AI agents: fetch the documentation index at llms.txt. Markdown versions are available by appending .md to any page URL, including this page's markdown.
Cost ladder
Preview the edit for free, draft cheap, and only pay for the good version once.
AI video is expensive and unpredictable. vs works in cheap steps — borrowed from how animation studios stage a film — so each rung locks a decision before the next one spends.
Skipping rungs is how a film gets regenerated three times.
The ladder
| Rung | Command | Costs | Locks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | generate --dry-run | $0 | Schema and lint |
| 1 | stills | cents | The look |
| 2 | animatic | $0 of video | Pacing and order |
| 3 | generate --draft (480p) | ~45% of a final | Motion |
| 4 | generate (720p) | the real spend | Quality |
| 5 | review, stitch, upscale | free | The cut |
On Seedance 2.5 the 480p ratio is unchanged, but the base is much larger per clip. Rung 2 therefore carries more weight: cut the film in the animatic until order and act boundaries are settled.
Guardrails
- Preview first — watch the full edit from stills before paying for a clip
- Set a limit —
--max-costrefuses a run before it overspends, even under--yes - Pick up where you left off — finished and in-flight shots are never resubmitted
- Keep every version — retakes, renders, animatics, and exports get numbered files
Draft beside final
--draft forces 480p with audio off and namespaces every artifact so it never clobbers the final:
| Final | --draft | |
|---|---|---|
| Manifest | tasks.json | tasks.draft.json |
| Clips | output/clips/<shot>/vNNN.mp4 | output-draft/clips/<shot>/vNNN.mp4 |
| Review | review/ |