moda-video-footage

PREREQUISITE — load
moda-core
once per session (step-0, write contract, free/metered map). Already loaded? Skip ahead. If you cannot load it, the non-negotiables: run

moda doctor --json

before anything;

moda brand list

before creating; writes that pin a revision use your last read's — on

stale_revision

, re-read and retry once (it heals); send the canvas link the moment it exists; stuck or failed?

moda ask "<question>"

— free and fast, never guess.

What this lane is

The user has REAL clips on disk — a shoot, a trip, screen recordings — and wants a cut: a film, a reel, a highlight. Analysis stays local (Rushes, the optional toolkit riding

moda rushes

, indexes and searches the footage on this machine and uploads nothing); only the selects that make the cut are uploaded, and the deliverable is always BOTH the editable Moda timeline and the rendered mp4. Generating new footage is moda-video-clip's; motion over designs and type is moda-video-motion's; this lane cuts what already exists.

Read references/footage.md before the first command — it is the whole workflow with its invariants; references/otio.md carries the timeline interchange contract the endgame rides. What follows is the shape, not a substitute for either.

Recipe — folder to film

Toolkit check:
```
moda rushes doctor --json
```
. Typed
```
rushes_not_installed
```
teaches the fix —
```
moda rushes install
```
(it states what it downloads first; sizes are multi-GiB). Can't install? Degrade honestly: pick selects by eye with your harness's own tools and skip to step 5 — say the selection was manual, never pretend an index ran.
Index:
```
moda rushes ingest FOOTAGE --project INDEX
```
→
```
moda rushes analyze INDEX
```
→
```
moda rushes status INDEX --json
```
. The project directory is persistent memory — keep it, reuse it across revisions, never wipe it to re-ask a question.
Brief + probes: one short exchange for target duration, tone, priorities. Then probe search quality with a few
```
moda rushes search INDEX "…" --top-k 8 --json
```
queries and
```
moda rushes show INDEX mom_… --json
```
— look at contact sheets and transcript evidence; captions can hallucinate and rank is not confidence.
Choose:
```
moda rushes highlight INDEX --target-minutes N
```
for the candidate pool (~2.5× the target, one per duplicate cluster — material, not a film), then
```
moda rushes select INDEX mom_… --name … --reason … --json
```
in play order, with exact rational trims via
```
--items
```
when a moment needs shaving. Reason at duplicate-cluster level; consume returned ids.
Extract + upload:
```
moda rushes extract INDEX sel_… --handles 2s --out SELECTS --json
```
(or upload whole originals when the folder is a few small files),
```
moda file upload
```
each select, rewrite the media map's
```
pending
```
entries to
```
uploaded
```
with the REAL returned asset ids.
Timeline: author
```
cut-v001.otio
```
and dry-run it first —
```
moda edit import CANVAS_REF cut-v001.otio --media-map media-map.json --dry-run
```
— against a canvas you created (
```
moda canvas create --category animation
```
); then apply the same command with
```
--yes
```
in place of
```
--dry-run
```
(replace mode clears the existing timeline, so it refuses unconfirmed). Read the fidelity report; surface every dropped/approximated item. New versions are new files — v002, v003 — never an overwrite of the only cut.
Draft, look, iterate:
```
moda export CANVAS_REF --format mp4 --scope main_edit -o draft.mp4
```
, sample frames, judge against the brief. Small fixes are
```
moda edit apply
```
operations against a fresh read; a recut is the next
```
.otio
```
version.
Deliver: the live canvas link FIRST — the human always gets an editable timeline — then the mp4 and the
```
.otio
```
version file when the user wants an interchange copy for Resolve/Premiere.

Everything here is unmetered: indexing, uploads, import, export and iteration are free, so iterate on the cut as much as the piece needs. A music bed is an upload away (an audio track on the same timeline); a generated score is moda-audio's lane.

Boundaries stated plainly

Rushes never uploads, never calls cloud inference, and needs no Moda account; Moda's cloud renders and exports and never reads local disk. You are the bridge, and selected media is the only cargo.
The user chose uploads of SELECTED media — never bulk-upload the folder.
Supported transitions and visual tracks import and render. Unknown effects, unpaired overlaps and resource limits decline by name in
```
validation.diagnostics
```
; relay them honestly. Never claim an unsupported edit exported without loss.
An audio-only timeline does not export as mp4 — keep a visual clip on the cut.
Full inference is Linux x86_64 and Apple Silicon; elsewhere use the media-only profile or the manual degraded path, and say which ran.

Errors

Any typed error → moda-core's recovery reference.

rushes_not_installed

rushes_update_required

: run

moda rushes install

, then re-run the SAME command.

otio_import_rejected

: the fidelity items name each offender — fix them (upload + rewrite

pending

entries; re-reference intermediates with their own timings), never invent asset ids.

stale_revision

on an edit: re-read and retry once — it heals.

Make it recurring

The weekly cut from a growing folder → moda-automate; the finished film's social variants → moda-social; a designed cover still → moda-image.

See also: moda-video — the family fork · moda-video-motion — type and motion over the cut · moda-core — contract, recovery, everything Moda can do.

References

Doc	Load when
references/footage.md	ALWAYS before the first rushes command — the workflow, its caching/timing invariants, degraded paths
references/otio.md	before authoring or importing a timeline — media maps, fidelity report, exact-time discipline, OTIO vs edit ops
references/export.md	rendering the draft and final — scopes, ceilings, warnings
references/reading-and-verifying.md	the review loop; verifying without vision

moda-video-footage

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

moda-video-footage

What this lane is

Recipe — folder to film

Boundaries stated plainly

Errors

Make it recurring

References