Slideshow

Slideshow

"The camera is the pickaxe. The slideshow is the museum."

"Every image tells a story. The slideshow tells THE story."

The Slideshow skill presents generated images as linear visual narratives. While the Visualizer creates images, the Slideshow presents them — synthesizing metadata from prompts and mining sidecars into scrollable stories.

Philosophy

Images live in directories. Directories accumulate chaos.

A SLIDESHOW.md transforms that chaos into narrative:

• Time-ordered entries create journeys
• Metadata synthesis extracts meaning
• Death-scrollable layout works everywhere
• Encapsulation keeps related files together

Think of it as the museum for your visual mining operation.

The CREATE Method

Generate a SLIDESHOW.md for a directory of images:

CREATE SLIDESHOW for pub/dons-photos-2026-01-19/

What happens:

1. Discover images in directory (.png, .jpg, .webp)
2. Find sidecars for each image (.yml prompt, -mined.yml resources)
3. Order by timestamp in filename or file creation time
4. Synthesize narrative descriptions from metadata
5. Write SLIDESHOW.md with gallery structure

The LANDING Method

Create a README.md landing page for GitHub display:

LANDING for pub/dons-pub-photos-2026-01-19/

Why README.md?

GitHub renders README.md automatically when you browse a directory, but not SLIDESHOW.md. The landing page is the front door — motivating visitors to read the story.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  README.md (Landing Page)          SLIDESHOW.md (Story)        │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  ✓ Shown on GitHub automatically   ✗ Must click to view        │
│  ✓ Metadata table                  Pure narrative flow          │
│  ✓ Character links                 No links — just story        │
│  ✓ Location links                  No context jumps             │
│  ✓ Story summary (fresh!)          Full detailed story          │
│  → "View the slideshow"            The actual experience        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

What goes in README.md:

Key insight: The story summary is freshly synthesized, not copy-pasted from SLIDESHOW.md. It answers: "What will I experience if I click through?"

Workflow:

1. CREATE SLIDESHOW       # Generate the story
2. ORGANIZE INTO dirname  # Encapsulate files
3. LANDING                # Create GitHub front door

The ORGANIZE Method

Encapsulate a SLIDESHOW.md and its images into a named subdirectory:

ORGANIZE pub/SLIDESHOW.md INTO dons-pub-photos-2026-01-19

Before:

pub/
  SLIDESHOW.md
  dons-photos-2026-01-19-16-30-00-bar-marieke-palm-cats.png
  dons-photos-2026-01-19-16-30-00-bar-marieke-palm-cats.yml
  dons-photos-2026-01-19-16-30-00-bar-marieke-palm-cats-mined.yml
  ...20 more files...

After:

pub/
  dons-pub-photos-2026-01-19/
    SLIDESHOW.md          # Inherits from slideshow skill
    bar-marieke-palm-cats.png
    bar-marieke-palm-cats.yml
    bar-marieke-palm-cats-mined.yml
    ...all files moved and renamed...

Naming convention: lowercase-dashes, descriptive, date-suffixed if temporal.

SLIDESHOW.md Format

Every SLIDESHOW.md should declare inheritance:

---
inherits: slideshow
title: "Don's Pub Photos — January 19, 2026"
created: 2026-01-19
images: 8
style: first-person-phone-camera
---

Structure

# 📸 Title

> *"Opening quote capturing the vibe"*

Brief description of what this gallery contains.

---

## 📍 Shot 1: Location (Time)

### *"Caption quote"*

![Alt text](image-file.png)

**Location:** Where this was taken

**Who's Here:**
- 👩🌷 Character 1 doing something
- 🐒🌴 Character 2 doing something else

📎 **Files:** [Prompt](image-file.yml) | [Resources](image-file-mined.yml)

---

## 📍 Shot 2: Next Location (Time)

...

---

## 📊 Stats Table

| Time | Location | Highlights |
|------|----------|------------|
| 4:30 PM | Bar | Marieke, Palm, cats |
| ... | ... | ... |

---

## 🎨 Style Notes

Notes on artistic direction, visual consistency, mood.

---

*"Closing quote"*

Metadata Synthesis

The SUMMARIZE method transforms raw sidecar data into narrative:

From prompt.yml:

• Scene description → Location
• Characters present → Who's Here
• Time of day → Shot timing
• Artistic style → Style notes

From prompt-mined.yml:

• Dominant colors → Visual palette
• Mood/atmosphere → Emotional tone
• Implied sounds/smells → Sensory details
• Symbolism → Deeper meaning

Output: Human-readable narrative that tells the story.

Integration with Visualizer

The Visualizer creates. The Slideshow presents.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                      VISUAL PIPELINE                            │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                 │
│  Context YAML     →    Visualizer    →    Image + Sidecars     │
│  (rooms, chars)        (generate)         (.png, .yml)          │
│                                                                 │
│  Image + Sidecars →    Image Miner   →    Resources             │
│                        (extract)          (-mined.yml)          │
│                                                                 │
│  All Files        →    Slideshow     →    SLIDESHOW.md          │
│                        (present)          (narrative)           │
│                                                                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Visualizer advertises to Slideshow:

# In visualizer/CARD.yml
advertisements:
  SLIDESHOW:
    delegates_to: slideshow
    score: 85
    condition: "After generating images, create/update gallery"

Gallery Discovery

Slideshows can be discovered and linked:

# Find all slideshows in adventure-4
find examples/adventure-4 -name "SLIDESHOW.md"

Cross-slideshow navigation:

**Related Galleries:**
- [Palm's Study](../stage/palm-nook/study/palm-study-images/SLIDESHOW.md)
- [Attic Adventures](../attic/dusty-attic-images/SLIDESHOW.md)

Why Encapsulate?

Without encapsulation:

pub/
  ROOM.yml
  SLIDESHOW.md
  guest-book.yml
  fireplace.yml
  20 image files...
  20 prompt files...
  20 mining files...
  # Chaos. What belongs together?

With encapsulation:

pub/
  ROOM.yml
  guest-book.yml
  fireplace.yml
  dons-pub-photos-2026-01-19/
    SLIDESHOW.md
    all-related-files...
  rooftop-telescope-images/
    SLIDESHOW.md
    all-related-files...

Benefits:

• Files that belong together STAY together
• Directory name is descriptive
• Easy to move, share, archive
• No pollution of parent directory
• SLIDESHOW.md becomes the index

Example Workflow

# 1. Generate images with visualizer
visualize.py character.yml room.yml -p openai

# 2. Mine resources from images
mine.py *.png --depth full

# 3. Create slideshow gallery
CREATE SLIDESHOW for current directory

# 4. Organize into encapsulated directory
ORGANIZE SLIDESHOW.md INTO palm-portrait-session-2026-01-19

# 5. Result: clean, self-contained gallery

Death-Scrollable Design

SLIDESHOW.md targets GitHub rendering:

• Mobile-first: Images scale, text wraps
• Death-scrollable: Just keep scrolling
• Inline images: No external links needed
• Collapsible sections: For detailed metadata
• Emoji headers: Visual navigation
• Tables: Stats and comparisons

James Burke Connections

Every good slideshow tells a story through connections:

How do these images connect?

• Shot 1 introduces the setting
• Shot 3 shows the characters in that setting
• Shot 5 captures the climax
• Shot 8 is the aftermath, full circle

The metadata enables this synthesis — prompts describe intent, mining reveals what emerged.

Commands Reference

Dovetails With

• Visualizer — Creates the images
• Image Mining — Extracts resources
• Storytelling Tools — Narrative structure
• YAML Jazz — Metadata as fuel
• Room — Spatial context
• Character — Who appears

See CARD.yml for full specification.