# Glossary The words you meet in showtime's output, its delivery card and its docs, in alphabetical order. Each entry says what the word means here and where it lives on disk or which command makes it. This page is for people using showtime. [CONTEXT.md](../CONTEXT.md) is the house vocabulary for whoever writes showtime itself: one word per idea, the near-synonyms to avoid, and the ambiguities it settles. The release check warns when the skill uses an avoided word. The two agree. This page adds the words a new user meets first (EDL, ledger, critic, look signature) and leaves the finer distinctions to CONTEXT.md: scene, shot, clip, beat and slot; mix, master, score and bed; board, storyboard and animatic. ## The job folder Every request gets one folder, and nothing in it is overwritten: a second render is `final-2.mp4`. Each stage of a job writes its own files. The [5-second test video](guides/first-video.md) makes the ones without a note; the others appear when a job needs them. ```text showtime-out/hello-20261009-205903/ │ │ 0 Start ─────── SHOWTIME.md the ledger: goal, stage, verified vs assumed, open questions, next command │ job.json the same for machines: versions, stage times, the latest file of each kind │ AGENTS.md tells an agent that opens the folder later to read SHOWTIME.md first │ CLAUDE.md (the same text) │ │ 2 Plan ──────── project/voice/timeline.json with a voice-over: line and word times │ │ 3 First look ── project/index.html, showtime.json the page and its settings │ edit/edl.json instead of project/, for a footage edit │ │ 4 Build ─────── final.mp4 the video; a new render is final-2.mp4 │ poster.jpg the still shown before it plays │ final.work/ render.json: browsers, GPU, time per stage │ │ 5 Verify ────── work/qa/final/ qa.json and sheet.jpg, the last qa verdict │ review/round-1/ CRITIC.md and FINDINGS.md, the critic's round │ │ 6 Deliver ───── receipt.md what the job took: rounds, renders, time, tokens │ share.txt the receipt's one line; post copy above it when there is somewhere to post │ exports/ platform copies, when you ask for them ``` Stage 1 (understand the request) reads your files and writes nothing new. The receipt and `share.txt` are written when your agent records the delivery (`showtime job note --stage deliver`). ## critic A fresh sub-agent that reviews a finished video. It gets one file, `CRITIC.md`, from `showtime review-pack` (contact sheets, key frames, a loudness graph and the brief) and writes `FINDINGS.md` with a verdict. It never sees the conversation, so it judges the video, not the intentions. In quality mode every finished video gets a critic round before delivery. See [finding](#finding) and [review](../skills/showtime/references/review.md). ## crew Ten optional specialist sub-agents that ship with showtime: brand designer, creative director, critic, editor, motion designer, researcher, scriptwriter, sound designer, storyboard artist and voice director. They get file pointers, never the chat, and hand back files. Your agent stays the director: the only one who talks to you, keeps the [ledger](#ledger) and renders. Say "no crew" to keep the whole job in one session, or "full crew" to use every member the job can. See [crew](../skills/showtime/references/crew.md). ## delivery card The fixed summary at the end of every job: Done, Files, Length, Loudness, QA, Review, Findings, Look (what was actually opened and seen), Cost, Assumed, what is cheap or costly to change, and three options for what to do next. `showtime receipt --card` fills in what showtime knows. See [modes § 5](../skills/showtime/references/modes.md). ## draft A fast render for review: `showtime render --preview` (at most 720p, fast encode). Timing and content are real; picture quality is not. Not to be confused with a [preview](#preview). ## EDL An edit decision list: a JSON file that lists which stretches of your recordings to keep, in order, with captions, cards and the output size. A footage edit keeps it at `/edit/edl.json`. `showtime edit cut` writes it from a transcript, `showtime edit check` checks it, and `showtime edit render` renders from it, so your original footage is never changed. See [editing](../skills/showtime/references/editing.md). ## export A platform version made from the [final](#final): `showtime deliver exports --targets youtube,reels,square` writes them into `/exports/`, each to its platform's size, length and file limits. ## final The full-quality render that qa checks: `final.mp4`. Renders never overwrite, so a re-render is `final-2.mp4` and a poster bake `final.poster.mp4`. Commands given a job use its latest final, and `showtime qa` prints which file that is. ## finding One problem the critic reports, with a timestamp and an id: a Blocker (`r1-B1`), a Should-fix (`r1-S1`) or a Polish item (`r1-P1`). A video is not marked delivered while a Blocker or Should-fix is neither fixed nor [waived](#waive). Polish items never hold up delivery. `showtime review-respond ` lists them with their state. ## first look The first thing you see, within minutes: a still, a contact sheet or a fast [draft](#draft). It is there to catch a wrong direction early, before the full render. In quick mode your agent shows it and keeps going. ## HTML video A single file that plays in any browser, offline: the same frames as the MP4, a player with chapters, keyboard shortcuts, links to a moment, and questions that pause the video until the viewer answers. `showtime export html` makes one from any project. See [html-export](../skills/showtime/references/html-export.md). ## job One request carried out end to end, in its own folder: `showtime-out/--