Add AI-generated b-roll clips

Goal: add short AI-generated video clips ("b-roll") to an edited video: a cutaway shown while someone keeps talking, a cold open before the video starts, or an end card after it ends. A shot-director AI plans the clips, a generation step pays a video-generation service to make them, and the compile step places them.

Generated clips use credits. Each clip is charged to your workspace's balance, and ReelBolt checks the caps described below before it buys anything, so it never buys a clip that would go over a cap. Generated video is available only on plans that include it (see Plans and credits).

Prerequisites for generated b-roll

• The video uploaded to the project.
• A chat AI provider.
• A video-generation provider, connected by an administrator for your workspace. If a step does not name one, the workspace's default video provider is used. See Inference providers for how an administrator connects one.
• Enough credits for the clips you plan to make. The run page shows the estimate before you start.

What generated clips cost

Generated video is priced per clip and is shown as a ceiling before you start. When you start a run, the cost line on the run page reads Plus up to followed by the most the generated clips can cost, and a run that regenerates clips shows the same figure in its dialog. See Reading the estimate for what the figures mean.

Spending caps for generated clips

Three caps protect you; a purchase must fit under all of them:

1. Per step: maxSpendCredits on the VideoGenerate step (required, must be above 0). The whole plan's estimated cost is checked against it before anything is bought.
2. Per project per day: a daily limit set by your administrator.
3. Whole platform per day: a daily limit set by your administrator, across all projects.

If any cap would be exceeded, nothing at all is bought and the step fails with BUDGET_EXCEEDED. There is no partial purchase. maxClips (1 to 4) also limits how many clips one step can make; planned shots beyond it are skipped, not bought.

The generated b-roll workflow

Add the Footage edit with AI-generated b-roll template (video-derush-edit-broll) and select your video in step 1.

#	Label	Step type	Agent
1	Analyze source video	VideoAnalyze	VideoTransform (not an AI)
2	Decide which spans to keep	Agent	VideoStoryEditor
3	Plan generated b-roll shots	Agent (context FullWorkflow)	ShotDirector
4	Generate planned b-roll clips	VideoGenerate	VideoTransform (calls the paid service)
5	Compile edited video with generated clips	VideoCompile	VideoTransform (not an AI)
6	Review edit quality	ReviewLoop	VideoReviewAgent

Step 4 as shipped. The model and resolution are left to their defaults:

{"planSource": "StepRef", "plan": {"from": "Step", "stepOrder": 3},
 "analysis": {"from": "Step", "stepOrder": 1},
 "durationSeconds": 6, "ratio": "16:9",
 "takes": 1, "maxClips": 4, "maxSpendCredits": 5.0,
 "pollIntervalSeconds": 10, "timeoutSeconds": 1800}

• "planSource": "StepRef" makes one clip per planned shot from step 3.
• takes — versions per shot (1 to 4, never more than maxClips).
• ratio — one of 21:9, 16:9, 4:3, 1:1, 3:4, 9:16; match your footage.
• timeoutSeconds — how long to wait for each clip (60 to 7200).

Step 5:

{"version": 1, "decision": {"from": "Step", "stepOrder": 2}, "analysisStepOrder": 1,
 "enableGeneratedClips": true, "generatedClips": {"from": "Step", "stepOrder": 4},
 "maxGeneratedClips": 4, "transitionPolicy": "Auto", "programFadeInMs": 500,
 "programFadeOutMs": 800, "programAudioFadeInMs": 300, "programAudioFadeOutMs": 900,
 "minSegmentMs": 800}

What the shot director plans

The ShotDirector plans zero or more shots. For each it chooses:

• a purpose: Cutaway (replaces the picture for a moment while the sound continues), ColdOpen (added before the start), EndCard (added after the end), SeamBridge (a generated clip between two cuts, only when the compile step's transitionPolicy is "Generated"), Extend (lengthens a shot that is shorter than its narration) or ScreenContent (put onto a tracked green screen in your footage — needs "enableInserts": true on the compile step and a green screen found by the analysis step; without those the clip is reported as inserts_disabled or no_insert_region_at_anchor and skipped);
• where it goes: one of the offered shot, pause or phrase ids;
• a camera word and a length word (Short, Medium, Long), which ReelBolt turns into real settings;
• a written prompt describing the clip. This is the only text sent to the provider, after cleaning.

The shot director cannot spend money; only step 4 can, and only within the caps. Steer it through the run's brief (the Your brief box when you click Run), for example "One cutaway of a busy coffee shop when I mention the café, and an end card with a sunset over the city".

Running and re-running generated b-roll

When you run or retry this workflow, ReelBolt asks:

• Run and reuse previous clips (default, free): any clip with exactly the same prompt and settings that was already generated in this project, and still exists, is reused.
• Regenerate (costs money): pay for fresh clips. The dialog shows the most it could cost.

When the review step sends the run back to step 2, unchanged clips are reused too; set step 4's "loopBackBehavior": "Regenerate" to pay for new ones on every round instead.

What to check: step 4's result lists every clip, whether it was delivered, reused or skipped, and its cost. Its detailed record (data view) is the full clip list. Step 5's result reports which clips were placed and any dropped with a reason.

Privacy: sending your own footage to the provider

The shot director may ask for a clip to start or end on a frame from your own footage, so the clip matches visually. That frame is your footage, and once sent to a provider it cannot be called back. So:

• allowSourceMediaEgress on step 4 is false by default, and this template sets it to true — that is the template's own permission for the shot director to key a generated shot off a frame of your footage, which is the whole point of b-roll that cuts together with the edit. On a step of your own, leaving it false means any planned shot that asks for a frame stops the whole step with EGRESS_REFUSED before anything is bought: either set it to true (your explicit permission) or plan shots without frames.
• With permission, the frame is sent: ReelBolt cuts one frame out of the shot the plan named (the shot's first moment for a starting frame, its last for an ending one) and sends it to the video-generation service as part of that clip's request. Each clip's record says whether the frame went with it. A still image you added to the project can be used the same way — it is analysed as a source, so its beats are ordinary shot ids the plan can name.
• A service that cannot accept an image at all is refused up front, with KEYFRAME_NOT_SUPPORTED, before anything is bought.

Variation: two takes per clip and a dailies room

Add the Footage edit with AI b-roll, best take chosen by a panel template (video-derush-edit-dailies) instead. Its generation step makes two takes of every planned clip and switches on look matching (each clip is asked to match the colour and contrast of the real shot beside it) and camera continuity (a blank camera word copies the real shot's still or handheld feel). A second analysis step measures every take ("source": {"kind": "GeneratedClips", "stepOrder": 4}), a DailiesRoom panel picks the better take of each shot by its id, and the compile step's "takeSelection": {"from": "Step", "stepOrder": 6} places only those. A shot the panel leaves undecided keeps its first take. Expect roughly double the generation cost.

Variation: one clip from your own prompt

For a single clip described by you, without the shot director, use a VideoGenerate step on its own with "planSource": "Inline":

{"planSource": "Inline", "inlinePrompt": "Slow dolly shot through a sunlit greenhouse full of ferns",
 "durationSeconds": 6, "ratio": "16:9",
 "takes": 1, "maxClips": 1, "maxSpendCredits": 1.0}

The first clip becomes the step's output video (visible in Renders). A later VideoAnalyze step can use it as its source with {"kind": "PreviousStepOutput"} or {"kind": "StepOutput", "stepOrder": 1} (the generation step's number), so it can be edited like any other footage.

Pitfalls with generated b-roll

• CONFIG_INVALID before anything happens: maxSpendCredits missing or 0, takes above maxClips, an unsupported resolution or ratio for the model, or planSource "StepRef" without plan.
• BUDGET_EXCEEDED: the plan costs more than maxSpendCredits, or a daily cap is reached. Nothing was bought. Raise the step cap, ask for fewer or shorter clips, or wait for the next UTC day.
• EGRESS_REFUSED: see the privacy section above.
• INVALID_PROMPT: an empty prompt or one over 7000 characters (inline mode).
• POLL_TIMEOUT: the provider took longer than timeoutSeconds. The clip may still be charged.
• Clips not in the video: step 5 needs "enableGeneratedClips": true, generatedClips pointing at step 4, and "mode": "Reencode" (otherwise GENERATED_CLIPS_REQUIRE_REENCODE). A cutaway whose moment was cut out of the edit is dropped.
• Unexpected re-spend: choosing Regenerate, setting loopBackBehavior to "Regenerate", or changing a clip's prompt or settings (including the shot director planning different shots) all buy new clips.