The programme: every showtime guide, in running order.

# showtime documentation showtime's guides live next to the skill, in [`skills/showtime/references/`](../skills/showtime/references/), because your coding agent reads them while it works. They are written for your agent first and for you second: each one opens with a "Read this when" line, so you can tell in one sentence whether it is the page you need. This map puts them in running order. ## Overture · Start here Three steps before Act I. Setup takes 2 to 6 minutes the first time, and the test video's commands about 2 more ([measured](guides/first-video.md#how-long-it-takes) on a 6-core Intel Mac), plus your agent's writing.

_{STEP 1}
Install it in your agent

/plugin marketplace add FavioVazquez/showtime
/plugin install showtime@showtime

_{Claude Code. Other agents →}

_{STEP 2}
Your first video
Ask for a 5-second test video, watch it render, read the delivery card.
_{Make your first video →}

_{STEP 3}
If something goes wrong
Find the symptom, say the line, your agent runs the fix.
_{Troubleshooting · Glossary}

Then choose your path below, and open an act when you want to know why. The map below is the whole programme at a glance; the tables under it link every guide. > [!TIP] > You never have to read these to make a video: ask your agent in one sentence and it picks the right > guide itself. Read them when you want to know **why** a video came out the way it did, change a > default, or build a project by hand. Written for people rather than for your agent: | Page | Read it when | |---|---| | [Your first video](guides/first-video.md) | you are new: a 5-second test video and what each step does | | [Studio, step by step](guides/studio-concepts-to-final.md) | you want options first: one real run from concepts to the final film, a screenshot at each step | | [Edit your own footage](guides/edit-your-footage.md) | you have a clip to cut: the ums and pauses out, captions burned in, 9:16 and 16:9, one real run step by step | | [Task guides](guides/README.md) | you want a recipe: what to say, what your agent runs, what you get, how long it takes | | [What's new](whats-new.md) | you want each release's new features, one sentence each | | [Questions people ask](faq.md) | you want short answers: GPU, cost, agents, privacy, licences, disk, time, platforms, languages | | [Troubleshooting](troubleshooting.md) | something failed or looks wrong: find the symptom, what to say, the command your agent runs | | [Glossary](glossary.md) | a word you don't know: EDL, ledger, critic, look signature, splice, quick and studio, quality and lean |

The documentation map: eighteen workflows, then five acts and a finale of guides, from onboarding to qa and review.

## Choose your path What are you making? Each card opens the workflow guide your agent follows; the preview is an example made with it.

_{A launch or promo video} launch-video _{see it done: 01 10 17}	_{An explainer} explainer _{see it done: 02 13 22}	_{A tutorial or product demo} tutorial _{see it done: 04 11 21}
_{A reel, Short, TikTok or audiogram} social-short _{see it done: 05 16}	_{A chart or data story} data-story _{see it done: 07 12}	_{An edit of real footage} footage-edit _{see it done: 06 14}
_{A trailer or teaser} trailer _{see it done: 09 18}	_{A slideshow from photos} slideshow _{see it done: 08 19}	_{A video for a pull request, release or changelog} changelog-video _{see it done: 15 · a PR: showtime pr-video · in CI: the GitHub Action}
_{A picture cut to a song} music-video _{see it done: no example yet}	_{Narration for an existing video} voiceover-only _{see it done: no example yet}	_{A video in another language} localize _{see it done: 03 13 14}
_{A logo sting, lower thirds, transitions} components _{see it done: 20}	_{A codebase explained, traced through real code} repo-explainer _{see it done: no example yet}	_{A paper or technical PDF explained} paper-explainer _{see it done: no example yet}
_{How a system works, as a figure that builds itself or one people poke} diagram _{see it done: the demo · a live figure: export html --interactive}	_{What your coding agent did in a session} recap _{see it done: the demo}	_{A failing browser test, for a bug report} repro _{see it done: the demo}
_{The inside of a real thing you filmed, in sync with its sound} xray _{see it done: the X-ray gallery · for people: the guide}

## Act I · Before the curtain | Guide | Read it when | |---|---| | [showtime in your coding agent](agents.md) | you want the exact install for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Devin, OpenCode or another agent, and to know which were tested | | [onboarding](../skills/showtime/references/onboarding.md) | it is your first run, setup is missing, or you want to know what showtime needs and downloads | | [modes](../skills/showtime/references/modes.md) | you want the two separate settings: how much your agent asks before building (quick or studio) and how much it checks afterwards (quality or lean); and what the delivery card says | | [studio](../skills/showtime/references/studio.md) | you want options first: concepts, looks, beds, storyboard and animatic on local boards | | [boards](../skills/showtime/references/boards.md) | you are writing or changing a studio board (`board.json`) | | [crew](../skills/showtime/references/crew.md) | you want to know how the ten specialist sub-agents are used ([their briefs](../skills/showtime/references/crew/)) | | [looking](../skills/showtime/references/looking.md) | you want to know how showtime checks frames without filling your agent's context: `showtime look`, the reviewer brief, short command output, `showtime guide` | | [GitHub Action](github-action.md) | you want a release or pull-request video made in CI, with no API key | | [harness-notes](../skills/showtime/references/harness-notes.md) | you run showtime from another agent host, a script or CI | | [mcp](../skills/showtime/references/mcp.md) | you use showtime's MCP server from another client, the plugin settings, the progress monitor | | [diagnosing](../skills/showtime/references/diagnosing.md) | something came out wrong, or setup failed | ## Act II · Story and craft | Guide | Read it when | |---|---| | [story](../skills/showtime/references/story.md) | before any plan: angle, hook, structure, lines, and the honesty rules; a video that stops and asks; a storyboard table from another tool (`showtime new dom --from-storyboard `) | | [tones](../skills/showtime/references/tones.md) | choosing a tone, or turning "make it feel premium" into choices; a showreel or "go all out" brief (`showtime new showreel`) | | [pacing](../skills/showtime/references/pacing.md) | holds, cut rhythm, beat sync, narration word budgets, durations | | [motion-craft](../skills/showtime/references/motion-craft.md) | easing, timing, stagger and camera moves | | [typography](../skills/showtime/references/typography.md) | fonts, sizes, spacing and safe areas for type | | [color](../skills/showtime/references/color.md) | palettes, contrast, grading footage, and the look signatures new projects start in: a named palette, type pair and motion, picked to differ from your recent videos (`--look`, `showtime signature`) | | [brand-kit](../skills/showtime/references/brand-kit.md) | there is a brand, or a repo or site with a visual identity; launches start with `showtime brand capture` | | [reference](../skills/showtime/references/reference.md) | you want a video "like this one", or one that does not look like your last five (`showtime reference`, `showtime history`, `look_repeat`) | | [platforms](../skills/showtime/references/platforms.md) | delivery specs, safe zones, posters, thumbnails, README loops, cut-downs and share copy | ## Act III · Building the picture | Guide | Read it when | |---|---| | [render](../skills/showtime/references/render.md) | checking, snapping, previewing or rendering a project; speed, workers, rendering without a GPU | | [stage-api](../skills/showtime/references/stage-api.md) | writing a page (`index.html` + `showtime.json`) and its time contract; the shutter blur on fast moves (`data-st-blur`) | | [components](../skills/showtime/references/components.md) | titles, captions, charts, frames, cursor, end card, logo stings and lower thirds; the WebGL looks (§7: fluted glass, tilt-shift, liquid metal, mesh gradient, god rays, marble, metaballs) | | [transitions](../skills/showtime/references/transitions.md) | scene handoffs, CSS and WebGL | | [adopt](../skills/showtime/references/adopt.md) | you already have a video written as code (a page with `seek(t)`, `draw(t)`, CSS animations or a Python frame script) and want checks, sound, qa and export without a rewrite; a Claude Design export (`showtime adopt `) | | [film-api](../skills/showtime/references/film-api.md) | drawing a canvas film or tutorial with `Film` | | [series](../skills/showtime/references/series.md) | several episodes that share one look, sound and pacing | | [manim](../skills/showtime/references/manim.md) | equations, proofs, graphs and grid transforms with Manim | | [html-export](../skills/showtime/references/html-export.md) | a single-file interactive HTML video: player, chapters, keys, deep links, range links that loop a part, questions that pause and ask the viewer; link previews and GitHub Pages (`--share-url`, `--folder`); a living diagram as a live figure (`--interactive`) | | [debugging-renders](../skills/showtime/references/debugging-renders.md) | a render fails, flickers, shows black or frozen frames, or differs from the preview | ## Act IV · Sound and voice | Guide | Read it when | |---|---| | [audio](../skills/showtime/references/audio.md) | composing, effects, the local library, beats, the mix, mastering | | [music](../skills/showtime/references/music.md) | choosing or composing music, and syncing it to picture | | [synth-score](../skills/showtime/references/synth-score.md) | writing music or sound design in code with `Synth` | | [sound-design](../skills/showtime/references/sound-design.md) | placing effects, balancing voice against music, loudness targets | | [voice](../skills/showtime/references/voice.md) | narration: voices, scripts, word timings, pronunciation, alignment | ## Act V · Footage, capture and assets | Guide | Read it when | |---|---| | [editing](../skills/showtime/references/editing.md) | editing real footage by transcript (the edit decision list and its rules); cards over a talking head and a word behind the speaker (§9); a long recording's best moments as short clips (§10) | | [captions](../skills/showtime/references/captions.md) | caption styles, grouping, sizes and safe zones | | [footage-tools](../skills/showtime/references/footage-tools.md) | one footage tool: probe, scenes, reframe, cut out the speaker, denoise, stabilize, grade, views | | [capture](../skills/showtime/references/capture.md) | material from a repo, a running app, a website or a PDF | | [tutorial-recording](../skills/showtime/references/tutorial-recording.md) | scripting and recording an app demo, with auto zoom | | [assets](../skills/showtime/references/assets.md) | fonts, icons, emoji, stock photos and video, cutouts, credits, contact sheets | ## Finale · Proof it is done | Guide | Read it when | |---|---| | [qa](../skills/showtime/references/qa.md) | the checklists, the `showtime qa` rules, the hearing pass (a voice under the music, quiet stretches, level jumps, an abrupt end), the phone check and the `expect` block | | [review](../skills/showtime/references/review.md) | building a review pack, running the critic pass on every finished video (quality mode, the default), judging a new render against the best so far (`review-pack --against`, `review-verdict`), clearing every finding before delivery (`review-respond`), and notes on the finished video (`showtime review open`), on a spot, a box or a stretch of time | | [receipt](../skills/showtime/references/receipt.md) | you want to know what a job took (rounds, renders, time, tokens, cost) and the format of `receipt.md` and `receipt.json` | These guides are also a searchable site: **[faviovazquez.github.io/showtime/docs](https://faviovazquez.github.io/showtime/docs/index.html)**. ## Backstage | Page | What it is | |---|---| | [SKILL.md](../skills/showtime/SKILL.md) | the skill itself: what your agent reads first on every request | | [references/index.md](../skills/showtime/references/index.md) | the same map in the agent's own words | | [CONTEXT.md](../CONTEXT.md) | the house vocabulary for whoever writes showtime: one word per idea, and the words it avoids ([the glossary](glossary.md) is the reader's version) | | [.out-of-scope/](../.out-of-scope/README.md) | what showtime deliberately does not do, and why | | [CONTRIBUTING.md](../CONTRIBUTING.md) | tests, release checks, how to send a change | | [CHANGELOG.md](../CHANGELOG.md) | what changed and why, so it also answers "where did X go?" ([What's new](whats-new.md) is the short version) | | [showtime-examples](https://github.com/FavioVazquez/showtime-examples/blob/main/examples/README.md) | every example with its request, commands and review rounds, in its own repository | | [assets/brand/](../assets/brand/BRAND.md) | the Curtain Call brand: logo, colours, type, the sting and the sound logo | | [benchmarks/routing-eval/](../benchmarks/routing-eval/README.md) | for contributors: the routing eval, one case per workflow guide (does SKILL.md send a request to the right guide?) |

_{showtime --help lists every command with examples; showtime <command> --help has the details.}