Premiere story folder and project bins

After you open a story in the Ciaro Pro panel, the first action is Choose folder. That folder is the story root. Ciaro does not create an extra project-name folder inside it.

You need an open Premiere project before assets can be imported into bins.

After a folder is connected, the story screen shows a Sync card that links the Ciaro sequence to the active Premiere sequence and summarizes asset sync. Sequence sync is explicit push/pull — you choose when to send with Update Premiere or Update Ciaro. It is not a live automatic two-way merge.

Sync card

The Sync card shows, top to bottom:

1. The title Sync, a coloured status dot with a label, and Check again.
2. A pairing line naming both sides: Ciaro <sequence name> ↔ Premiere <sequence name>, plus Last synced with a relative time when known.
3. Two direction buttons: Update Premiere (Ciaro → Premiere) and Update Ciaro (Premiere → Ciaro). When the Premiere sequence is not linked yet they read Create in Premiere and Save to Ciaro. When no sequence is open in Premiere, only Create in Premiere is available. When the status is Premiere sequence missing, Create in Premiere stays available and Update Ciaro is disabled until a paired Premiere sequence is open. Exactly one button is highlighted when there is a safe recommended direction. When the status is In sync, neither is highlighted. An impossible action is disabled with a tooltip (for example Update Ciaro when no sequence is open). A hint line under the buttons explains the current state. While a sync runs, all controls disable and the clicked button shows a spinner.
4. Below a divider, an Assets row with a file count in Premiere bins, Resync, and Disconnect folder.

Status labels

Status	Hint
Checking…	Reading the Premiere sequence and the Ciaro sequence.
In sync	Both sides match. Sending again is safe and changes nothing.
Ciaro is newer	Ciaro has changes this Premiere sequence has not received yet.
Not linked yet	This Premiere sequence is not linked to a Ciaro sequence yet.
Premiere sequence missing	This Ciaro sequence was paired with a Premiere sequence that is not in this project. Use Create in Premiere to rebuild it from Ciaro.
No sequence open	Open a sequence in Premiere to send it to Ciaro.
Linked elsewhere	This Premiere sequence is linked to a different Ciaro sequence. Sending to Ciaro updates that one, not the open sequence.
Linked to another project	This Premiere sequence is linked to a different Ciaro project. Sending to Ciaro writes to that project.
Needs a decision	Ciaro and Premiere changed the same clips. Choose which version to keep.
No Premiere project	Open a Premiere project to sync this Ciaro sequence.
Status unknown	Could not read the current sync state. Use Check again.

Conflict handling

When Ciaro and Premiere both changed the same clips, the direction buttons are replaced by a conflict block with Keep Ciaro, Keep Premiere, Keep both, and Decide later. Keep both saves the Premiere sequence as a new Ciaro sequence and changes nothing else.

Confirmations

• Disconnect folder opens Disconnect project folder? Confirm with Disconnect to stop tracking the folder, clear loaded assets from the panel, and leave files already on disk and already imported into Premiere bins untouched. You can choose a folder again later.
• Update Ciaro asks for confirmation when the open Premiere sequence is linked to a different Ciaro project (Send to a different Ciaro project?) or a different Ciaro sequence (Send to a different Ciaro sequence?) than the one shown in the panel. Confirm with Send anyway to proceed.
• Create in Premiere when the paired Premiere sequence is missing opens “{edit label}” is missing. The body explains that Premiere cannot restore the stored sequence file in this host and asks whether to create a new sequence from the Ciaro cut; Premiere-only effects from the old sequence will not come back. Choose Cancel or Create sequence.
• Create in Premiere when the active Ciaro sequence has no clips opens an in-panel overlay “{edit label}” has no clips (for example “Main Edit” has no clips). The body explains that this Ciaro sequence is empty, so Premiere would get an empty sequence. If the cut lives in another Ciaro sequence, make that one active in Ciaro’s Video tab, then try Create in Premiere again. The overlay may also show Also in this project: {other edit labels} (clip counts only when the list API provides them; often labels only). Choose Cancel (default) or Create empty sequence. The panel uses only the active Ciaro sequence; it does not switch sequences for you.

Limitations

The card compares the Ciaro revision to the revision this Premiere sequence last received. It cannot detect unsynced Premiere-side clip edits on its own, and it does not auto-refresh when you switch the active sequence in Premiere — select Check again.

Folder layout

The first sync creates:

• assets/images/
• assets/videos/
• assets/audios/
• assets/characters/<character name>/
• assets/props/<prop name>/
• assets/backgrounds/<background name>/
• assets/local/
• .ciaro-sync.json

Character, prop, and background stills go in those named entity folders. Other images, videos, and audio go in images, videos, and audios.

Only Premiere-friendly formats are imported. Unsupported formats are skipped and counted in the sync status.

How asset sync behaves

• Assets download from Ciaro’s CDN URLs into the chosen folder.
• The manifest .ciaro-sync.json stores each asset’s stable id, revision, local path, and fingerprints.
• If a matching file is already there, sync adopts it instead of downloading a duplicate.
• If the remote file changed or you edited the local file, sync leaves the local file intact. It records a conflict or a staged local change. There is no silent overwrite.
• Local edits are not published back to Ciaro from the panel. That replace / create-new / ignore publish flow is not shipping yet.

Status text in the panel summarizes downloads, files already present, Ciaro updates kept safe, staged local changes, and skipped formats.

Premiere bins

Synced files are imported into the active Premiere project under a Ciaro Pro bin tree that mirrors the assets/… folders. Files already in the project are not imported again.

Assets row

The Assets row at the bottom of the Sync card shows how many files are in Premiere bins (for example 12 files in Premiere bins, or Folder connected · nothing synced yet when empty). Resync downloads any missing Ciaro assets and imports them into Premiere bins. While a resync runs, the button reads Syncing… and the row controls are disabled.

Disconnect folder

In the Sync card Assets row, Disconnect folder opens the confirmation dialog above. Confirm with Disconnect to clear the folder link, the manifest, and loaded panel assets. Files already on disk and already imported into Premiere bins are left alone.

Open Ciaro from the story

The story ••• menu includes Open Ciaro Pro, Rename story, and Log out. Rename updates the project name in Ciaro.

Related

• Ciaro Pro for Premiere
• Developer Tools (API / Webhooks)
• Integrations
• Exporting Your Video Timeline (EDL / XML)
• Image & Video