mc-assets

Farm every still and clip the approved beat table calls for. The outcome is assets/ holding exactly one blessed file per beat-row asset slot, plus assets/manifest.json recording where each one came from. mc-graphics composes overlays against these files and the final render puts them on screen at full size, so that is the bar: the right thing depicted, sourced as high up the Production Bible's hierarchy as the shot allows, and clean at zoom. A generation that misrepresents something real is worse than no asset at all.

Resolution rules

• Bare paths resolve against {video-path}, the current video project at {projects-path}/<slug>/. Every bare assets/ below is that project's folder, never a skill folder.
• {skill-root} → this skill's installed directory; files in it always carry it ({skill-root}/references/generative-editing-rules.md).
• {project-root} → the project working directory.
• {skill-name} → the skill directory's basename.

On Activation

1. Load the studio config: uv run {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/resolve_config.py --project-root {project-root} --key modules.manticore. Empty means mc-setup has not run: stop and route the creator there. Resolve paths values against {project-root}.
2. Read project.json (stage assets), beats/beats.md, and the format profile. The rows to farm are the ones whose asset column names an id; a 0.x table with no asset column has nothing to farm. If the profile says generated_broll: banned, stop and report, because something upstream is wrong.
3. Read {brand-path}/production-bible.md. If it does not exist, tell the creator it is missing and that the image-type policy and sourcing hierarchy governing every choice here cannot happen without it, then route to mc-setup and stop.
4. Read {brand-path}/headshots/. If it does not exist, tell the creator it is missing and that any asset with the creator or another person in it cannot happen without it, then route to mc-setup and stop.

Before any generative farm or revision, load {skill-root}/references/generative-editing-rules.md. Its rules on chaining, compositing, self-inspection, people, and prompting bind every lane and every provider.

Sourcing

Real verified imagery first: the creator's own libraries at the locations the bible names, screen recordings, verified photos. Generative only for what does not exist. A hand-built text card last.

Generated footage never depicts UI or text that has to be accurate; real UI comes from screen recordings, and claim-bearing text belongs to mc-graphics' SVG/diagrammatic lane rather than to farming. Any asset with the creator or another person in it starts from an approved original photo in {brand-path}/headshots/ passed as --ref.

Lanes

[assets] names the lane per kind: image-provider, video-provider, escalation-provider. Each value is either the name of a registered [[tools]] CLI (the working default in 1.0) or a metered API lane (xai-api, veo-api, both unimplemented until 1.0.x). If the lane an asset needs is empty or names nothing registered, STOP and ask the creator which registered tool to use, routing to mc-setup's tool registration if none exists. Never fall back to a metered lane the creator did not explicitly choose.

Farming

Farm by tool NAME through the script, so no session has to remember how a tool is driven. Save the resolved config as JSON once:

uv run {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/resolve_config.py --project-root {project-root} --key modules.manticore > <resolved assets/work/.farm-config.json>

Then, per asset, write the prompt per the generative editing rules and run:

uv run {skill-root}/scripts/farm_asset.py --kind image|video --prompt "..." --provider <the [assets] lane value> --config <the saved config JSON> --out-dir <resolved assets/work/> [--seconds 8] [--ref <real photography or the original source only>]

The script prints the tool's notes first, which are the persistent memory for driving that tool, and appends a provenance row per new file to assets/work/manifest.json. Escalate to escalation-provider only for hero shots where realism must not wobble.

Video generation and large batches run in the background with proactive progress; never leave the creator staring at a silent stage. When project.json carries an event deadline (set at mc-new), order the remaining assets by their hard external gates and cap iteration loops: a shipped asset at the deadline beats a perfect asset after it.

Blessing

Candidates, drafts, and retries stay in assets/work/. When the creator picks, copy exactly one blessed file per beat-row slot into assets/, named by its asset id, and append its work-manifest row to assets/manifest.json (file, kind, prompt, provider, model, cost, date). Report total spend for the lanes that report cost; registered CLI tools draw on the creator's own subscription and report none.

Then update project.json: append assets to stages_done and set stage to the next stage in its stages list.

Checklist

• Exactly one blessed file in assets/ per beat-row asset slot; every alternate and retry stayed in assets/work/.
• assets/manifest.json carries a row per blessed file, with spend summed for the lanes that report it.
• Nothing in assets/ shows readable UI or misrepresents anything real, and every short quoted string is character-exact.