| name | cr-production-pipeline |
| description | Run the canonical Campaign Receipts production pipeline end-to-end for BOTH programs on the @CampaignReceiptsYoutube channel — SEALED 2016 (145-promise audit) and CR new-news (single-race finance receipts). Spawns one specialist subagent per stage; each specialist's persona IS the gate. No council REVISE loops, no story-score-100 binding gates. Use when the founder says "produce SEALED promise N" / "make a CR new-news piece on RACE" / "make me a short on TOPIC" / "run the pipeline" or after a topic brief lands. Reads eng/PIPELINE-STEPS-AND-OWNERS.md as the canonical step→owner table and .claude/skills/cr-production-pipeline/stages.yaml as the machine-readable stage list. |
Campaign Receipts Production Pipeline Skill
This skill orchestrates the canonical 31-stage pipeline documented in companies/campaign-receipts/eng/CR-PRODUCTION-PIPELINE-v4.md. It spawns persona subagents stage by stage, enforces hard-fail gates between them, and stops at the points where the founder must intervene (manual YouTube Studio upload, council overrides, KILL verdicts).
Single skill, two programs: SEALED 2016 (parchment audit) and CR new-news (navy single-race receipts). Selected via --program sealed | cr-new-news. Same gates, same QC, same /watch passes, same pipeline-state.py driver — only cosmetic + playlist + thumb template differ.
When to use
- Founder says "produce SEALED promise #N" / "make a SEALED LF on TOPIC" / "make a SEALED short on TOPIC"
- Founder says "make a CR new-news piece on RACE" / "build the Massie/Bush follow-up" / "do the next race"
- A topic brief lands in
briefs/<date>-<slug>-topic-brief.md
- After analytics review on a prior piece says "do the next one"
- Any shorts work — re-cut, audit, batch-produce, single short. Direct invocation of
cut-shorts-v2.py / produce-short-generic.mjs / render-text-short.mjs is forbidden.
- Any re-render / re-splice — surgical fixes go through the skill so Stage 19 / 24 / 25 / 26 gates run.
- Any metadata push to YouTube (
youtube-upload.py --update-meta) — must enter via Stage 30 so the post-publish /watch QC runs.
NO DIRECT SCRIPT INVOCATION
Founder lock 2026-05-24 (after an agent shipped 3 broken shorts by calling cut-shorts-v2.py directly): the skill is the only entry point for any stage that has a downstream hard-fail gate. Even surgical "I just want to fix one frame" work goes through the skill — pipeline-state.py resume --from-stage N exists for this.
What the founder needs to supply
Minimum input to start a piece:
- Topic brief — what's this piece about? 2-5 sentences. The
story-investigator (Stage 2) extracts tension from this.
- Slug — kebab-case:
- SEALED:
sealed-NNN-<topic> (e.g. sealed-018-china-currency)
- CR new-news:
cr-<race>-<politician>-<seat> (e.g. cr-massie-gallrein-primary)
- Program —
sealed or cr-new-news.
- Mode —
longform (with Betsy/Jessica VO) or short (text + music + b-roll, NO VO per 2026-05-24 lock).
- (Optional) Receipt terms —
<!-- RECEIPTS: china, treasury-report, fec-id --> header for the fact-check gate.
If any of #1–4 is missing, ASK before starting any stages. Do NOT guess.
How the skill runs (operator manual)
1. Initialize state
python3 scripts/pipeline/pipeline-state.py init \
--slug <slug> --program <sealed|cr-new-news> --mode <longform|short> \
--brief briefs/<date>-<slug>-topic-brief.md
Creates _review/pipeline-state-<slug>.json with all 31 stages as PENDING. LF-only stages auto-SKIPPED for short mode via only_when.
2. Loop until done
NEXT=$(python3 scripts/pipeline/pipeline-state.py next --slug <slug>)
echo "$NEXT" | jq .
For each stage:
kind: persona → spawn Agent subagent loaded with the .md at persona as system prompt. Pass job + inputs. Verify it writes to output.kind: tool → run the Bash command in tool. Verify exit 0 and output exists.kind: gate → run tool (optionally with persona for human verdicts). On non-zero exit:
never_overridable: true → STOP, surface violation, escalate to founder.override_flag set → ASK founder for explicit override; log to council report.
kind: manual → pause and surface pause_reason to founder. Wait for action.
Then mark:
python3 scripts/pipeline/pipeline-state.py mark --slug <slug> --stage <id> --verdict PASS
3. Status / resume / re-roll
python3 scripts/pipeline/pipeline-state.py status --slug <slug>
python3 scripts/pipeline/pipeline-state.py resume --slug <slug> --from-stage 24
4. Cache-hit detection
next auto-marks stages PASS if their declared output path already exists on disk. The loop is idempotent — re-running after a kill picks up where it left off.
Persona subagent spawning
Founder rule 2026-05-24 (NEVER OVERRIDE): the main orchestrator must spawn an Agent subagent loaded with the persona's .md for every persona-named stage (script, council, QC /watch, storyboard, photo selection, generative prompts). The orchestrator does NOT do persona work itself.
Founder rule 2026-05-25 (NEVER PRE-FILTER): the orchestrator must NOT pre-filter the design space for a specialist. No "pick from these 4 options" menus to founder when a specialist owns the call. Spawn the subagent with the LIVE artifact (title, script, storyboard) + open brief + ALL options visible. The specialist decides. Founder sees the result + can re-brief if wrong.
Founder rule 2026-05-25 (PUSHBACK = RE-BRIEF): when founder pushes back on a specialist's output ("shouldn't it be X?"), that is NOT a question the orchestrator answers. Re-spawn the subagent with the founder's pushback as new context + open decision space + instruction to DECIDE the right answer (which may or may not be X). Trust the specialist's judgment over the orchestrator's tactical instinct.
Specific patterns:
- Thumbnail designer always reads the LIVE TITLE first; composition is theirs to pick (solo / 2-face collision / VS / 3-way split / geographic / faceless). The orchestrator does NOT pre-pick portrait OR layout.
- Title strategist spawn with episode facts + keyword space + brand pattern. Orchestrator does NOT suggest titles.
- Score composer spawn with locked VO + storyboard. Orchestrator does NOT suggest where ta-da hits or which instruments.
- Storyboard director spawn with locked script. Orchestrator does NOT pre-pick which shots get Wikipedia vs Remotion vs Kling.
See portfolio memory feedback_orchestrator_never_overrides_subagent_specialty.md for the full doctrine + the Rabb PA-3 incident that triggered this lock.
Spawn pattern (kind=persona):
Agent({
subagent_type: "general-purpose",
description: "<stage name>",
prompt: """
You are the <persona name>. Your full system prompt is in <persona path>.
Read that file, then perform your job for slug <slug> (program=<program>, mode=<mode>).
JOB: <job from stages.yaml>
INPUTS: <inputs from stages.yaml — read these files before doing anything>
OUTPUT: write your artifact to <output from stages.yaml>
Do not skip steps. Do not produce artifacts outside your declared OUTPUT.
"""
})
For QC /watch stages (25, 26), use a qc-engineer subagent that loads personas/qc-engineer.md AND invokes the /watch skill on the master.
Per-program deltas
| Step | SEALED | CR new-news |
|---|
| Slug pattern | sealed-NNN-<topic> | cr-<race>-<politician>-<seat> |
| Thumb template | sealed-short / sealed | cr-new-news-short / cr-new-news |
| CTA card | 145 PROMISES · SEALED2016.COM | campaignreceipts.com/race/<slug> |
| Playlist | Sealed2016 (auto-resolved) | CR new-news |
| Story-investigator framing | "What did this promise cost or deliver?" | "Who paid for this race? What did they buy?" |
| All gates / personas / QC | Identical | Identical |
The orchestrator passes --program through to stages that branch on it (mainly Stage 20 thumb + Stage 30 metadata).
Doctrine (founder lock 2026-05-25)
Pipelines are sequences of TASKS assigned to SPECIALIST SUBAGENTS. The
specialist's persona IS the gate — its output IS the artifact. No council
REVISE loops, no story-score-100 binding gates, no fact-check-as-blocker.
If the founder doesn't like the result, founder calls it. See
feedback_no_council_gates_assign_to_experts.md.
Hard MECHANICAL gates (catch defects no specialist can detect)
These are NEVER OVERRIDABLE because they check regex / ffprobe / OCR
output, not subjective quality:
| Gate | Stage | Script | Catches |
|---|
| TTS readability lint | 13 | elevenlabs-tts.py --lint-only | Bare AIPAC, banned phrases, URL leaks, sentence >30 words |
| Storyboard validator | 19 | validate-storyboard.py | Missing files, wrong-aspect, schema errors |
| Master visual QC ×2 | 25, 26 | qc-visual-master.py + /watch | Wrong b-roll, garble, mismatched stamps |
| Shorts no-VO | 27 | qc-shorts-no-vo.py | Any speech in shorts audio |
Advisory passes (NEVER block re-renders)
These produce reports the founder reads + decides on. They DO NOT trigger
loop-back to earlier stages:
| Pass | Stage | What it does |
|---|
| Research pack | 6 | Owns fact accuracy AT SOURCE; not a downstream gate |
| Council script review | 11 | Generates report; founder reads; specialist subagents at Steps 7-10 were the real gates |
| Pre-ship council panel | 28 | Generates report; qc-engineer at Stages 25+26 was the real gate |
REMOVED 2026-05-25 (council-loop incidents on Rabb PA-3 episode)
--founder-override-script-council flag → no longer needed; Step 11 is advisory--founder-override-master-council flag → no longer needed; Step 28 is advisory- "story-score 100/100 binding" gate → optional self-check rubric only
- "copy-lock requires 4 upstream PASSes" gate → cache marker only
- "Step 2.95 fact-check-as-binding-gate" (briefly added, immediately removed) → moved into Step 6 research-pack subagent's job
- "Step 2.9b hook-strength gate" (briefly added, immediately removed) → moved into Step 10 MrBeast subagent's prompt
Pause-and-wait stages
Stage 29 (kind: manual) pauses for founder Studio upload. Surface pause_reason; wait for new video ID(s) in eng/youtube-meta/studio-uploads-pending.json.
Stage 31 (72h analytics) has a pause_reason — wait 72h after Stage 30. Safe to defer to a separate session; state machine survives.
Files this skill creates / requires
Reads (source of truth):
eng/CR-PRODUCTION-PIPELINE-v4.md — prose doctrine.claude/skills/cr-production-pipeline/stages.yaml — machine-readable stage listpersonas/*.md + personas/council/*.md + personas/viral-panel/*.md
Writes (per-piece):
_review/pipeline-state-<slug>.jsonbriefs/<date>-<slug>-{story-extraction,validation,virality}.mdresearch/<date>-<slug>-{sources,fact-check-pre}.mdcontent/scripts/<slug>-v{1..5}-*.mdeng/storyboards/<slug>{,-prompts,-broll-selections}.json_build/<slug>/{vo-v2.mp3, music_bed.m4a, thumbnail.jpg, clips/, _rem-*.mp4}public/longform/<slug>.mp4 OR public/shorts/<slug>.mp4_review/qc-visual-<slug>-pass{1,2}.mdreports/council/<slug>-{<date>,master}.mdreports/episodes/<slug>-72hr.md
Touches (shared aggregates):
eng/PUBLISHED-YOUTUBE.mdscripts/.external-costs.jsonleng/youtube-meta/studio-uploads-pending.json
Sister skills
banana-pro-director + cinema-worldbuilder — authoritative for visual prompt craft/watch — invoked by qc-engineer at Stages 25, 26/remember — capture new failure modes (becomes a row in v4.md "Failure modes locked into doctrine")
When NOT to use
- One-off Q about a published video → just answer
- Typo in
PUBLISHED-YOUTUBE.md → just edit
- Analytics on a live video → use
youtube-analytics-snapshot.py directly
- Doctrine / persona file edits → just edit the
.md
The pipeline is for PRODUCING + SHIPPING content. Maintenance edits go around it.
