Plugin installs: Before setup or freshness commands, follow plugin execution rules when this skill is inside a HyperFrames plugin. Standalone installs keep the update instructions below.

HyperFrames Studio conventions

Studio draws one timeline row per top-level element. A project that follows the rules below opens as a short, readable timeline; one that does not opens as a wall of unlabeled rows the user cannot edit. These are conventions for what to build. For how to change a clip, follow /hyperframes-core references/creator-editing-recipes.md and never invent a different form of the same edit.

0. Talk before you build

Read the message before you open a file. Decide what it asks for:

A message that asks a question and names a change gets the answer and the change. Only when you cannot tell whether it asks for anything is it a conversation: a wrong answer costs one message; a wrong build costs a long run and a round of notes.

A conversation reply:

• Answer first, in plain words, in a few sentences.
• Ask only questions whose answer changes the film, each with a recommended answer and its trade-off ("30 seconds fits a feed; 60 leaves room for the demo").
• When there is an idea to shape: for a new film, directions per /hyperframes references/pitch-round.md; for an idea about this film, two or three options for the part named. Recommend one.
• End with the next step and the word that starts it ("Say build and I'll start").

Keep the plan in the project, not only in the chat: the next message may start a new session that cannot see this one. Add it to STORYBOARD.md the way /hyperframes-creative references/storyboard-recipe.md § 1 records notes on frames; never overwrite locked frames. If the person asked you to change nothing at all, write nothing: put the plan in the reply and offer to save it.

1. Every scene is a sub-composition

The root composition holds only timed hosts, media and audio. Any scene with nested structure (a div containing children, a title with a subtitle, a chart) is its own file loaded with data-composition-src, wiring in /hyperframes-core references/sub-compositions.md.

Nested markup left inside the root does not become a row of its own. It hides inside one opaque row that cannot be trimmed or moved part by part.

Author as if a structure lint rejects any violation.

2. One caption track

• All captions live on one track: a single sub-composition host (one data-track-index) marked data-track-kind="captions" that carries every caption group in order.
• Never one row per caption group, and never captions mixed onto a track with another kind.
• Word-timing rules are unchanged: see /embedded-captions and the caption_* lint rules.

3. One element kind per track

Group by kind so each row is one thing the user can select, mute or drag as a set.

Put data-track-kind on sub-composition hosts. Video and audio kinds come from the tag, so <video> and <audio> need no attribute. Give each kind its own data-track-index; the number is display only; it never changes what renders on top. Use CSS for layering.

4. Safe zones

Any ruler or safe-box overlay lives in the preview pane, never inside the composition, so do not add guide elements to the HTML. Both framings (wide and vertical) use the same two safe boxes, Premiere's defaults. The preview toggle draws them with a tick at the midpoint of every edge. Source: ACTION_SAFE_PERCENT and TITLE_SAFE_PERCENT in packages/studio/src/utils/previewSafeMargins.ts.

• Safe margins: everything visible stays inside the action-safe box (90%), and captions and key content stay inside the title-safe box (80%).
• Two-up and 50/50 layouts keep each half's content inside the title-safe box.

5. A new film: plan, storyboard, build

The hyperframes-launches films were made in this order. Each step has an owner; follow it and do not restate it here.

What the launch films add, for a product launch. Where the workflow's chosen arc says otherwise, the arc wins.

• Real footage for the launched product. Ask for a screen recording in the brief unless the workflow captures it itself (a site from its URL), and hold its slot with a labelled placeholder until it arrives. Never approximate the launched product's UI. A third-party tool shown as context (a chat app, an editor) is rebuilt faithfully from a capture.
• One world. The same window or canvas continues across beats. Scrub every cut: whatever persists must not jump.
• Cursors and scrolled content. A cursor, or content the window itself scrolls out, leaves through the window or frame edge, not by fading mid-frame. Element and text swaps follow the workflow's cut-catalog.md where it has one.
• Close on the command or the address, with the logo landing in footage that is still moving.
• State the runtime at every version. Running past the target is the person's call, not yours.

Checking your work

Run hyperframes check (it runs lint) and fix every finding. Then open the project in Studio and check that the timeline shows a base row, one row per scene host, one caption row and the audio rows.