General edit

Read the timeline and what the brief is for, then plan scene purposes and timings against the requested outcome before building.

Workflow

1. Understand. Inspect the relevant sources (transcripts, scene understanding, source_inspect, audio_inspect) before deciding anything that depends on them.
2. Plan. Ordered scene purposes, target durations, the visual hierarchy, motion and sound approach, in the working plan.
3. Build in dependency order: structure (aspect ratio, cuts, trims, order), then content (captions, titles, media), then style, motion and the audio finish.
4. Choose for this footage: meaningful cuts over a fixed cadence, the direction's transition language where a join needs one, text only where it adds meaning, sound balanced so speech is always clear.
5. Check the result against the brief: coverage, required moments, readable text, continuity, clear sound, an intentional opening and ending.

Gotchas

• Prevent accidental uncovered gaps and unintended black frames. Intentional black, pauses and designed title cards are legitimate when they serve the brief.
• Reusing an existing clipId in addClip REPLACES that clip. To change a clip's media, use replaceClipMedia.
• Finish the whole job in this run; users hate being told to say "continue".
• When no specific skill fits, check the catalog again: a technique skill (captions, pacing, colour-grade, music-bed) may cover the part that matters.