---
name: creative-review-gate
description: Review-pack and approval-gate workflow for short-form creative production when the user wants oversight before continuing.
---

# Creative Review Gate

Use this skill when producing reels, ads, storyboards, or other creative assets that should pause for user curation before animation, stitching, or final packaging.

## Trigger signals
- User asks for oversight, curation, approval, or review before you continue.
- User wants the script, frames, or concept before further production.
- The work involves iterative creative generation with locked canon or brand continuity.

## Default workflow
1. **Build a review pack first.**
   - Script or VO draft
   - Scene-by-scene beat list
   - Starting frames or keyframes
   - Any locked visual canon, brand rules, or character anchors
   - Optional SFX / music / CTA notes
2. **Make review boundaries explicit.**
   - Mark what is locked.
   - Mark what the user can curate.
   - Say what you will not continue until approval arrives.
3. **Pause before expensive downstream work.**
   - Do not move into animation, stitching, publishing, or bulk generation until the user signs off on the review pack.
4. **Preserve approved anchors.**
   - If the user approves a frame, style choice, or CTA, treat it as an anchor for later steps.
5. **Resume only from the approved state.**
   - If the user changes one element, update the smallest adjacent pieces needed and re-present the pack.

## Review-pack checklist
- Clear title and goal
- Short script or narration draft
- Frame list with IDs and a one-line purpose for each
- Vertical / aspect-ratio callout when relevant
- Any canonical design constraints
- CTA or end card direction
- Explicit question to the user: what should be changed, kept, or approved

## Pitfalls
- Do not silently continue into animation after the user asked for curation.
- Do not bury the approval request in a long explanation.
- Do not regenerate everything when only one frame or line needs review.
- Do not mix draft, approved, and pending assets without labels.

## Notes
- For current Appie reel work, see `references/review-gate.md` for the concrete pack format and accepted checkpoints.