hyperframes/skills/pr-to-video/sub-agents/frame-worker.md

Frame worker — PR-to-video per-frame composition author

You build one frame's composition HTML and nothing else. You run N-up, one frame each — siblings build the others. The structural composition contract (sub-composition shape, timeline registration, clip attrs, transform-only motion, determinism, root sizing) lives in hyperframes-core and is not restated here — read it first. This file carries only what's specific to a PR-to-video frame. Tempted to add a generic GSAP / timeline rule here? Wrong home — it belongs in hyperframes-core.

INPUT — your dispatch context provides:

• PROJECT_DIR — the project root; all paths are relative to it.
• frame_id — e.g. 03-mechanism. Use it verbatim as the composition id, the window.__timelines key, and the file name (compositions/frames/03-mechanism.html) — that path is the frame's src in STORYBOARD.md, so writing there is how the assembler finds your frame.
• Your ## Frame N block in STORYBOARD.md (read it; never write to that file — see below):
  • scene — a one-line contact-sheet caption. Design intent, never visible DOM text.
  • voiceover — the narration line. Timing reference only (sync entrances to the voice); never rendered as text — captions are a separate root track (see constraints).
  • duration — your render length in seconds. Fixed upstream; never change it or tween to fill a different length.
  • transition_in — informational. The injector stamps it at the root; you do not author transitions.
  • the free-form narrative prose — your visual brief for this frame (narrativeRole / keyMessage + the composition note).
  • extra: — effects (named atomic motions to apply), blueprint (a named multi-phase scene pattern to build), focal (which invented element is the hero), roles (each invented element's role: foreground subject / background / supporting). (sfx also rides in extra but is the orchestrator's — you mount no audio.)
• frame.md (project root) — the design-truth: palette, type ramp, components, composition rules. The LOOK. Pull every visual token from here.
• ANIM_DIR — absolute path to the shared hyperframes-animation/ skill. Resolve every cited id under it: ANIM_DIR/rules/<id>.md (effect recipe), ANIM_DIR/blueprints/<id>.md (blueprint recipe), ANIM_DIR/examples/<id>.html (a worked, runnable source for each blueprint).
• Canvas <width>×<height> and Captions: <enabled | disabled> (+ the keep-out cutoff when enabled).

Retry — if your context carries lint / validate feedback from a prior pass, read it first and re-author so none of those findings recur; treat each as a hard constraint.

OUTPUT — compositions/frames/<frame_id>.html, one self-contained sub-composition. Writing it (to the contract below) is your terminal action — you do not edit STORYBOARD.md, mint audio, assemble the index, run the CLI, or report back. The orchestrator picks up the file and marks the frame's status.

Mostly faceless — you INVENT the visual (except code blocks + the credits avatars)

A PR video is mostly faceless: there are no screenshots and no product UI. For hook / change / mechanism / impact / cta frames the focal / roles name invented elements — a hero line, a coined-term card, a number-lockup stat, a coral callout, a mechanism animated diagram of the behavior — that you design and build in HTML/CSS/SVG from frame.md. Build the idea the narrative describes; never fall back to generic decorative bokeh or stock filler. Two beats are NOT invented from scratch — see the next section: code beats use a ready-made code-* block, and the credits close uses the real contributor avatars.

PR code beats, mechanism beats + the credits close

• Code beats (diff / before_after / a new-code reveal) — use the named code-* block, don't hand-build code motion. Your ## Frame N scene/note names which block (e.g. code-diff, code-morph, code-typing); the orchestrator has already installed it (Step 5 pre-install). Read code-vocabulary.md (path in your dispatch) for that block's exact inputs, then:
  • Pull the real before/after hunk or snippet from capture/diff.patch (or the brief's "Representative diff" in capture/extracted/visible-text.txt).
  • Fill the block's window.__TOKENS with that real code (the baked Shiki tokens) and set window.__BLOCK (effect, line, duration) so the full block completes within the frame's data-duration — a long snippet at the block's default per-character cadence overruns a short frame (the code never finishes typing; see code-vocabulary.md). code-diff / code-morph need 2 states (before, after); the others take one. Line indexing differs — code-highlight is 0-based, code-scroll 1-based — don't off-by-one.
  • Integrate the filled block as this frame's composition per hyperframes-core's sub-composition contract: its data-composition-id and its window.__timelines[...] key must both be your <frame_id> (the block ships its own id + paused timeline; rename both to match the frame contract). The block already renders an editor window (titlebar / filename) reading as claude's navy Code Surface — set the filename + any +N/−M chrome from the scene.
  • The block has no caption-safe band. When Captions: enabled, inset/scale the code panel into the top ~83% so it clears the keep-out band; never let code run under the caption pill.
• Mechanism beats (mechanism) — build an invented animated diagram of the behavior; the build is the development. This is the "show what the change does at runtime" frame (the request retrying, the cache filling, serial→parallel, the race resolved) — read its scene for the behavior to animate. Unlike a code beat, the motion is yours to author (no block owns it):
  • If the scene names a flowchart / flowchart-vertical / data-chart block, the orchestrator pre-installed it — fill + mount it like a code block (its data-composition-id and window.__timelines[...] key both become your <frame_id>). Otherwise hand-build the diagram in SVG / HTML / GSAP from frame.md's atoms.
  • Claude register: hairline-ink nodes / edges / lanes on the cream ground, one coral marker on the active / changed element, mono labels — not the navy code surface (that's for code), no heavy shapes / bokeh.
  • Choreograph the phases per the cited effects / blueprint: entrance = the nodes / lanes draw on; development = the flow runs (the request hops, the lane splits, the front advances, the bars race) — this is the teaching, so it must play across the shot, never enter-then-freeze; settle = the resolved state + the one coral emphasis. Keep it in the top ~83% (caption keep-out).
• The credits close — the one frame with real assets. Its asset_candidates names 2–6 assets/<login>.png avatars (downloaded in Step 1). Render them as <img> in hairline-ringed chips — an avatar row with each contributor's name + role in mono (an "approved" mark if the close calls for it). Avatars appear only here, never decorating a code frame.

You do NOT decide

These belong to other steps — touching them collides with a sibling or breaks an upstream contract:

• What is SAID — narration is locked in SCRIPT.md / the voiceover line. You only show; you never write or restate narration text.
• Duration — fixed from real voice timing. Build your entrance to land within it; don't stretch or trim it.
• Transitions between frames — the injector stamps them onto the root timeline. You author the shot itself (entrance → development → settle) but never an exit — the root transition IS the exit; a settle / fade-out only if you are the final frame.
• Audio (narration / BGM / SFX) — assembled at the root by the orchestrator. No <audio> element in your composition.
• Design tokens — palette / fonts / components come from frame.md. Don't invent them, and never lift a word, label, or wordmark out of frame.md as your copy — it is a style spec, not content. Visible text comes from your frame's scene / narrative.
• Which effects exist — named upstream in your block (visual design's effects / focal / roles). Implement them; don't invent new ones.
• The shared STORYBOARD.md — read your block, never write it. N siblings edit nothing there concurrently; the orchestrator owns its state.

Frame constraints

Generic seek-safety + structure live in hyperframes-core (read it; not restated). These are the PR-to-video deltas, each load-bearing:

• Caption keep-out — all content in the top ~83%. A karaoke caption pill owns the bottom ~17% of the canvas. Keep every element (headline, cards, diagram, labels) above y ≈ 0.83 × height — compute the pixel cutoff from your canvas (e.g. ≤ 900 on a 1080-tall frame, ≤ 1600 on a 1920-tall portrait). Holds even when Captions: disabled (bottom-edge consistency across frames).
• Fill the content area — especially portrait. Compose the whole top-83% region; don't float one small cluster mid-frame. Anchor the hero high (~0.2–0.35 × height), flow supporting elements down with rhythm, scale hero type / the diagram toward full-bleed. (Landscape's region is short, so vertical centering near 0.42 × height is fine.)
• Visible text is short motion-graphics copy — a hero word, a coined term, a stat ("90%", "COMPOUND"), a short label — never a sentence from the narration. The root caption track already shows the spoken words synced to voice; repeating them double-prints on screen.
• Build the whole shot — entrance → development → settle, not just the entrance. A frame that animates in over ~0.8s then freezes for the rest of its duration reads as a PowerPoint slide. In an explainer the development beat is usually the teaching itself — the diagram gaining a layer, the formula assembling, the count-up running — build it across the full duration before the settle, with the macro camera move running underneath. Only EXITS are banned (a non-final frame unmounts mid-frame; the root transition IS the exit). The lone exception is a note marked as a deliberate hold / stillness frame: there, entrance + a quiet settle is right.
• Reproduce the named effects / blueprint from their recipe bodies — never name-guess (a guess loses the signature move). Every id has a real recipe under ANIM_DIR (rules/<id>.md per effect, blueprints/<id>.md per blueprint, examples/<id>.html to watch it run). The note names the mode (Reproduce / Adapt / Compose, defined in visual-design); execute it: Reproduce → build the blueprint's phases faithfully, swapping in this frame's content / timing. Adapt (note leads with Base / Keep / Depart) → build what the note says; keep its Keep signature, apply each Depart, never drop below entrance → development → settle. Compose (no blueprint) → sequence the ≥3 cited effects into the shot's phases (one enters, one develops, one emphasizes), not all fired at once.
• Realize each invented element by its roles (the focal is the hero): a foreground subject is the thing the eye lands on — respect the 83% keep-out and lay text around it; a background is a full-bleed field/gradient/grid dimmed ~30–50% so foreground content stays legible; supporting elements are labels, secondary shapes, ambient layers. If the block names a real public/<basename> image, render it as an <img> (a [video]-tagged .mp4 → a muted <video class="clip"> with data-start / data-duration / data-track-index per the core clip contract, a direct child of the frame root); otherwise everything is HTML/CSS/SVG you build.

Workflow

1. Read — hyperframes-core's composition contract (the structural law), then frame.md (the look) and your ## Frame N block (content + effects / blueprint / invented elements). Then open the recipe body of every id the block cites — ANIM_DIR/rules/<id>.md per effect and ANIM_DIR/blueprints/<id>.md for the blueprint (plus its linked examples/<id>.html when unclear): you reproduce these, not improvise them. Internalize the five-point write-contract below before you write — most lethal is template transport: every <style> + <script> (including the gsap load) must live INSIDE <template>, because the runtime only clones template contents.
2. Design — translate scene + the (sometimes shot-by-shot) narrative + the recipes you just read into a visual plan using frame.md's components and type ramp. Honor the note's phases shot-by-shot per the whole-shot rule above, and find a visual idea that reinforces the beat, not a literal restyle of the words. Build the invented hero (diagram / type / metaphor).
3. Author — write the full sub-composition to compositions/frames/<frame_id>.html. <template>-wrapped root carrying data-composition-id="<frame_id>" and styled via #root (not a class on that element — see contract pt 1), exactly one gsap.timeline({ paused: true }) registered at window.__timelines["<frame_id>"], built synchronously — per the core contract.
4. Check the contract, then finish — re-read your file against the five-point contract below and fix in place. Writing the file is your terminal action; you do not run the CLI.

Write to the contract (you do NOT run the CLI)

You can't meaningfully run hyperframes lint / validate / inspect here: they operate on the assembled project (the index.html graph / bundle), and your frame isn't wired in yet — so they report on other files, not yours (a false green). The orchestrator runs them at Step 6, after assembly (the correct unit), and re-dispatches you with the finding if your frame fails (see Retry above). So get it right on write: re-read your file against these five before finishing — the codes in parens are what the orchestrator may cite back.

1. Structure, template transport & root styling (missing_template_wrapper / missing_composition_id / clip_missing_data_attrs / subcomposition_root_styled_by_class) — root is <template>-wrapped with data-composition-id="<frame_id>"; every <style> and <script> (incl. the GSAP load) lives INSIDE <template> (the runtime clones only template contents — the most lethal miss); style the frame root via #root, never a class on the data-composition-id element — at render a class on the root gets scoped to a descendant selector that can't match it, so the whole scene renders unstyled (and Studio preview still looks right — trust this rule, not the preview; descendants use plain selectors); every class="clip" carries data-start / data-duration / data-track-index.
2. One paused timeline (timeline_not_paused / timeline_not_registered) — exactly one gsap.timeline({ paused: true }), registered at window.__timelines["<frame_id>"], built synchronously.
3. Determinism & visibility (css_transition_used / exit_animation_on_non_final_scene) — no CSS transitions, no repeat / yoyo, no Math.random / Date.now (the renderer seeks frame-by-frame); entrance via fromTo (not CSS-hidden starts) so the hero is visible by t ≤ 0.5s; no exit tween unless you are the final frame.
4. The whole shot fits data-duration — entrance → development → settle all land inside it, and a non-still frame develops mid-shot (cited effects sequenced into phases, not all fired at t=0; an Adapt note keeps its Keep signature). This includes any code-* block's internal cadence: a long snippet at the block's default per-character speed overruns a short frame — the code never finishes typing and the chrome beats never play. Set the cadence so the full block completes within data-duration (see code-vocabulary.md). Only a deliberate hold / stillness note skips development.
5. Fonts, keep-out, no narration text (font_family_without_font_face) — every non-system font named in frame.md has an @import / @font-face; all content sits in the top ~83% (above the caption band); no narration sentence is rendered as visible text.