Brief Shortform

Short-Form Brief — Orchestrator

Production-grade brief for one short-form asset. Reads the per-platform research catalog and turns an angle into a hero brief plus optional per-platform variants. Capability metadata (route triggers, prerequisites, load map, artifact contract) lives in [routing.yaml](routing.yaml). Agent table + dispatch graph + 4-sub-critic gate: [references/agent-manifest.md](references/agent-manifest.md). Methodology: [references/playbook.md](references/playbook.md).

Core question: Could a producer walk on set or open After Effects and ship this brief verbatim, with the result being recognized as native to its platform?

Critical Gates — load first

1. Soft-required: research-shortform artifact. Missing → warn but proceed (briefs lack current trend signals; flag in artifact frontmatter). Stale beyond 30d trends or 180d mechanics → recommend re-run; user can override.
2. Variant cap (soft): 1 hero + 2 variant platforms default. More platforms extend the recut set with a per-recut cost+craft warning (deep budget; critic attention per variant thins past 2); re-invoke instead for full per-platform craft verification. Mode + tier: [references/_shared/options-selection.md](references/_shared/options-selection.md) (DELIVERY, tier A).
3. Hard cap: brand_mode is founder OR company — no hybrid. User picks per-brief.
4. No fabricated VoC. Every quote in the brief traces to research/icp-research.md. Cold-start audience hint accepted but flagged in artifact.
5. Generic content fails. Critic gate enforces specificity at four axes (hook, production, algorithm-fit, brand-fit). Two cycles max, then ship done_with_concerns.
6. Variants are TRUE RECUTS, not caption-resizes. platform-tailor-agent rebuilds hook + audio + caption + CTA per platform.

Quality Gate — 4 critics

All four PASS required, max 2 rewrite cycles. Full 4-sub-critic rubric + Rewrite Routing Table: [references/agent-manifest.md](references/agent-manifest.md) § 4-Sub-Critic Gate.

• [ ] Hook — clears platform's hook window from research; visual + verbal + text triad simultaneous; 3Q test passes; archetype tagged
• [ ] Production — every shot/scene has timing (seconds), framing, action, on-screen text, audio sync; audio names a track or VO direction; production notes filled
• [ ] Algorithm-fit — aligns with target platform's algorithmic preferences (completion thresholds, hold rates, audio rules, captions, watermarks)
• [ ] Brand-fit — caption + verbal lines use VoC phrases from ICP; voice matches BRAND.md archetype; visual/motion direction anchored to CREATIVE-DIRECTION.md + FRAME.md (when present — FRAME.md gives the frame-composition layer: safe areas, type-at-distance, on-screen pacing) and to a realized exemplar (a shipped on-brand video / live product capture) rather than tokens alone — or the explicit fallback is recorded (frame_direction: absent when FRAME.md missing; token-only per references/_shared/realized-surface-grounding.md); no generic founder/company tropes

Before Starting

Apply [references/_shared/before-starting-check.md](references/_shared/before-starting-check.md). Recommended context:

| Artifact | Source | Required? | |---|---|---| | docs/forsvn/artifacts/research/research-shortform/[slug].md | research-shortform | Soft-required (Critical Gate 1) — proceeds without it but flags trend_signals_stale | | research/icp-research.md | research-icp | Soft-required (Critical Gate 4) — proceeds with cold-start hint but flags voc_source: cold-start-hint | | brand/BRAND.md | create-brand | Recommended — brand_mode inference + voice archetype | | brand/CREATIVE-DIRECTION.md | create-brand | Recommended — house art direction (movement, light, pacing); anchor visuals to it + a realized exemplar, not tokens alone | | brand/FRAME.md | create-brand | Soft-required — frame direction (safe areas, type-at-distance, on-screen pacing, bumper grammar); matched by canonical path + headings. Present → spec shots/text to its safe areas + type floors + hold times. Absent → flag frame_direction: absent and fall back to CREATIVE-DIRECTION.md + DESIGN.md tokens, never silently (references/_shared/realized-surface-grounding.md) | | docs/forsvn/artifacts/marketing/campaign-plan.md | plan-campaign | Optional — inherits theme/dates/CTAs + ## Creative Direction (per-campaign art direction) if [slug] matches |

Pre-Dispatch + Mode

Run canonical Pre-Dispatch ([references/_shared/pre-dispatch-protocol.md](references/shared/pre-dispatch-protocol.md)). Needed dimensions: angle · platforms (1-3 typical; more extends recuts with a cost warning) · brandmode (founder | company) · production_mode (auto | live-action | motion-graphic | mixed) · market · optional campaign tie-in. Warm/Cold Start (5-question bundled) + Write-back map + VN auto-routing for polish chain: [references/procedures/pre-dispatch.md](references/procedures/pre-dispatch.md).

Mode ([references/_shared/mode-resolver.md](references/_shared/mode-resolver.md)): --fast skips Layer 2 (no critic, no platform-tailor) and runs Layer 1 + 1.5 single-pass via single-agent fallback. --fast does NOT skip Cold Start or Critical Gates 1-6. Session execution profile (single-vs-multi): inherit per references/_shared/execution-policy.md.

Routing

Single route — always runs Layer 1 + Layer 1.5 + Layer 2. Multi-platform invocations add platform-tailor-agent in Layer 2. Full dispatch graph: [references/agent-manifest.md](references/agent-manifest.md).

Artifact Contract

• Hero path: docs/forsvn/artifacts/marketing/brief-shortform/[slug]/brief.md.
• Variant path: docs/forsvn/artifacts/marketing/brief-shortform/[slug]/variants/[platform].md.
• Lifecycle: pipeline — one artifact per (angle, platform-set, market); re-run on angle/platform/market pivot.
• Frontmatter: type, role, status, decision_state, review_tool, reviewed_at, reviewer, date, slug, angle, brand_mode, production_mode, market, hero_platform, variants[], research_artifact, research_trend_signals_date, research_mechanics_date, campaign_tie_in, frame_direction, critic_passes[], critic_loop_count, polish_chain_applied.
• Hero body sections (15, in order): TL;DR for the Producer · What This Brief Bets On · Audience & Voice · Format Specification · Hook · Storyboard · On-Screen Text Choreography · Audio Plan · Caption · CTA · Production Notes · What NOT To Do · Success Criteria · Variant Roadmap · Review Gate.
• Variant body sections: What Changed From Hero · Hook · Storyboard delta · Audio Plan · Caption · CTA.
• Consumed by: human producers / video editors / motion designers; produce-video (consumes the brief to emit multi-runtime export bundles).
• Cross-stack contract: schema changes require atomic update of format-conventions.md § "Frontmatter field order" + § "Body section headers (verbatim)". Review fields are additive and orthogonal — consumers match sections by heading.

Full template + per-section format rules: [references/format-conventions.md](references/format-conventions.md).

Anti-Patterns

Read [references/anti-patterns.md](references/anti-patterns.md) before output ships. 5 sub-critic clusters (Hook / Production / Algorithm-fit / Brand-fit / Variant) + 5 soft anti-patterns + 6 cross-cutting marketing-stack (VN auto-routing, polish-chain on FAIL, variant-cap creep, cross-stack contract drift, mixed production-mode transition principle).

Most common in practice: AI-slop openers ("Hey guys"), vague action verbs ("show product"), caption-only variant resizing, missing VoC in caption first-line, generic founder/company tropes.

Durable Rules (protected)

Completion Status

• DONE — all 4 critics PASS within ≤2 cycles. Hero + all requested variants produced.
• DONEWITHCONCERNS — loop cap reached; remaining FAILs surfaced as warnings. Concerns pinned at top of artifact.
• BLOCKED — research stale beyond windows AND user declined re-run; ICP read fails; WebSearch/WebFetch blocked when verifying audio.
• NEEDSCONTEXT — required inputs missing (no research AND user declined to proceed; no BRAND.md AND brandmode unresolvable). State which upstream skill provides what's missing.

Execution

At brief-binding, bind the video target tool — inherit tool_targets or ask once per references/_shared/tool-target.md; production notes tune to it, tool-agnostic stays the default. Offer the registry-gated fork (category video) — Brief-only: hand the brief to produce-video for the render-ready scaffold (→ evaluate-shortform); Assisted/Direct: a verified engine renders, you approve at the gate. See [execution-fork.md](references/shared/execution-fork.md); record execution_mode. When picking Assisted/Direct, batch-check the render surface first (all blockers at once + named fallback) — see [capability-preflight.md](references/shared/capability-preflight.md).

Worked Example

End-to-end walkthrough (Pre-Dispatch warm-start → Layer 1 parallel → Layer 1.5 parallel → Layer 2 platform-tailor + critic PASS → polish chain → deliver; plus FAIL-handling cycle 2 + --fast variant): [references/examples/brief-shortform-walkthrough.md](references/examples/brief-shortform-walkthrough.md). Two condensed reference briefs: [references/_examples/example-1-vn-founder-tiktok.md](references/examples/example-1-vn-founder-tiktok.md), [references/_examples/example-2-us-company-reels-shorts.md](references/examples/example-2-us-company-reels-shorts.md).

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: hungv47
• Source: hungv47/meta-skills
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://skills.forsvn.com/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.