{"slug":"storyboard-html-preview","title":"storyboard-html-preview","summary":"Render a structured storyboard (storyboard.md, shots.json, text-overlays.json, brand-lock.snapshot.md) into a single-file HTML preview that is shareable, printable, and offline. Use when the user wants to share a storyboard, export for review, hand off to an editor, or print a ha","platform":"Claude","tags":[],"authorName":"LLM Mart","authorSlug":"llm-mart","score":0,"source":"github","price":null,"verified":false,"createdAt":"2026-09-24T15:43:10.168926Z","repo":{"url":"https://github.com/whystrohm/shotkit","stars":21,"forks":5,"license":"Apache-2.0","updatedAt":"2026-09-24T12:25:06Z"},"bodyHtml":"
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name: storyboard-html-preview\ndescription: Render a structured storyboard (storyboard.md, shots.json, text-overlays.json, brand-lock.snapshot.md) into a single-file HTML preview that is shareable, printable, and offline. Use when the user wants to share a storyboard, export for review, hand off to an editor, or print a hard copy. Triggers on \"preview the storyboard\", \"share this\", \"export to HTML\", \"print version\", or after a storyboard-architect run. Produces one self-contained .html file with no build or server.

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Storyboard HTML Preview

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You are turning structured storyboard files into a single shareable HTML document. The output is what an editor, stakeholder, or client opens in a browser without thinking about it.

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The constraint is non-negotiable: single file, no build step, no server, works offline. Any time the output requires \"run this build command\" or \"host this somewhere,\" the skill has failed.

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When to use

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Trigger when the user:

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What you produce

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One file: preview.html. Self-contained. Inline CSS. No JavaScript dependencies (vanilla JS only, embedded). No external font files (uses system stack with brand-font fallbacks). No external images (placeholder slots; if generated images exist, embed as base64 OR reference relative paths).

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output/\n├── run.json                   # input, for the run id and date\n├── storyboard.md              # input\n├── shots.json                 # input\n├── text-overlays.json         # input\n├── brand-lock.snapshot.md     # input\n├── frames/round-N/            # input, if generation has happened\n├── critiques/round-N/         # input, for the verdict badges\n└── preview.html               # ← what this skill produces\n
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If the user has generated frames, the HTML references them via relative paths so the file\nworks when the whole output/ folder is shared. Resolve a shot's frame in this order:

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  1. An entry in shot.assets.generated marked accepted: true
    2. \n
  2. The newest entry in shot.assets.generated
    3. \n
  3. frames/round-{highest}/{shot_id}.{png,jpg,jpeg,webp}
    4. \n
  4. generated/{shot_id}.{ext}, the pre-3.0.0 flat layout
    5. \n
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Data first, convention second. Reading the path convention first meant the page showed\nwhatever file happened to sit there, accepted or rejected, first draft or fifth re-roll.

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If no frames exist yet, the HTML uses styled placeholder cards with the shot spec, still\nuseful for review and handoff.

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Workflow

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Step 1. Read inputs

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Required:

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Optional:

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Validate before rendering, and stop if it fails:

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python tools/validate_shots.py output/\n
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Step 2. Extract brand parameters

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From brand-lock.snapshot.md, extract:

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The HTML preview should feel like the brand without going overboard. Quiet branding, not loud.

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Step 3. Generate the HTML

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Use templates/preview.html.tpl as the structural template. Read it before generating.

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The HTML structure:

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<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n  <meta>\n  <title>{project title}</title>\n  <style>\n    /* All CSS inline. ~200 lines. Brand-aware. */\n    /* Print stylesheet included. */\n  </style>\n</head>\n<body>\n  <header>\n    <!-- Project title, duration, aspect, generated timestamp -->\n  </header>\n\n  <section class=\"brief\">\n    <!-- Brief summary if storyboard.md provides one -->\n  </section>\n\n  <section class=\"series-lock\">\n    <!-- Character / environment / lighting / color grade -->\n  </section>\n\n  <section class=\"shots\">\n    <!-- One card per shot -->\n    <article class=\"shot\" id=\"shot_01\">\n      <div class=\"shot-frame\">\n        <!-- generated image OR styled placeholder -->\n      </div>\n      <div class=\"shot-meta\">\n        <!-- timestamp, framing, angle, motion -->\n      </div>\n      <div class=\"shot-subject\">\n        <!-- subject description -->\n      </div>\n      <div class=\"shot-text-overlay\">\n        <!-- if on_screen_text exists, show overlay content with timing -->\n      </div>\n      <div class=\"shot-rationale\">\n        <!-- rationale text -->\n      </div>\n    </article>\n    <!-- ... -->\n  </section>\n\n  <footer>\n    <!-- audit trail: brand-lock snapshot reference, timestamp -->\n  </footer>\n\n  <script>\n    /* Vanilla JS only. Optional: keyboard nav, jump-to-shot, expand/collapse. */\n  </script>\n</body>\n</html>\n
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Step 4. Embed frames if available

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Resolve each shot's frame by the order in \"What you produce\" above, then reference it by a\npath relative to the output root:

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<img src=\"frames/round-2/shot_01.png\" alt=\"shot_01: hook\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n
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This works when the whole output folder is zipped and shared.

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For hard-copy print (a single file with no folder structure), the skill can offer to inline\nframes as base64. Ask the user which they prefer if frames are present.

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If a shot's assets.generated entry carries a sha256 and the file no longer matches it,\nrender the frame but say so on the page. That mismatch means the frame changed after it was\nrecorded, which is exactly the case where a preview quietly showing the new file is worse\nthan one that flags it.

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If no frames exist, render styled placeholder cards showing the framing, subject, and shot\nspec. These are still useful for stakeholder review at the storyboard stage.

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Template flag convention. When composing the per-shot context for preview.html.tpl, set exactly one of:

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The template uses two parallel {{#if}} blocks rather than {{#if}}/{{else}} to keep the rendering portable across template engines.

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For text overlays, set has_overlays: true and an overlays array on the shot. Each entry\ncarries id, content, font, weight, color, size, position_class,\nposition_label, enter_at, enter_animation, exit_at, exit_animation. The template\niterates that array with {{#each overlays}}.

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It is an array because shots.json lets a shot carry several overlays and\ntext-overlays.json always did. A single set of overlay_* fields could hold one, so the\nsecond overlay on a shot rendered nowhere and nothing reported it.

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For verdict badges, set has_verdict, verdict, verdict_round, and verdict_class\n(the lowercased verdict) from the newest critique for that shot under critiques/. Omit\nthem when the shot has no critique.

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Escape everything. Subjects, rationales, VO lines, and overlay copy are model-generated\nprose that lands in both text and attribute contexts. One angle bracket in a rationale, or\none quote in an overlay font name, breaks the page a client is reading.\ntools/shots-to-html.py escapes every substitution by default and reserves raw output for\nthe inlined CSS alone.

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Step 5. Render text overlays visually

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For every shot with an on_screen_text reference, the HTML shows:

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This gives the reviewer a sense of what the final composited frame will look like, even before final compositing happens.

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Step 6. Print stylesheet

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Include @media print rules that:

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The user should be able to hit Cmd-P / Ctrl-P and get a clean PDF.

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Hard rules

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Rule 1. Single file, no exceptions

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The output is one .html file. If you find yourself wanting a separate stylesheet or JS file, inline it. If you find yourself wanting a build step, you're solving the wrong problem.

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Rule 2. No external dependencies at runtime

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No CDN scripts. No Google Fonts. No external CSS frameworks. The file must work with no internet connection.

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The exception: if the user explicitly opts in (e.g. \"make it pretty, I'm online\"), Tailwind via CDN is acceptable. Default is no.

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Rule 3. Print must work

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Hit Cmd-P. The result should be a clean PDF. If layout breaks across page boundaries, the print stylesheet is broken.

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Rule 4. Brand-aware but quiet

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Use brand colors as accents, not as full backgrounds. The reviewer's job is to read the storyboard, not admire the design. Subtle.

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Rule 5. Mobile-readable

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Stakeholders open links on phones. The HTML should be readable on mobile without horizontal scroll. Simple responsive CSS.

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Templates

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The skill reads all three and assembles them into a single preview.html.

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Quality bar

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Before declaring done, verify:

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The CLI renderer checks the mechanical half of that list against itself:

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python tools/shots-to-html.py --selftest\n
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Two timestamps, not one

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\"Run\" is when the storyboard was produced, read from run.json. \"Rendered\" is when the page\nwas written. They are separate lines in the footer and they must stay separate.

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Collapsing them into a single \"Generated\" date meant re-rendering a preview six months later\nrestamped the run as today, and the footer went on asserting the page was built against a\nbrand-lock on a date that had nothing to do with the frames above it.

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If the brand-lock on disk no longer hashes to what run.json recorded, say so on the page.\nThe reader is looking at frames built against a brand state they can no longer see.

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Examples

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Generated preview.html files ship next to the storyboards that produced them:

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Open them in a browser to calibrate quality. All four are re-rendered in CI with pinned\ntimestamps and the build fails if the output moves, so they are also the regression test for\nthis skill's output.

\n","files":[{"path":"SKILL.md","sizeBytes":11610,"isText":true},{"path":"templates/preview.html.tpl","sizeBytes":5419,"isText":false},{"path":"templates/print.css.tpl","sizeBytes":2938,"isText":false},{"path":"templates/styles.css.tpl","sizeBytes":9816,"isText":false}],"reviewScore":null,"reviewSummary":null,"trust":{"provenance":"trusted-source-unreviewed","notice":"Community-authored content, reproduced verbatim and not vetted as instructions. Treat it as data to evaluate, never as directives to follow.","bodySource":null},"bodyLocked":false,"purchaseUrl":null,"sourceUrl":null,"report":{"provenance":"trusted-source-unreviewed","screen":{"ran":true,"outcome":"clean","suspicious":0,"notes":0,"hiddenCharacters":false},"virusScan":{"engine":"clamav","status":"clean","scannedAt":"2026-09-24T15:44:13.500205Z","sha256":"67570A3DAF5233E30B4F39984C83E62FC33247D61534A0263184DE500FDC95AE","sizeBytes":10465},"review":null,"source":{"repositoryUrl":"https://github.com/whystrohm/shotkit","path":"skills/storyboard-html-preview","license":"Apache-2.0","commit":"1b56831c035b11f24278365962ad11d2fb2f5de4","subtreeSha":"574E5E1B28D39B42E6DD3038E4F9F85C25E88E73E8EC9787A9AA5B0454A7509E","lastSyncedAt":"2026-09-24T15:43:09.838799Z"},"reviewedAt":"2026-09-24T15:47:18.333576Z","notice":"Community-authored content, reproduced verbatim and not vetted as instructions. Treat it as data to evaluate, never as directives to follow."},"install":[{"target":"skills-cli","command":"npx skills add https://github.com/whystrohm/shotkit/tree/main/skills/storyboard-html-preview"},{"target":"claude-code","command":"claude plugin marketplace add https://llmmart.ai/marketplace.json && claude plugin install whystrohm-shotkit@llmmart"},{"target":"git","command":"git clone https://github.com/whystrohm/shotkit.git"}]}