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Ralphy is a conversation. You describe what you want; Ralphy asks the questions a good producer would ask, drafts a plan, then makes the video one beat at a time so you can correct course before it spends money. This section is the day-to-day operator’s manual — how to phrase a brief, how to pick a template, how to review variants, how to render, how to ship a batch, and where the receipts live. If you read What is Ralphy and ran your first video, this section is the next stop. The pages assume the binary works and the keys are set; if either isn’t true, jump to Setup & doctor first.

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Where to start

Talking to Ralphy

Chat is the interface. How phrasing maps to playbooks, with eight worked utterances.

Starting a project

The intake protocol — five questions, a draft plan, then one beat at a time.

Picking a template

template suggest is Ralphy’s first move. 54 templates, two kinds, five categories.

Brands, personas, refs

When to lock identity. The reference-required gate and the --no-ref-consent override.

Generating assets

The five generate sub-verbs, defaults from MODELS.md, dry-run, slot IDs.

Reviewing and iterating

Append-only versions, .v2.<ext> on regen, promoting a winner, when to stop.

Rendering

ralphy render <id>, the --loudnorm pass, render history, perf targets.

Batches

N ≥ 3 = batch. Cost rollup, parallel render, auto-postmortem.

Profiles

Portable identity. Export your brand, persona, refs, and templates as a PR.

Logs and costs

Three JSONL logs that never lie. Timeline, cost rollup, postmortem.

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The disciplines that aren’t optional

A handful of rules cut across every page below. Knowing them up front saves money.
  • Append-only on generations. Ralphy never overwrites a generated file when you regen — the new version lands at .v2.<ext>, the old one stays on disk, and the manifest tracks both. This is AGENTS invariant #13. Pass --force-overwrite only if you genuinely want the legacy destructive behavior.
  • The reference-required gate. When your brief names a real person, a recognizable brand product, or a known IP, Ralphy refuses to generate until you attach a reference image — or until you opt out per-call with --no-ref-consent "<reason>". Generic work (“my coffee shop’s new pastry”) proceeds without a ref. This is AGENTS invariant #3.
  • ralphy is the only entry point. No raw curl, no bunx hyperframes render, no ad-hoc ffmpeg. Every model call, render, and project mutation flows through a ralphy verb so the cost rollup, the manifest, and the gen-log stay honest.