Compose

Compose

This atom owns the full video assembly pipeline. You receive raw outputs from the capture stage and produce a single polished artifact. Follow the pipeline below step by step.

Inputs

The command or capture stage should have provided a handoff with two sections:

Mechanical (structured)

• clips: paths to raw recordings (.cast, .mp4, .webm, .png)
• driver: tuistory | true-input | agent-browser
• layout: single | side-by-side
• labels: text for each clip (e.g., "BEFORE (dev)", "AFTER (PR)")
• speed: multiplier (default 3x)
• fidelity: auto | compact | standard | inspect (optional; auto => side-by-side=inspect, single=standard)
• title: text for the title card
• subtitle: one-sentence summary
• sections: text banners for chapters [{t, title}] (optional)
• keys: keystroke events [{t, label, dur?}] (if overlay requested)
• showcase: preset name -- macos, minimal, hero, presentation, factory, factory-hero
• effects tier: utilitarian | full | none (see "Choosing effects at compose time" below)
• output: desired output path

Creative (natural language)

Free-text guidance on what to emphasize: which moments to hold, what the title card should convey, whether phase cards are warranted, how to trim dead time. Use this -- along with the effects tier -- for editorial decisions, including choosing specific effects to apply.

Pipeline

1. Build props   →  construct the Showcase JSON props
2. Render        →  render-showcase.sh (converts .cast, stages clips, renders, cleans up)
3. Finalize      →  verify and output

Remotion handles all compositing in a single pass — title cards, transitions, window chrome, backgrounds, keystroke overlays, spotlights, particles, noise, and color grading are all automatic. You construct the props JSON; the engine does the rest.

Remotion project & helper script

REMOTION_DIR=${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT}/remotion
RENDER=${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/render-showcase.sh

Showcase mode vs Demo mode

Both use the same Remotion pipeline but target different visual registers.

Decision rule: If the video will be seen outside the eng team, use Showcase mode. If it's for a PR description, internal demo, or documentation embed, use Demo mode. The visual polish layers (warm glow, particles, color grade, motion blur) are always present but their intensity is palette-driven — Factory presets produce rich cinematic warmth while Catppuccin presets stay subtle and cool.

Choosing effects at compose time

The command stage committed an effects tier (utilitarian, full, or none). Now that you have actual recordings, choose specific effects:

• Utilitarian: Add zoom effects for any small or hard-to-read text. Add keystroke overlay if user actions were captured. Skip spotlight and callout unless something is genuinely hard to find on screen.
• Full: Use the full palette. Spotlight the key proof points. Zoom into details. Add callout annotations where the UI isn't self-explanatory. Layer keystroke overlay throughout. Aim for cinematic -- the viewer should feel guided, not left to scan.
• None: Pass "effects": [] in props. Keystroke overlay is still allowed if committed separately.

Step 1: Choose fidelity and pacing

render-showcase.sh auto-selects inspect for side-by-side and standard for single-clip layouts when fidelity is omitted or set to auto.

.cast conversion behavior

render-showcase.sh converts .cast inputs through agg -> gif -> ffmpeg -> mp4 before Remotion render, using the asciicast's own cols/rows and fixed font metrics so element positions remain stable across fidelity profiles.

CRITICAL: agg replaces ALL 16 ANSI colors with its theme palette. The render script uses a custom Droid CLI theme. If you manually run agg, never omit --theme and never use built-in themes like monokai or dracula.

The --theme flag accepts a comma-separated hex string (no # prefix): bg,fg,color0..color7 (10 values) or bg,fg,color0..color7,color8..color15 (18 values for bright variants).

Note: tuistory recordings of the Droid CLI typically emit NO color escape codes -- the CLI uses Ink's direct rendering which doesn't produce standard ANSI SGR sequences in the cast output. The theme's bg (first value: 181818) and fg (second value: e0d0c0, warm white) are the only colors that will affect the output. The warm-white fg avoids the cold blue-grey look of default themes.

For other terminals that DO emit ANSI color codes, build the full theme string from the terminal's actual color settings.

Pacing: Target the final video duration, not a speed factor. A blind multiplier either makes text illegible or leaves dead air.

Set the speed prop to hit the target: if the raw recording is 3 minutes and the target is 60s, use "speed": 3. If it's already 40s raw, use "speed": 1 or trim dead time instead. Trim first, speed second -- cut LLM thinking pauses, build waits, and network delays from the .cast with asciinema cut or by splitting segments, then apply a gentle speed-up only if still over target.

Keystroke timing adjustment: If a keystroke list was emitted during capture, its timestamps are in raw recording time. When you apply a speed multiplier, you must divide every timestamp by the speed factor before passing it to the Remotion props. A keystroke at raw t=6.0s in a 3x video should appear at t=2.0s.

Non-.cast clips

.mp4, .webm, and .png clips are passed through to Remotion unchanged except for staging into public/. Re-encode non-.cast clips manually only if their pixel format or dimensions are invalid.

Clip aspect ratio (mandatory check for browser captures)

At the default 1920×1080 output with factory preset margins, panels come out roughly:

.cast conversions target panel aspect automatically. Pre-recorded .mp4 / .webm clips do not — if the clip aspect doesn't match the panel aspect, the clip will letterbox (with the default objectFit: "contain") or crop (with "cover").

Common pitfall: browser captures are typically 16:9 landscape (e.g. 1280×720). Dropped into a side-by-side layout they render as a thin band with giant black bars above and below.

Two fixes, in priority order:

1. Re-capture at a panel-friendly viewport — go back to the capture stage and set viewport to ~960×1000 for side-by-side, ~1280×720 for single.
2. Pass "objectFit": "cover" in props — crops the clip edges to fill the panel. Acceptable when the relevant UI is centered and edges are expendable. Not acceptable if cropped content matters (e.g. sidebar UI cut off).

.cast clips rarely need this since their rendered aspect is derived from cols/rows; it's almost always a browser-capture concern.

Duration checkpoint (mandatory, before proceeding)

Check whether the planned speed factor produces a final duration within the pacing table's target range:

final_duration = clip_duration / speed_factor

This checkpoint is not optional. A video that lands outside the target range fails verification.

Step 2: Build props

Choose layout

Default: single. One clip of the target/final state. New features, bug-fix proofs, walkthroughs, and README heroes all belong here.

Use side-by-side only when the story is fundamentally a comparison: regression (broken vs fixed), behavior-preserving refactor, or an explicit user request. Never fabricate a "before" clip to justify the side-by-side shape.

Save the showcaseSchema JSON to a temp file:

DEMO_TMP="$(mktemp -d /tmp/droid-demo-XXXXXX)"
PROPS="${DEMO_TMP}/showcase-props.json"

cat > "$PROPS" << 'EOF'
{
  "clips": ["demo.cast"],
  "layout": "single",
  "fidelity": "auto",
  "labels": [],
  "speed": 3,
  "title": "PR #11621 — Prevent session freezes",
  "subtitle": "Bash Mode blocks interactive commands and supports ESC cancellation",
  "preset": "factory",
  "keys": [
    {"t": 2.0, "label": "vim"},
    {"t": 5.5, "label": "sleep 100"},
    {"t": 8.0, "label": "Esc"}
  ],
  "sections": [],
  "effects": [],
  "speedNote": "3x speed",
  "windowTitle": "droid demo"
}
EOF

For a comparison flow, swap "clips" to two paths, "layout" to "side-by-side", and populate "labels" (e.g., ["BEFORE (main)", "AFTER (PR #11621)"]).

Use a run-scoped props path like $PROPS; do not reuse a global /tmp/showcase-props.json across rerenders or concurrent demos.

CRITICAL: clipDuration handling. The render script auto-detects clip duration via ffprobe when clipDuration is omitted from the props. If you set it manually, it must match the actual clip duration or you get blank frames (too long) or truncation (too short). When in doubt, omit it and let the script auto-detect.

Props reference

Preset quick reference

Keystroke schema

{ t: number, label: string, dur?: number }

• t: Time in seconds relative to clip start (not title card). Adjust for speed factor.
• label: Display text (e.g., "Ctrl+C", "vim main.rs")
• dur: Display duration in seconds (default: 1.2s). Auto-cut when next keystroke starts.

Section schema

{ "t": 2.0, "title": "Testing basic echo" }

• t: Time in seconds relative to clip start (not title card). Adjust for speed factor.
• title: Display text for the section header. Remains visible until the next section starts.

Effect types

Regions use percentage strings (e.g., "25%") relative to the video dimensions.

When to use effects

Less is more. One well-timed spotlight has more impact than five overlapping effects.

Code annotations

Timed syntax-highlighted code card laid over the captured video. Use for PR demos where the decisive source change needs to sit next to the runtime proof.

Keep it short — aim for ≤ 15 lines per card, hold for 3–6 seconds.

Transition styles

transitionStyle selects the title→content and content→outro crossfade presentation. Both transitions in one render share the same style. flash and light-leak derive their tint from the preset palette. Default motion-blur is always safe; preset-tier guidance lives in showcase/SKILL.md.

Step 3: Render

Use the render script — it handles clip staging, duration detection, rendering, and cleanup:

RENDER=${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/render-showcase.sh

# Basic render
$RENDER --props "$PROPS" --output /tmp/demo.mp4 \
  /tmp/before.cast /tmp/after.cast

# Or with inline props (useful for simple cases)
$RENDER --props-inline '{"clips":["clip.mp4"],"layout":"single","labels":[],"title":"Demo","subtitle":"Test","preset":"macos","keys":[],"effects":[]}' \
  --output /tmp/demo.mp4 /tmp/clip.mp4

The script:

1. Converts .cast inputs to .mp4 using the selected fidelity profile
2. Copies clip files into ${REMOTION_DIR}/public/
3. Auto-detects clipDuration via ffprobe if missing from props
4. Runs npx remotion render Showcase with profile-specific encode flags
5. Cleans up staged and generated clips

Quick frame check (sanity-check layout before full render):

cd ${REMOTION_DIR}
npx remotion still Showcase --props="$(cat "$PROPS")" --frame=30 --scale=0.5 /tmp/check.png

Render time: Expect ~1-3 minutes for a 30-60s video at 1920x1080. Set worker timeouts accordingly (5 minutes is safe).

Step 4: Finalize

Check the result:

ffprobe -v quiet -print_format json -show_format -show_streams /tmp/demo.mp4

Confirm:

• Resolution is 1920x1080 (or matches the expected output)
• Duration is reasonable (not 0s, not hours)
• File size is manageable (under 5 MB for GitHub embeds, 25 MB hard limit)
• Pixel format is yuv420p (universal playback)

Outputs

Hand to the verify stage:

## Compose outputs
- video: /tmp/demo-pr-11621.mp4
- resolution: 1920x1080
- duration: 42s
- size: 3.2 MB
- preset: factory
- keystrokes: 3 events overlaid
- effects: 1 spotlight
- engine: remotion

Screenshot-only artifacts (proofs, QA)

Not every deliverable is a video. For proof and QA workflows, compose may just organize screenshots and snapshots:

Annotated screenshot set

ffmpeg -y -i before.png -i after.png \
  -filter_complex "
    [0:v]scale=960:-1[left];
    [1:v]scale=960:-1[right];
    [left][right]hstack=inputs=2[out]" \
  -map "[out]" comparison.png

Markdown report with embedded evidence

For text-based deliverables, organize the evidence into a structured report rather than a video. The verify stage handles this.