Composition Engine Boundary

VibeFrame is the generation, cost, and review layer around composition engines. It does not try to replace Remotion or Hyperframes.

• Remotion owns React-based programmatic video and component-driven motion graphics.
• Hyperframes owns HTML/CSS/JS scene composition and deterministic browser capture for agents.
• VibeFrame owns everything around composition: frontier-model asset generation on the user's own keys (Seedance, Runway, Veo, Kling), dry runs and the hard --max-cost ceiling, STORYBOARD.md/DESIGN.md, build reports, render inspection, edit/remix commands, and host-agent guidance.

Current Mental Model

Use VibeFrame when you want a coding agent or shell script to drive a video from brief to MP4:

vibe setup --scope project
vibe init my-video --from brief.md --profile agent
vibe build my-video --dry-run --json
vibe build my-video --json
vibe render my-video -o renders/final.mp4 --json
vibe inspect render my-video --cheap --json

Use the lower-level scene namespace only when you need direct scene operations:

vibe scene lint index.html --project my-video --fix
vibe render index.html --project my-video --quality draft

Use Hyperframes directly when the task is only HTML composition/rendering and you do not need storyboard files, provider routing, generated assets, build reports, YAML pipelines, MCP tools, or editing commands.

Use Remotion directly when the task is a React video application or a component-driven motion graphics workflow and you do not need VibeFrame's agent/project layer.

The Zero-Key Render, Start To Finish

Because the composition half is local, the whole pipeline runs for $0 before you own a single provider key: Kokoro TTS narration, HTML/CSS scenes composed by your coding agent, and a headless Chrome plus FFmpeg render. The scene authoring in the middle is Hyperframes' contract, not VibeFrame's - this is the path to use when you want to see the machinery work before paying for anything.

vibe init demo --from "30-second video introducing my project"
vibe scene install-skill demo    # upstream's own installer; the rules your agent authors against

Then ask your coding agent to finish it:

Build demo/ into a rendered MP4 with zero API keys. Read demo/AGENTS.md ("Key Rules for hand-authored scene HTML") first, then run vibe build demo --tts kokoro --skip-backdrop --json and author the scene HTML from vibe scene compose-prompts demo --json. Run vibe build demo --stage sync --json and fix every lint error it reports before rendering - it exits non-zero while any remain. Then vibe render demo --json.

Treat --stage sync as the gate. It lints the composed scenes and exits non-zero on real errors, such as an unregistered GSAP timeline or a composition div missing data-width/data-height. Rendering past a failed sync produces a black MP4, so fix the scenes first.

That is about three minutes of machine time (measured on v0.113.29 in an isolated environment: 63s install, 1s init, 66s build including the one-time ~88 MB voice model download, 64s render; repeat runs skip the download). The scene-authoring pass in the middle is your agent's, so the wall clock depends on it and on how many lint rounds it needs.

No coding agent available? vibe scene add <id> --style announcement --headline "..." --no-audio --no-image writes a lint-clean template scene with no model call, and doubles as a reference for the file shape.

If this is the whole job for you - HTML scene authoring and rendering, no paid generation - use Hyperframes directly. It is the better tool for that, and vibe scene install-skill installs its skill either way.

What Each Layer Provides

Concern	Remotion	Hyperframes	VibeFrame
Primary abstraction	React components	HTML/CSS/JS scenes	Brief, STORYBOARD.md, DESIGN.md
Render/composition layer	Primary layer	Primary layer	Uses composition engines through project workflows
Agent-first project loop	Not the main abstraction	Composition-focused	Setup, init, plan, build, render, inspect
AI image/video/audio generation	Optional ecosystem packages	Out of scope	Provider-routed CLI commands and build stages
Existing-media edits	Out of scope	Out of scope	vibe edit, vibe audio, vibe remix
Machine-readable reports	Out of scope	Renderer diagnostics	build-report.json, review-report.json, JSON envelopes

Why Hyperframes Still Appears In Projects

Generated projects may include Hyperframes metadata or skill references. Treat those as renderer metadata and composition guidance, not as the primary VibeFrame project API.

New users should start with:

vibe init my-video --profile agent

The default public project surface is:

STORYBOARD.md
DESIGN.md
media/ (optional user-provided inputs)
AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md
vibe.config.json

The Hyperframes composition rules are not part of the scaffold; upstream's own installer puts them under .agents/skills/hyperframes/ via vibe scene install-skill.

Composition/backend files are created when the selected profile or later build step needs them.

What VibeFrame Is Not Trying To Replace

VibeFrame does not replace Remotion or Hyperframes. It builds around them. The practical boundary is:

• choose Remotion for React-first programmatic video;
• choose Hyperframes for focused HTML scene authoring and deterministic browser rendering;
• choose VibeFrame for agent-driven video generation on your own provider keys, with dry-run pricing and a hard --max-cost ceiling around briefs, storyboards, build reports, inspection, editing, narration, and export.

This boundary keeps VibeFrame's CLI clear while still benefiting from dedicated composition engines.