Channels and identity

A channel is your own look and place. Its identity holds the fonts, colours, number and unit formats, the cards and captions, the languages and the home world every film of the channel starts in. Nothing of anyone else’s look is imposed or offered as a default.

Make a channel

npx clipwright-studio channel new "Slow Sky"
cd slow-sky
npx clipwright-studio channel dev

channel new makes the channel and its folder with channel.json, identity.json and a fonts/ folder. identity.json is written out in full as a starting point. Tell your agent what the channel is about, who watches and one word for its look; it designs from that and edits the file. channel dev checks and syncs on every save (channel sync does it once).

What the identity holds

• A brief: what your agent designed from. You read it beside the sheet.
• Fonts for titles, labels and captions, from the hosted list or your own file with its licence statement.
• Colours and the look of type, counters, cards, captions and thumbnails.
• Units and numbers: metric, US or UK units, 12 or 24 hour clocks, date order, Latin or native digits.
• Languages: see Languages and voices.
• A home world: a place on Earth, a direction the sea lies, houses, cars, trees, props and a layout seed.

The check prints every problem as a path, the rule and the fix, all sections at once, so one round of fixes is enough. A colour pair with too little contrast, a font weight the family does not have, or a script no font covers is an error; nothing syncs until it is fixed.

Approve it

Each sync is a numbered, never-changed version. Open the channel in the app and look at its sheet: a title card, both counters, a card for what is next, a caption and a thumbnail. Approve a version when it is right. Only you can approve; an agent’s key cannot. Take an approval back if you change your mind.

Use it in a film

npx clipwright-studio channel use slow-sky
npx clipwright-studio channel list

channel use, run in a film folder, points the film at a channel and pins its newest approved identity (the newest, if none is approved). A film keeps the version it pinned, so a better identity never changes a film mid-edit. channel list shows your channels and the state of their identities.

Limits

• Free accounts have one channel; a plan allows 20.
• An identity can bring up to 12 font files of 20 MB each, and up to 24 props.