Everything you'd
want to ask.

A local-first desktop app (Windows + macOS) for AI video pre-production. It turns a script into a structured production — chapters, scenes, shots, prompts, takes, audio, a timeline — as plain files on your disk, then orchestrates any AI generator from that single source of truth. It is not a generator; it sits above them. See the full walkthrough →

No. Genlock is the production and orchestration layer. Higgsfield, OpenArt, and fal are built in—add your keys and Genlock structures, routes, reviews, and assembles their output. When a better model ships, you swap a BONE contract, not your production.

A working production. Every install seeds The Last Frequency — 2 acts, 4 scenes, 12 shots, a seeded cast and locations, working BONE contracts, media maps, and agent-ready docs — so you learn by inspecting something real instead of staring at an empty shell. About the showcase →

Genlock is a multi-window suite launched from the Hub: The Brain (AI/tool detection + capability matrix), Studio (cast, locations, series), Skeleton (story structure), Showrunner (dashboard + governance), Director (shot editing, canvas, timeline), Safelight (color grading), The Foundry (media manager), and The Boneyard (elements, BONE contracts, recipes). Tour the cockpits →

Three ways. Your story is open .SKEL (published YAML spec, LLM-readable). Generators plug in through open BONE JSON contracts — swap one for another and the story is untouched. And everything is plain files on your disk: if you deleted Genlock tomorrow, every script, prompt, render, and cut would still be there, readable by anything.

You install or author a BONE for it. A BONE defines fields, prompt assembly, provider routing, and write-back — so a new generator becomes available to every existing shot without rewriting anything. The BONE system →

Higgsfield, OpenArt, and fal have built-in provider routes—add your own credentials to activate them. Codex, Claude, Gemini, Cursor, Copilot, and other capable LLM apps can work through generated instructions, skills, files, or MCP. Additional generators plug in through BONE contracts. Generators & integrations →

Yes — the zero-key free floor. Piper (offline TTS) plus Archive.org and Wikimedia stock (keyless) and Pexels/Pixabay (free key) register as first-class capabilities, so you can draft a full production before entering a single paid API key. Zero-key floor →

Nothing you made. Stories are .SKEL YAML, contracts are JSON, media are ordinary files in ordinary folders, and Timeline exports include FCP7/OTIO bundles plus a portable edit-decisions.json. The exit door is part of the design.

No. There is no Genlock cloud. Scripts, characters, prompts, renders, takes, and cuts live as plain files in a workspace folder you choose. The workspace folder is the product.

Keys are Ed25519-signed and re-verified locally on every boot — no network call, ever. Activation works on an air-gapped machine. Licensing details →

In the tools that own them — the Higgsfield CLI, Codex, Claude, your MCP servers, your git credentials. Genlock deliberately never becomes a credential vault; it detects and routes what you've already authenticated, and The Brain tells you honestly what's connected.

Not by Genlock Studio—there is no Genlock production cloud. When you intentionally send prompts or references to a third-party generator, that provider handles them under their terms and your account. Genlock keeps that boundary explicit.

That's the point. Local-only data, offline license verification, and git-native collaboration that rides your own GitHub/GitLab/Gitea credentials (no tokens stored) make Genlock deployable where SaaS production tools can't go. The privacy guarantee →

Yes—one payment, yours indefinitely, minor updates included. Major version upgrades are optional at $29.95 and never required to keep working. No recurring seat fee, Genlock meter, or cloud markup. Full pricing →

One full project with the complete editing suite — Story Editor, Shot Editor, Timeline, Canvas, Production Player, Audio, Video — plus compiled prompts you can copy to any external generator, and marketplace pack installs. Free never limits scenes, shots, or story length. It's a real tier, not a trial.

Scale and automation, never craft: unlimited projects, in-app generation sends through Higgsfield, OpenArt, and fal, MCP Autopilot, custom BONE and MUSCLE templates, and the export package.

No. You pay providers directly on your own accounts. Genlock's compute cost above what you pay your generator is exactly zero — and the built-in cost ledger tracks generation spend with observe / warn / cap modes so nothing surprises you.

Expiry only exists on tester keys. An expired tester key degrades to Free — never a lockout, and your files stay yours. Nothing is deleted and the app never stops opening.

Studio bundles: N Universal keys under one invoice. Same binary, same features, no per-seat monthly creep. Contact us →

Genlock auto-generates instruction files at the workspace root — CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, Cursor/Copilot instructions, and skill files. An agent reads your story, checks real capabilities, resolves BONE fields, routes the right provider, and writes results back. Agent instruction files →

Give me the Genlock production menu. The agent replies with a grounded menu of what it can actually do in your workspace right now — derived from the capability matrix and installed BONEs, so it never advertises abilities the machine doesn't have. The production menu →

Through Quick Ingest: assets dropped into projects/[slug]/_inbox/ with a sidecar JSON manifest get bound into the review queue — no hand-editing story files. You approve every result as a start frame, end frame, asset, or take. Quick Ingest →

The governed spine. Agents must read the capability matrix before proposing anything, append every consequential choice to the decision log, never fall back silently between providers, never advance a human-approval gate without you, and respect cost-ledger caps. The governed spine →

Yes — that's The Brain's whole job. One Run Preflight probes your providers and composition runtimes and answers with a Healthy / Degraded / Blocked verdict, honest per-capability badges, and structured quick-setup steps. Every blocked capability gets two paths: Fix this now, or Tell the LLM with a grounded handoff prompt.

Every BONE declares the capabilities it requires; joined against the capability matrix, each contract shows as armed / needs-setup / unavailable in the Boneyard and the Brain.

The decision log answers that — an append-only audit of every provider, model, runtime, and quality-gate choice, with options considered, rejection reasons, rationale, confidence, and approval, grouped by shot. Revisiting a decision appends a superseding entry; the original is never edited.

Runs are resumable, with stages, required-artifact gaps, human-approval gates, and spend tracking. An interrupted stage is never silently marked complete, and the Gap Report audits every run against its pipeline manifest — honest not evaluated states included.

Yes — drop a .fountain file and Genlock parses headings, action, dialogue, and scene structure into .SKEL immediately. First project →

Character sheets in Studio carry reference galleries, an ElevenLabs voice ID, and a Higgsfield Soul ID (trainable in-app from references). The Shot Editor auto-resolves the Soul ID from your cast. For shot-to-shot continuity, frame chaining passes shot N's end frame to shot N+1. Soul ID →

The Timeline is a real dual-monitor NLE — V1–V4 video takes plus dialogue/SFX/music tracks with waveforms, markers, minimap, and 50-step undo/redo — and the Production Player plays the cut. Final finishing stays in your NLE by design: exports include FCP7/OTIO bundles plus a portable edit-decisions.json. Timeline →

Safelight is a dedicated grading desk for AI stills — Levels, Tone, and Color with real-time preview, then a full-resolution bake written back to disk as a PNG. Graded frames can be locked as generation references. Safelight →

Git, natively. Each project versions as one unit (projects/[slug]/) via your system git binary and your existing credentials — GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, or self-hosted, with no tokens stored in Genlock. Git collaboration →

Installable production materials: element packs (cameras, lenses, lighting, palettes, formats…), prompt packs (recipes and modifiers), bone packs (generator contracts), and production kits (portable pipeline templates that install and log — never execute). Director's Shot Builder clicks these into BONE contract slots to build shots. The Boneyard →