Plotloom Series Brainstorming

When to Use

Use when the user has a short-drama idea but the current repo does not yet have stable series context, or when series.md / characters.md are missing, thin, or visually under-specified. Also use before image/video work when character identity, conflict engine, or home repo registry status is unclear.

This skill is brainstorming-driven: align the series direction with the user before writing durable series files, unless the user explicitly asks for a fast Agent-led draft.

Inputs

• User idea, title, genre, tone, desired episode count, and constraints.
• Current working directory and parent directories.
• Optional ~/plotloom.toml home-level repo registry.
• Existing series.md, characters.md, character-grid images, or prior episode notes.

Outputs

• 2-3 candidate series directions when the core direction is not already locked.
• series.md
• characters.md
• Baseline series repo directories.
• One ~/plotloom.toml registry entry when creating a new repo.
• Character asset briefs sufficient for later GPT Image 2 / Codex imagegen character-grid.png generation.

Read These Resources When...

• Read references/short-drama-series-engine.md when the premise feels like a one-off skit or lacks a repeatable conflict engine.
• Read references/repo-contract.md before creating repo scaffolding or touching ~/plotloom.toml.
• Read references/character-asset-briefs.md when character design, expression grids, reference sheets, or visual continuity are needed.
• Use templates/series.md and templates/characters.md as output shapes.

Workflow

1. Detect whether the current directory or a parent is already a Plotloom series repo by looking for plotloom.toml, series.md, characters.md, or episodes/.
2. If no repo is active, inspect ~/plotloom.toml and decide whether to continue an existing series or create a new repo. Ask only if multiple plausible repos exist.
3. When creating a new repo, use plotloom init <slug> --title <title> for deterministic scaffolding only. Do not put story logic in the CLI.
4. If the premise, tone, protagonist identity, or repeatable conflict engine is not locked, present 2-3 candidate directions before writing files. Each option should include: one-sentence promise, repeatable engine, core cast shape, visual tone, and trade-off.
5. Recommend one option and ask exactly one alignment question. Prefer a multiple-choice question such as "选 A/B/C，还是混合 A+C?"
6. Ask at most one more blocking follow-up if a durable file would otherwise encode a major unknown. Do not run a long interview.
7. If the user explicitly asks for a fast Agent-led draft, pick the strongest direction, state the assumption, and write the files.
8. Develop enough long-form context so episode 1 is not a one-off skit: premise, audience/tone, recurring conflict engine, core cast, season arc, and first-three-episode runway.
9. For each core character, define stable visual anchors and the required assets/cast/<slug>/character-grid.png brief: front/side/back, expression grid, wardrobe lock, props, palette, and do-not-change invariants.
10. Stop before image generation, video generation, candidate selection, or stitching.

Brainstorming Rules

• Offer concrete alternatives, not vague questions.
• One message should not ask the user to solve more than one creative decision.
• Lead with the recommended option and explain the trade-off briefly.
• If the user chooses a direction, proceed to write or update series.md and characters.md without restarting the brainstorm.
• Preserve existing user-approved facts when revising an existing repo.

Series Brainstorming Writing Rules

• Make the conflict repeatable across episodes and not exhausted in ep001.
• Define character desire, wound/contradiction, leverage/secret, role in the conflict engine, visual identity, and dialogue style.
• Separate stable visual anchors from mutable episode styling.
• Record open questions rather than inventing user-sensitive facts.
• Prefer concise, production-usable Markdown over novelistic prose.

Quality Bar

• The premise can be pitched in one sentence.
• The series engine can generate at least 10 episode conflicts.
• Each core character has desire + contradiction + visual anchor.
• First three episodes form a runway: hook → escalation → complication.
• Character asset briefs can drive a reference sheet / expression grid without new guessing.

Stop Conditions

Stop when series.md and characters.md are sufficient for plotloom-episode-card or plotloom-shot-prompts. Do not generate images, videos, scripts, storyboards, runtime state, or hidden manifests.

Next Skill Handoff

• If episode has no hook/conflict/reversal, hand off to plotloom-episode-card.
• If episode intent is clear enough, hand off directly to plotloom-shot-prompts.
• If character images already exist, mention them as continuity anchors for later skills.

Failure Modes

• Missing repo and ambiguous registry: ask the user which series to continue.
• Existing repo has conflicting title/slug: report the conflict and stop.
• User asks for video generation first: create or verify series context before generation.
• Character visual identity is underspecified: produce a character asset brief, not a generated image.