Idea through publish on every platform

This is the photo-based path ChicagoShining Studio uses today: write or pick an idea, attach stills, let Studio plan the packages, review the renders, then approve. Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube publish publicly. TikTok is saved as a draft.

1. Choose the working profile on Home. The city profile (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles) stamps branding, defaults, and which library the new work uses. You can change it later in the top bar. Open Home
2. Start with Idea. On Home, choose Start with Idea. On Ideas, pick an unpromoted candidate from I1–I4, generate a batch, or type a title and optional summary. Do not promote from the type list yet — photos come first.

   

   Open Ideas
3. Add photos from the idea drawer. Open the idea, then Add photos. That creates a Production request. Drop in the stills. Studio builds a multi-platform plan from the photo count, not from a content-type picker on the idea.
4. Confirm platforms and crops in Production. Default multi-photo packages: Instagram Reel, Facebook Slideshow Reel, TikTok Video Draft, YouTube Short. Instagram and Facebook also keep silent 9:16 Story companions. Single-photo work plans feed/still packages instead. Reframe crops, write or AI-fill captions, leave Voiceover and Music on Yes unless you want a silent cut, then Save.

   

   Open Production
5. Approve & Promote. Production hands the request to the existing pipeline (P3 and render). Companion Stories attach from the same 9:16 stills. YouTube 16:9 covers can finish in the background; 9:16 plan crops are enough to continue.
6. Watch Pipeline until Ready for Review. Open Platform Pipeline. Rows move through package, asset selection, Remotion render, and review mail. Click a row to open the creative editor: preview, audio mix, per-photo titles, then Save & rerender preview if you change the mix.

   

   Open Pipeline
7. Approve for publishing. When the preview is right, Approve for publishing (or Pipeline Approve All). Confirm the public/draft warning. Studio stages a public R2 URL (AP0) for video, then:
   • Instagram Reel — auto-publish to the professional account
   • Instagram Story companion — AP1 story webhook
   • Facebook Slideshow Reel — FBS3 / FBS4
   • Facebook Story companion — Graph binary upload
   • TikTok Video Draft — TTD0 (stays a draft in TikTok)
   • YouTube Short — YouTube orchestrator when the row is due
   Carousels, Facebook multi-image, and TikTok multi-photo use the native still packages instead of a Remotion reel. Those publish through their own carousel / photo paths after the same Approve.
8. Confirm in Operations if you need a clock or a manual mark. Ready to schedule lists approved rows that still need a post time. Ready to publish lists due packages. Use mark published only when you posted by hand. Daily ideas, Drive intake, and render repair live on the same page (admin roles).

   

   Open Operations

Other entry: Home Start with Content skips the Ideas table. You name the piece on Production, drop photos, and the rest of this walkthrough is the same from step 4.

Home

Home is the start screen. It does not run the pipeline by itself.

• Working profile — city/brand for new ideas and production.
• Start with Idea — jump to Ideas to pick or write a brief before photos.
• Start with Content — jump to Production’s photo intake when you already have stills.

Come back here anytime to begin a new piece. The top-bar profile selector stays available on every other page.

Dashboard

Dashboard is the queue overview. Metric cards stay on the page and filter the table under them.

• Cards typically cover ideas waiting, production drafts, ready-for-review outputs, and publish-side states.
• Click a card to show those records in the list below. It does not leave Dashboard.
• Use Refresh after a promote or approve if the counts look stale.

Open an idea or output from the filtered list, or switch to Ideas / Production / Pipeline when you need the full workspace.

Ideas

Ideas holds Idea Candidates before they become Content Items. Nothing here publishes.

• Generate AI ideas — I1 batch (1–10). Polls until the batch lands in the table.
• New idea — select an existing unpromoted candidate or enter a title/summary by hand.
• Manage — edit copy, hold/restore, delete, or Add photos to open Production.
• Promote without photos — advanced library path (I3 → I4) when footage already lives in the catalog. Requires a summary. Most work should use Add photos instead.

Status on the table is the candidate’s Airtable state (open, held, promoted). Promoted rows leave this queue.

Production

Production is where photos become a platform plan and a Content Item.

• Start with content — title, optional description, photo cards, per-still captions, platform checks, crop pans.
• Draft requests — unfinished production requests you can reopen.
• Promoted content items — work that already entered P3 / render. Open Pipeline to review those outputs.
• Advanced — exact titles, voiceover tail, extra output types. Empty EZ defaults do not overwrite saved Pipeline direction.

Save often while uploading. Approve & Promote is the handoff into render. Music tracks shown here come from the Music Library catalogue.

Pipeline

Platform Pipeline is execution plus creative review. It refreshes while the page is open.

• Each row is one Platform Output (Reel, Story, Short, carousel, and so on).
• Columns cover Studio state, render, review, and publish. Click a heading to sort.
• Click a row for the creative editor: preview player, defaults, audio, ratios, slides, review notes.
• Approve for publishing on a ready row starts live dispatch. Approve All does the same for every Ready-for-Review output after confirm.

Publishing stays locked until that approve step. Preview-approve (when shown) records review without posting.

Music Library

Music Library is a read-through of the Airtable background-music catalogue for the active profile.

• Browse and preview tracks before or during Production.
• It does not start a render. Production still decides Include background music Yes/No and the mix in Pipeline review.

Operations

Operations is the control room. The nav item is limited to tenant admin, publishing, and production-configure roles.

• Daily ideas — per-profile I1 around 1:00 a.m. Chicago, or Run today now.
• Library intake — Process intake folder starts A2 (and the A0 daisy-chain) instead of a 2-hour clock.
• Ready to schedule / publish — set a post time or mark a hand-posted package published.
• Oversized library videos — compress via A1S/A1M for Drive files over 100 MB.
• Render repair — reset stale Remotion URLs (M1), retry failed asset selection (R2B), run a Pending Make admin queue row.

These buttons do not turn interval scanners back on. They pulse the matching on-demand scenario when work exists.