By default a video production runs straight through: plan, storyboard, generate, assemble. If you want a checkpoint before the expensive part, turn on Review storyboard in the composer before you Send.
What the gate does
With the chip on, the production parks at the storyboard — after the script and duration are locked, but before any scene generation spends credits. Planning up to that point is cheap; the scene lanes (stills, animation, audio) are where the budget goes, and none of it starts until you decide.
The parked card in chat shows:
- The full scene list — what each scene shows, says, and how long it runs.
- A refined cost estimate for the remaining production, priced from the actual locked plan rather than the pre-plan quote.
The chip is per session: it applies to sends in that tab-session and is off by default, so unattended runs never stall on an approval nobody asked for.
Approve or edit
Two ways forward from the park:
- Approve as-is — tap Approve on the chat card (or
POST /run-groups/{id}/resumewith no body). Generation starts immediately. - Edit the scenes — resume with a replacement
sceneslist (or a structuredshotPlan— one or the other, not both). Reorder, reword, cut, or add scenes; duration locks re-run against your edit, then generation starts from the approved board.
An invalid scene patch is rejected with a 400 and the production stays parked — you can fix and resubmit; nothing is spent on a plan you didn’t accept.
Reminders and expiry
A parked storyboard doesn’t hold credits hostage forever:
- After 24 hours unanswered you get one reminder on the card.
- After 7 days the park expires and the production cancels through the standard path — the hold settles to what actually ran (planning only), and the rest of the reserve returns. See Runs & credits.
You can also cancel a parked production yourself at any time from the card.