Chapter 3 — Lvl 1-2 Variants

Once a workflow has shipped (it's at V1), you'll often want a variation of it — same structure, different dialogue. Same composition, different wardrobe. These are Lvl 1 and Lvl 2 variants: low-risk, auto-approved.

Chapter at a glance

flowchart TD
    A[Variant<br/>concept] --> B[Lvl 1<br/>dialogue swap]
    A --> C[Lvl 2<br/>wardrobe + styling]
    B --> D[Drive variants<br/>from a Sheet]
    C --> D
    D --> E[Targeted<br/>one-line fixes]
    E --> F[Translate]
    E --> G[Adapt an<br/>existing script]

Low-risk variants applied to an already-shipped workflow.

What you'll learn

• What a variant is and why we make them
• The four variant levels at a glance (you'll do Lvl 1 and 2 in this chapter; Lvl 3-4 come in Chapter 6)
• How to ask Claude to make a Lvl 1 dialogue swap
• How to ask Claude to make a Lvl 2 wardrobe / styling change
• How to drive Lvl ½ variants from a Google Sheet — usually faster than per-variant file patches
• How surgical edits differ from a variant (a one-line fix doesn't need a full variant)
• How to translate a workflow to another language
• How to adapt an existing script (someone else's hook, your structure)
• The version-naming rules for Lvl 1 and Lvl 2 (decimal bumps, auto-approved)
• Where the new files end up and what the version registry looks like

Before this chapter

Read Chapter 2 — Generate a Workflow. You need to have run a workflow before creating variants of one.

Sections

1. Variants and versioning — concept intro + the 4 levels + version system
2. Lvl 1: dialogue swap — the lightest variant
3. Lvl 2: wardrobe / styling change — Lvl 1 + visual tweaks
4. Driving variants from a Google Sheet — the faster way for Lvl ½ work
5. Targeted one-line fixes — targeted single-point fixes (lighter than a variant)
6. Translating a workflow — Script Writer Mode 2
7. Adapting an existing script — Script Writer Mode 1

Try this

Take the workflow you ran in Chapter 2 and make a Lvl 1 dialogue variant of it.

Steps:

1. Tell Claude: "Make a Lvl 1 dialogue variant of <workflow-version>.nbflow — swap 10-20 words per line for natural phrasing variation." (Lvl 1: dialogue swap)
2. Claude saves a new .nbflow under approved/ with the next decimal suffix (e.g. V1 → V1-1) and updates the version registry (Variants and versioning)
3. Run the new workflow file using what you learned in Chapter 2
4. Compare the candidate set against the original — what changed, what stayed the same

Optional next move: ask Claude to make a Lvl 2 wardrobe variation of the same workflow (Lvl 2: wardrobe swap) and observe how only the wardrobe prompts changed, not dialogue.

If you hit:

• The new file went to testing/ instead of approved/ → you've accidentally asked for a Lvl 3 or 4. Re-read Variants and versioning for the level boundaries
• The new dialogue lost a per-account persona pivot (e.g. "for my mom" got reverted) → re-read Adapting an existing script; Lvl 1 must re-apply per-account customizations after the canonical rewrite
• A scene's prompt looked different from the original but you only asked for dialogue → tell Claude only properties.text on dialogue nodes should change; report the scope drift
• A surgical edit would have been enough (single line fix) → see Targeted one-line fixes

When you're ready

→ Next: Chapter 4 — PatchWork as a Creative Tool. Now that you've run a workflow and made a variant, you'll start using PatchWork's other creative features — the asset library, the in-app video editor, generation studio, templates.