Usage Guide

This guide covers the day-to-day workflows for using Renku: specifying inputs, discovering blueprints and models, testing with dry runs, generating content, and iterating on your creations.

Specifying Inputs

Every blueprint requires an inputs file that provides the configuration for your video generation.

Input File Format

Inputs are specified in YAML with two main sections:

inputs:
  InquiryPrompt: "Your topic or prompt here"
  Duration: 60
  NumOfSegments: 3
  # ... other blueprint-specific inputs

models:
  # Optional: override default model selections
  - model: minimax/speech-2.6-hd
    provider: replicate
    producerId: AudioProducer

Input Types

Type	YAML Syntax	Example
string	Quoted or unquoted text	"Hello world" or Hello world
int	Number without quotes	42
array	YAML list	["item1", "item2"]

Using Input Templates

Every blueprint includes an input-template.yaml with all available inputs and their defaults:

# Copy the template
cp {blueprint-dir}/input-template.yaml ./my-inputs.yaml

# Edit with your values
nano ./my-inputs.yaml

Model Selection

Override the default AI model for any producer:

models:
  # Use a specific video model
  - model: google/veo-3.1-fast
    provider: replicate
    producerId: VideoProducer

  # Use a specific voice model
  - model: elevenlabs/v3
    provider: replicate
    producerId: AudioProducer

Discovering Content

Browsing Blueprints

List all available blueprints:

renku blueprints:list

Output:

Available Blueprints:

1. audio-only.yaml
   - Audio-Only Narration
   - Generates script and audio narration

2. video-only.yaml
   - Video-Only Generation
   - Generates script and video clips

3. image-to-video.yaml
   - Image-to-Video Transitions
   - Creates videos from image sequences

Get detailed information about a blueprint:

renku blueprints:describe {workspace}/catalog/blueprints/video-only/video-only.yaml

This shows:

• Required and optional inputs
• Artifacts produced
• Producers used
• Loops defined

Browsing Models

See available models for a blueprint’s producers:

renku producers:list --blueprint=video-only.yaml

Output:

Producer model configurations:

VideoProducer (4 video models)
  Provider    Model                          Price
  replicate   bytedance/seedance-1-pro-fast  480p: $0.015/s
  replicate   google/veo-3.1-fast            $0.10/s
  fal-ai      veo3-1                         -

AudioProducer (2 audio models)
  Provider    Model                 Price
  replicate   minimax/speech-2.6-hd $0.0001/token
  replicate   elevenlabs/v3         $0.0001/token

⚠️  Missing API tokens:
  - fal-ai: FAL_KEY not set

Testing with Dry Run

Before spending API credits, validate your configuration with a dry run:

renku generate \
  --inputs=./my-inputs.yaml \
  --blueprint=./my-blueprint.yaml \
  --dry-run

What Dry Run Does

• Validates blueprint YAML structure
• Checks all required inputs are provided
• Verifies producer paths exist
• Creates the execution plan
• Generates placeholder artifacts

What Dry Run Doesn’t Do

• Call any AI provider APIs
• Consume API credits
• Generate real content

Inspecting the Plan

After a dry run, examine the execution plan:

cat {workspace}/builds/movie-{id}/runs/rev-0001-plan.json

The plan shows:

• Execution layers (parallel groups)
• Jobs in each layer
• Input/output connections
• Canonical IDs for all nodes

Running Generation

Full Generation

Run the complete workflow:

renku generate \
  --inputs=./my-inputs.yaml \
  --blueprint=./my-blueprint.yaml

Renku will:

1. Create a new movie directory
2. Execute producers layer by layer
3. Store artifacts in the blob store
4. Create friendly symlinks in movies/
5. Log all events for future reference

Continue an Existing Movie

Resume or regenerate an existing movie:

# By movie ID
renku generate --movie-id=movie-a1b2c3d4

# The most recent movie
renku generate --last

Non-Interactive Mode

Skip confirmation prompts for automation:

renku generate \
  --inputs=./my-inputs.yaml \
  --blueprint=./my-blueprint.yaml \
  --non-interactive

Finding Your Outputs

Generated content is in two locations:

Build directory (builds/movie-{id}/):

• blobs/ - Raw generated files
• manifests/ - Artifact metadata
• events/ - Execution logs

Friendly view (movies/movie-{id}/):

• Human-readable filenames
• Symlinks to blob storage
• Easy to browse and share

Editing Workflow

Renku’s incremental build system makes iteration efficient.

Changing Inputs

1. Edit your inputs file
2. Re-run generation on the same movie:

renku generate --movie-id=movie-a1b2c3d4 --inputs=./my-inputs.yaml

Renku detects which inputs changed and only regenerates affected artifacts.

Editing Generated Prompts

You can manually edit generated text artifacts:

1. Find the artifact in movies/movie-{id}/
2. Edit the file directly (it’s a symlink to the blob)
3. Re-run generation:

renku generate --movie-id=movie-a1b2c3d4

Renku will:

• Detect your manual edits
• Keep your changes
• Only regenerate downstream artifacts that depend on the edited file

Replacing Artifacts

If an AI-generated image or video isn’t satisfactory:

1. Replace the file in movies/movie-{id}/
2. Re-run generation

Your replacement will be used for downstream processing (like timeline composition).

Layer-by-Layer Generation

For cost control and quality review, generate content in stages.

What Are Layers?

Renku groups independent jobs into execution layers:

• Layer 0: Script generation (depends only on inputs)
• Layer 1: Prompt generation, audio synthesis (depends on script)
• Layer 2: Video/image generation (depends on prompts)
• Layer 3: Timeline composition (depends on all media)

Generate Up to a Specific Layer

renku generate \
  --inputs=./my-inputs.yaml \
  --blueprint=./my-blueprint.yaml \
  --up-to-layer=1

This stops after layer 1, so you can:

• Review the generated script
• Check audio quality
• Make edits before generating expensive video content

Continue to Next Layers

After reviewing, continue generation:

renku generate --movie-id=movie-a1b2c3d4 --up-to-layer=2

Cost-Saving Strategies

1. Review scripts first - Script generation is cheap; video generation is expensive
2. Use layer limits - Generate expensive content only when you’re happy with cheaper precursors
3. Iterate on prompts - Edit video prompts before generating videos
4. Leverage caching - Re-running generation only rebuilds changed artifacts

Viewing Content

Open in Viewer

Start the viewer and open a movie:

# Specific movie
renku viewer:view --movie-id=movie-a1b2c3d4

# Most recent movie
renku viewer:view --last

Background Viewer Server

Start the viewer server in the background:

renku viewer:start

Stop it when done:

renku viewer:stop

Exporting Video

Export the final video as MP4:

renku export --movie-id=movie-a1b2c3d4

With custom settings:

renku export --last \
  --width=1920 \
  --height=1080 \
  --fps=30

The exported video is saved to:

• builds/movie-{id}/FinalVideo.mp4
• movies/movie-{id}/FinalVideo.mp4 (symlink)

Cleaning Up

Remove a movie and its artifacts:

renku clean --movie-id=movie-a1b2c3d4

This removes:

• The build directory
• The friendly view directory
• All associated artifacts

Tips and Best Practices

Start Small

For new blueprints, start with:

• Fewer segments (2-3 instead of 10)
• Dry run first
• Layer-by-layer generation

Review at Each Stage

Don’t generate everything at once:

1. Generate script → Review
2. Generate prompts → Review and edit
3. Generate media → Review
4. Compose timeline → Export

Use Version Control

Keep your inputs files in version control:

• Track changes to prompts and settings
• Reproduce past generations
• Share configurations with team members

Monitor Costs

Check provider dashboards regularly:

• Video generation is most expensive
• Audio generation is moderate
• Script generation is cheap

Use renku producers:list to see pricing information.