Story Wizard

The Story Wizard is Ciaro Pro's guided onboarding pipeline. It takes pasted story text and runs the full first-pass workflow for you: format the script, detect characters, break the story into scenes and shots, generate storyboard images, and optionally queue videos.

This is the fastest way to get from a blank project to a populated storyboard. It replaces the older multi-step "paste in Script Editor → Analyze Script dialog" flow for new projects.

When the Story Wizard opens

Automatically on new projects

When you create a new story from the Projects dashboard, Ciaro usually opens the Story Wizard on the Board once the project loads. You can see the playground canvas behind a compact wizard panel in the top-right.

If you do not want this on future projects, use Don't show again on the first text step.

Manually from the AI Assistant gutter

On the Board or in the Script Editor, open the left AI gutter (expand with the sparkles control if collapsed) and click AI wizard.

• If a wizard build is still running in the background, the action reads Resume wizard instead.
• Re-running the wizard on a story that already has scenes, shots, characters, or meaningful script content may ask you to reset the story first so you do not accidentally overwrite work.

Wizard steps (user journey)

The modal title shows Wizard · followed by the current step name.

Step	What you do
Story	Paste or type your story text. Free plans have a word limit on this step. Very short stories may be expanded automatically before you review them.
Style	Pick the project's art direction from the look grid (built-in tiles such as Cinematic, plus any custom styles linked to this story that already have a look plate). Cinematic is the default photoreal look. This sets how storyboard images are drawn. You do not type a separate style line here.
Frames	Choose how many storyboard frames (shots) to create. Free plans: 1–6 (default 6). Paid plans: adjustable stepper (default 10, capped by your plan).
Build	Ciaro runs the pipeline automatically. You see progress across Format → Cast → Scenes → Shots → Images. You can Abort while this step is running.
Videos	Optional offer to turn some generated frames into video clips. You can accept, adjust the count, or skip.
Complete	Done — continue on the Board to review and refine.

During Build, the wizard panel stays open and the Board playground may hide briefly while heavy processing runs. Closing the wizard mid-build does not stop the backend job — use Resume wizard from the gutter or the board chip to reopen progress.

What happens during Build

The Build step chains the same core AI work as manual script analysis, but automatically and in one guided run:

1. Format — prepares screenplay-style dialogue and character structure from your text.
2. Cast — detects characters and may enrich descriptions and reference portraits.
3. Scenes — detects scene breaks and creates scene structure on the Board.
4. Shots — distributes your chosen frame count across scenes and writes shot descriptions / image prompts.
5. Images — generates a storyboard image for each shot.

Progress shows two bars: a thin step indicator (which pill is active) and a brand-colored bar for work inside the current step (for example 20/38 frames during Images).

Credits and first-run benefits

• First wizard run on a story (wizardRunCount 0): storyboard images during Build are free — no image-generation credits charged for that first pass.
• Later wizard runs on the same story charge image generation normally.
• Videos on the optional Videos step always follow your plan's video generation costs and allowances.
• The footer may show an estimated credit total before you start Build (except when first-run image waiver applies).

Resume, abort, and close

Situation	What to do
Build still running, modal closed	Click Resume wizard in the AI gutter or the Resume chip on the Board.
Want to stop an in-flight build	Open the wizard and click Abort on the Build step.
Reloaded the page mid-build	Ciaro remembers in-progress wizard work per story and should offer Resume wizard.
Finished wizard, revisiting Script Editor	You do not need to run Script Analysis again — the wizard already formatted the script and created structure.

Story Wizard vs Script Analysis

Both paths prepare script structure, but they serve different moments:

	Story Wizard	Script Analysis (Script Editor)
Best for	New projects; guided first storyboard	Pasting/importing into Script Editor; incremental re-analysis
Entry	Auto on create; AI wizard gutter action	Paste/import prompt; Analyze script gutter action
User choices	Text, style preset, frame count, optional videos	Format + scenes mandatory; optional shot count slider
Images	Generated automatically in Build	Only if you enable Create Shots — images are a separate step afterward
After wizard finished	Do not re-run analysis for the same work	Use when you add substantial new text or want a manual pass

If the wizard already built your story, opening Script Analysis again would duplicate work and can appear stuck on "in progress" because the backend jobs already completed.

After the wizard

Treat the result as a first draft:

• Review scenes and shots on the Board (grid or playground).
• Open Entity Builder to fix character names, outfits, and portraits.
• Hover shots and click Create or Edit to refine prompts and regenerate in Create View.
• Use gutter actions like Analyze script, Find scenes, or Images only for targeted fixes — not to redo the whole wizard pass.

AI Assistant and the wizard

While the wizard Build step runs, the main AI Assistant button may show a progress ring and a small cancel control — that reflects the in-flight wizard operation. Prefer Abort inside the wizard panel to stop the pipeline cleanly.

The Learning center button (lightbulb) above the assistant is separate — it opens tutorials, not wizard progress.

Troubleshooting

• Wizard seems stuck on Build — wait for image generation on large frame counts; if you closed the modal, use Resume wizard.
• Script Editor shows analysis in progress after wizard — the story is already analyzed; close the analysis modal. If it opened from an old paste prompt, dismiss it and continue editing.
• AI wizard is disabled — another AI task may be running, the story may be locked, or you may be on a demo/read-only story.
• Reset confirm when relaunching — expected when the story already has real structure; confirm only if you intend to wipe scenes, shots, and characters for a fresh wizard run.