HyperFrames Core

SkillMedia

The HyperFrames composition contract — build one renderable project. Use for composition structure, the `data-*` timing attributes, `class=\"clip\"`, tracks, sub-compositions, variables, framework-owned media playback, deterministic-render rules, and validation. Read before writing composition HTML.

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What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by sma1lboy/rove in .claude/skills/hyperframes/core/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

HyperFrames renders video from HTML. A composition is an HTML file whose DOM declares timing with data-* attributes, whose animation runtime is seekable, and whose media playback is owned by the framework.

This is the composition contract — how to build one hyperframes project. The body below is the build guide; per-topic detail lives in references/ (index next), read on demand. Other concerns live in sibling sections of the same skill — ../cli (dev loop) and ../registry (install blocks / components) — and in the sibling design skills, /hyperframes-motion (animation recipes) and /hyperframes-design (palettes, typography, frame presets). The capability map in ../SKILL.md says what each one covers.

References

FileRead it to…
references/minimal-composition.mdstart from the smallest renderable composition skeleton
references/composition-patterns.mdchoose monolithic vs modular; structure a modular index.html; pick a sub-comp archetype
references/data-attributes.mdlook up any data-* (root / clip / sub-comp host / legacy aliases); use class="clip"
references/tracks-and-clips.mdpick data-track-index, handle same-track overlap / z-index, time a clip relative to another
references/sub-compositions.mdwire a sub-composition (host attrs, <template>, per-instance vars) and animate inside it
references/variables-and-media.mddeclare variables; place <video> for visual-only playback
references/determinism-rules.mdbuild a seekable timeline; determinism bans; the animatable-property allowlist; layout / text fit
references/full-screen-motion.mdauthor full-frame motion with shared backgrounds
references/storyboard-format.mdauthor a STORYBOARD.md plan (+ the parsed manifest)
references/subagent-dispatch.mdmap subagent dispatch verbs (parallel fan-out / background / wait) to your harness
references/tailwind.mdwork in a Tailwind v4 project (init --tailwind; runtime contract differs from Studio's v3)

For animation runtime specifics (GSAP API, Lottie, Three.js, etc.) go to /hyperframes-motionadapters/<runtime>.md.

Building a composition

Two root forms (not interchangeable)

  • Standalone (top-level index.html) — root <div data-composition-id="…"> sits directly in <body>, no <template> wrapper (wrapping it hides all content and breaks rendering).
  • Sub-composition (loaded via data-composition-src) — root must be wrapped in <template>.

⚠ Transport rule: the runtime only clones <template> contents; everything outside (incl. <head> styles/scripts) is discarded — put <style>/<script> inside the template. ⚠ Host-id rule: the host slot's data-composition-id must exactly equal the inner template's data-composition-id and the window.__timelines["<id>"] key — no -mount/-slot/-host suffix.

File shape, host wiring, and the pre-render checklist → references/sub-compositions.md.

Root must be sized (silent layout bug)

The standalone root needs an explicit sized box (width/height in px), and every ancestor down to a height:100% element must have a resolved height — otherwise a flex/100% child collapses to ~0 and content piles into the top-left corner. lint/validate/inspect do not catch this. Skeleton → references/minimal-composition.md.

One paused timeline

Each composition registers exactly one gsap.timeline({ paused: true }) at window.__timelines["<id>"] (key = root data-composition-id), built synchronously at page load. Render duration = root data-duration, not timeline length. Don't manually nest sub-timelines into the host. Full contract (incl. non-GSAP runtimes) → references/determinism-rules.md + /hyperframes-motion/adapters/.

Non-negotiable rules (silent bugs lint/validate/inspect won't catch)

Surfaced here; full rationale in the linked reference. Do not violate:

  • No render-time clocks / unseeded Math.random / network / input-state; no repeat: -1 (use a finite count). → determinism-rules.md
  • Animate only the visual-property allowlist; never display/visibility; no gsap.set on later-scene clips. → determinism-rules.md
  • No <br> in body text; transformed elements must be block-level + sized; pulsing absolute decoratives need peak clearance. → determinism-rules.md
  • <video> must be a direct child of the host root (never inside a sub-comp <template>/wrapper); the framework owns playback. → variables-and-media.md
  • Every id must be unique across the assembled page; inside a sub-comp, prefix ids with the composition id (#<id>-hero). Duplicate <video>/<img> ids render blank — the producer injects frames by getElementById, and cross-file dupes slip past lint. → composition-patterns.md
  • A full-screen scene fill goes on a full-bleed child (position:absolute; inset:0), never on the composition root itself — the producer's frame compositing can drop the root element's own background (the frame renders black) even though preview/snapshot show it correctly. → composition-patterns.md

Editing existing compositions

  • Read the files first. Preserve unrelated timing, tracks, IDs, variables, media paths.
  • Match existing composition IDs and timeline keys.
  • Adding a clip: pick a non-overlapping data-track-index or adjust surrounding timing intentionally.
  • Adding a sub-composition: verify its internal data-composition-id before wiring the host.

Validation

Run the CLI gate (see ../cli/SKILL.mdWorkflow + Minimum Completion Gate for the canonical lint / validate / inspect / snapshot / preview / render checklist, including the visual smoke test required for sub-composition projects).

Signals

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Sep 2026
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skill
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hyperframes-core-sma1lboy
Source
github.com/sma1lboy/rove