01 - GETTING STARTED
Your first locked episode
Canon is a narrative operating system: it remembers your universe, checks every new idea against locked canon, and never writes memory without your signature. This guide takes you from an empty project to Episode 1, locked.
1
Create a series
The guided form asks for premise, genre, tone and world rules. Everything is editable later - but world rules you mark as forbidden changes become firewall law.
2
Define Character DNA
Appearance, wardrobe anchors, motivations, fears and behavioral rules. Approved reference images become the visual lock Wan renders against.
3
Write a premise and generate
One line is enough. Canon retrieves relevant memories, runs the firewall, and drafts beats, script and storyboard inside your budget mode.
4
Review the diff and lock
Approve, reject or edit each fact. Your signature creates snapshot v1.1 - the first memory of your universe.
02 - MEMORY MODEL
How Canon remembers
Every locked episode becomes structured memory: facts, relationships, knowledge states and open threads - each with provenance. Before a new episode, Canon retrieves only what matters.
Locked fact - authoritative story truthSIGNED · VERSIONED
Inferred fact - derived, lower confidencePROMOTABLE
Character belief - what someone thinks is true≠ STORY TRUTH
Open thread - a promise to the audienceTRACKED TO RESOLUTION
RETRIEVAL
A typical episode packs ~6 of 200+ memories (about 4k tokens, ~92% context saved). Every retrieved memory shows its source episode, relevance score and token cost in the Memory Explainer.
A typical episode packs ~6 of 200+ memories (about 4k tokens, ~92% context saved). Every retrieved memory shows its source episode, relevance score and token cost in the Memory Explainer.
03 - CONTINUITY FIREWALL
Checks before generation
Every proposed episode is checked against locked canon across ten violation types. Violations are explained with evidence and a canon-safe rewrite - never silently rejected.
PASS
No conflicts. Generation proceeds without interruption.
WARN
A soft conflict with evidence, confidence, and a suggested rewrite. You can apply, ignore, or retcon.
BLOCK
A hard contradiction of locked canon (e.g. a dead character alive). Requires rewrite or an explicit retcon.
RETCON
Intentional change: Canon shows affected facts and episodes, generates repair suggestions, and preserves the previous version.
VIOLATION TYPES: FACTUAL · TIMELINE · MOTIVATION · VISUAL · RELATIONSHIP · WORLD-RULE · LOCATION · KNOWLEDGE LEAK · CAUSAL GAP · DUPLICATE BEAT
04 - CANON DIFF
The approval gate
Drafts never touch memory. Before an episode becomes canon, every change crosses your desk as a diff - facts added, modified or contradicted; relationships and knowledge changed; threads introduced, advanced or resolved.
APPROVEThe fact is written to memory when the episode locks.
REJECTThe fact stays in the isolated draft; the scene remains, memory doesn't change.
EDITRewrite the fact before it locks - your words become the canonical phrasing.
LOCKCreates a reversible snapshot (e.g. v1.15). Locked canon becomes retrieval context for the next episode.
05 - WRITERS’ ROOM AGENTS
An editorial review, not a chat
Eight specialist agents review every draft in a two-round debate, then vote. Disagreements surface with confidence scores; some roles hold veto gates. You are the showrunner - your decision is final and logged.
HOW A REVIEW RUNS
Round 1: each agent critiques the draft independently. Round 2: agents respond to each other's positions. Then a vote - consensus proceeds; a veto from the Continuity Editor or a Character DNA gate blocks until resolved. The selected recommendation and your final decision are written to the decision log.
Round 1: each agent critiques the draft independently. Round 2: agents respond to each other's positions. Then a vote - consensus proceeds; a veto from the Continuity Editor or a Character DNA gate blocks until resolved. The selected recommendation and your final decision are written to the decision log.
06 - BUDGETS & GENERATION
Budget-aware by design
Qwen tokens and Wan video seconds are allocated per episode by the Budget Governor. Expensive calls always require explicit confirmation - no surprise invoices.
PILOT MODE
Storyboard-first
Boards and stills only; render nothing until the cut is approved. ~18k tokens, 10s video.
STANDARD
Selected shots
Key shots rendered at 1080p, the rest boarded. ~38k tokens, 24s video.
FINALE
Full render
Every shot rendered, retries enabled, priority queue. ~92k tokens, 58s video.
07 - EXPORT & OWNERSHIP
Locked canon is yours
Every plan includes full export, any time. Your universe is portable data, not platform lock-in.
Canon package - full memory, versionedJSON
ScriptsFINAL DRAFT · FOUNTAIN · MARKDOWN
Story biblePDF · PUBLIC WEB VIEW
MediaCLIPS · STORYBOARDS · EDL · SUBTITLES
IntegrationsAPI · WEBHOOKS · PRODUCTION REPORTS
08 - EPISODE AUTOPILOT
A supervised pipeline
Autopilot runs the full episode workflow as discrete, pausable stages. Nothing is autonomous past your policy: every stage can be paused, edited or rerun, and the run always ends at the approval gate.
PAUSE · EDIT · RERUN ANY STAGE - THE RUN NEVER LOCKS MEMORY BY ITSELF
09 - CANON GRAPH
The universe as a graph
Every entity and relationship in your story is a node you can inspect: zoom, filter by type, trace any fact back to its source episode, and preview how a draft episode would change the graph before it locks.
ENTITY TYPES
Characters · relationships · locations · factions · artifacts · rules · events · secrets · visual motifs · unresolved threads
INTERACTIONS
Inspect connections · trace facts to episodes · lock or amend facts · show conflicts · diff an episode against the graph · separate audience knowledge from character knowledge
10 - CHARACTER DNA
Identity that survives generation
Each character carries a persistent narrative, visual and performance identity. Wan renders against the visual lock; the Character Writer defends the behavioral rules; drift gets flagged, not shipped.
Narrative - personality, motivations, fears, secrets, emotional arcQWEN CONTEXT
Visual - appearance, wardrobe anchors, prompt lock, negative lock, approved referencesWAN LOCK
Knowledge - what they know, believe, and have never learnedPER EPISODE
Rules - behavioral laws the firewall enforces (e.g. "never breaks a spoken promise")DNA GATE
CONTINUITY CONFIDENCE
Each character carries a 0-1 score reflecting how consistently recent episodes and clips match their DNA. Visual drift (a changed coat color, a new hairstyle) lowers it and opens a side-by-side frame comparison.
Each character carries a 0-1 score reflecting how consistently recent episodes and clips match their DNA. Visual drift (a changed coat color, a new hairstyle) lowers it and opens a side-by-side frame comparison.
11 - KNOWLEDGE PERSPECTIVES
Who knows what
Canon tracks five layers of knowledge so characters never act on information they haven't learned - the most common continuity failure in generated fiction.
Story truth - what is objectively trueAUTHORITATIVE
Audience knowledge - what viewers have seen on screenDRIVES REVEALS
Character knowledge - per character, per episodeLEAK-CHECKED
Faction knowledge - shared within a groupINHERITED
Beliefs & misinformation - held as true, actually false≠ TRUTH
12 - RETCONS & VERSIONING
Version control for fiction
Canon treats your universe like versioned creative data. Every lock creates a snapshot; branches hold what-if timelines; retcons are explicit operations that show their blast radius before you approve them.
RETCON MANAGER
Propose a retcon · see affected facts and impacted episodes · get repair suggestions for downstream scenes · mark soft or hard · approve explicitly · previous canon preserved
VERSIONING
Snapshots on every lock · branches for alternate timelines · compare versions · rollback · merge approved branches · branch memories never mix accidentally
SOFT RETCON = REINTERPRET · HARD RETCON = REWRITE HISTORY · BOTH KEEP THE OLD VERSION
13 - VISUAL CONTINUITY
Every frame on model
Generated media drifts; Canon fights it structurally. Shot prompts are assembled from locked templates, references and negative prompts - and finished frames are compared back against the approved look.
Approved character & location referencesCREATOR-SIGNED
Color scripts · camera language · visual motifsSTYLE GUIDE
Prompt templates + negative prompts per shotAUTO-ASSEMBLED
Drift warnings with side-by-side frame comparisonFLAGGED, NOT SHIPPED
14 - COLLABORATION & WORKFLOWS
Built for rooms, not just solos
Professional teams get formal workflows: role-based permissions, review requests, sign-off chains, and an audit trail behind every canon change.
EVERYDAY
Comments · assignments · review requests · notifications · change history · decision log
FORMAL
Producer sign-off · continuity-editor sign-off · locked production milestones · exportable review reports · full audit trail
ROLES: SHOWRUNNER · PRODUCER · CONTINUITY EDITOR · WRITER · VIEWER
15 - PUBLIC STORY BIBLE
A presentation mode for your universe
Share a cinematic, read-only view with judges, audiences or collaborators: trailer, logline, world, cast, timeline, episodes, open mysteries and continuity statistics - with a "How Canon remembers" explainer.
Secrets and unrevealed characters stay hiddenSEALED BY DEFAULT
Continuity stats build audience trustSCORE · MEMORIES · THREADS
Shareable link, no account required to viewREAD-ONLY