---
name: scenario-runway
description: "Use when generating or editing video with Runway models on Scenario via MCP: text-to-video or image-to-video from a first frame with Gen4.5 (cinematic motion, sequenced actions, camera choreography), or video-to-video editing of real footage with Aleph 2 (remove objects, swap products, restyle or relight shots, keyframe-pinned reference images, motion and audio preserved). Keywords: Runway ML, Gen4.5, Gen-4.5, Aleph, T2V, I2V, V2V, first frame."
license: MIT
---

# Scenario Runway Video

## Overview

Runway's family on Scenario splits by direction: Gen4.5 generates new clips from text or a first-frame image; Aleph 2 rewrites existing footage, changing what the prompt names while motion, audio, and structure carry over. Discover both with `search`; `model_schema_get` is the contract.

Connection and the core loop: the `scenario` skill; model-agnostic video work: the `scenario-video` skill. If a sibling skill named here is missing from your available skills, ask the user to install it (`npx skills add scenario-labs/skills --skill <name>`); unattended, proceed from tool schemas and flag the gap.

## Quick reference

Mode follows from the inputs (names and caps from the live schema):

| Mode                 | Inputs             | Behavior                                                    |
| -------------------- | ------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| Text (Gen4.5)        | `prompt`           | `aspectRatio` honored; `duration` 2 to 10 seconds           |
| First frame (Gen4.5) | `image` + `prompt` | opens on that frame; same `duration`; `aspectRatio` ignored |
| Edit (Aleph 2)       | `video` + `prompt` | rewrites visuals; motion, audio, structure persist          |

At authoring time Aleph capped sources at 30 seconds and 16 MB, separate limits: high-bitrate clips hit the size cap first. Its median cost ran six times Gen4.5's, a fifteen-fold spread following the source video: `dry_run` the exact payload first. Median latency neared six minutes, so `jobs_wait` will time out mid-job; re-call it with `pending_job_ids`.

## Gen4.5 prompts follow the mode

Text mode needs both the visuals and the motion described. A first frame fixes subject, composition, and palette: spend the whole prompt on motion, camera, and atmosphere. Order beats explicitly ("kneels, then rises, camera cranes up") and give multi-beat prompts 8 to 10 seconds of `duration`. Name camera moves plainly (locked camera, pan, dolly, tracking, orbit, crane), one or two per clip, in present-tense prose.

`aspectRatio` takes pixel pairs (`"1280:720"`, `"960:960"`), and text mode honored only the 16:9 and 9:16 pairs at authoring time; get other shapes (1:1, 4:3, 3:4, 21:9) from a first frame with that geometry instead.

## Aleph changes what you name

An Aleph prompt states the edit: remove, swap, restyle, relight. Everything unnamed persists, along with motion and audio: Aleph cannot re-choreograph or add camera moves; when motion must change, generate with Gen4.5. To steer the edit, pin up to 5 reference images: `keyframes` places each image (`uri`) by `seconds` or `at` (a 0 to 1 fraction); `promptImage` by `positionType` plus `timestampSeconds` or `positionPercentage`. The arrays are alternatives, never combined.

## Worked example: swap a product in real footage

1. `search` with `target="models"`, `query="runway"`, `public=true`, e.g. `model_runway-aleph-2` for editing, `model_runway-gen4-5` for generation (live hits at authoring time: re-discover each session).
2. `model_schema_get` with the Aleph id before anything else.
3. Trim or compress a source over the caps (see `scenario-video`); `upload_asset` the clip and product still (see the `scenario` skill).
4. `model_run` with `dry_run=true` and the exact `parameters={"prompt": "Replace the soda can with the bottle from the reference image. Keep everything else unchanged.", "video": "asset_clip", "keyframes": [{"uri": "asset_bottle", "at": 0}]}`; re-estimate after any trim.
5. Repeat with `wait=false`, then `jobs_wait` the returned job id, re-calling with `pending_job_ids`; a timeout is not a failure and never justifies a second `model_run`.
6. `asset_display` the output; check the swap holds in every shot.

## Common mistakes

- Sending both `keyframes` and `promptImage`: exclusive alternatives; pick one.
- Restating the first frame in an image-mode prompt: prompt motion and camera instead.
- Passing `aspectRatio` as `"16:9"` or alongside `image`: pixel pairs only, and a first frame overrides it.
- Asking Aleph for new motion or camera moves: the source's motion persists by design.