composition, <which beat's frame> (<url>, channel <slug>)- a5 <path>: detail, <which element, which beat> (<url>, channel <slug>)- m1 <path>: motion, beat <n>: <mechanic, time range taken, scale factor>, subject swapped, not the look (<url>, channel <slug>)- m2 <path>: motion, beat <n>[ (the turn)]: <what is taken> (<url>, channel <slug>)- m3 <path>: motion, beat <n>[ (the turn)]: <what is taken> (<url>, channel <slug>)- u1 <path>: ui, <ui type> layout + components, brand-neutral (<url>, channel <slug>)- c1 <path>: copy, <subject>, one-to-one (<url>)assets:- <path or url>: use as-is for <what>- <sketchfab page> (<author>, <licence>, <faces>): <object>, one-to-one, <parts that must move> [? download]

Beats cite handles inline (2. the sticker peels from the lower-left corner like m1, on a3's wet stone); every handle in refs: appears in a beat. Motion handles are numbered in beat order, and the one feeding the turn is marked (the turn). Add orig <url> after the channel when the block has a source. User attachments go in the same list.

Batch

in <file>, create <N> <things>, <one-line shared description>, using <channel> as reference:
1. <item: mechanic + orientation + layout>2. ...
for all of them: <shared constraints>; keep each ~<N>sno overlap with <existing set>; a valid variation changes the mechanic, orientation, layout or treatment, not just direction or mirrorname them "<Prefix>: [<k> word description]"

Delta: one change per line, numbered when several, each naming its target; "unrelated:" marks a different comp.

[for <comp>,] make <element> <change> <magnitude> [<direction with axis>] [at <N>s][get rid of <element>]keep <what must stay>

Image feedback: <frame or time it points at>: <one observation, quantified>, one line each.

Rules

• Pick for quality, not for match. The most striking move or look that could carry the subject beats a keyword hit that shows the right object.
• A film frame, not a web page. One hero element takes ≥40% of the frame height at the beat it matters; the smallest text is ≥24 px at 1080p; nothing is rebuilt at 1:1 browser scale. Judge sheets at thumbnail size.
• One reference, one job. Moving media for motion, stills for look; a motion ref implies a subject swap. A file used for two roles is listed twice, each scoped.
• Assets are used, references are read. Real footage, a real GLB, the real UI, the real painting, stylised on top; say the fidelity up front and never re-interpret an uploaded asset. Procedural only for primitives, orbs, blobs, extrusions, noise fields and things that must grow or morph.
• Treat each thing as a contraption. Animate its special mechanism (a lid closes, an envelope seals, a checkbox ticks), not a default draw-in. Transformations are in-process morphs, not a teardown and rebuild.
• Describe the mechanism, not the adjective. "editorial page-drag" was built as a slide-in; "the current image is peeled from a corner to reveal the new one already underneath" was built right the first time.
• Numbers where he uses them. Seconds for anchors and length, multipliers and degrees in edits, a hex only when the colour is the point (klein blue #002FA7). No ms staggers or px offsets in an opener.
• Edits name an axis, a sense and a phase. "the other way" is not a direction; "entrance 5x faster" needs "the fastest entrance we have had, constant speed after".
• Keep the voice. "get rid of", "tho", "~5s", "plz" are fine. No greetings, rationale or headings inside the prompt.

Scripts

scripts/find_refs.py: are.na channels / umbrellas / contact sheets, Pinterest pins, Sketchfab search + download, file downloads, video contact sheets. Run it with no arguments for the command list.