Targeted One-Line Fixes¶
The lightest-weight change of all. You're fixing one specific thing in one workflow — a single scene's prompt, a typo, a per-account dialogue swap — without making a whole new variant.
When you'd do this¶
| Situation | Lvl 1 / Lvl 2 variant? | Surgical edit? |
|---|---|---|
| Rewrite 20%+ of the dialogue | Lvl 1 | — |
| Update wardrobe across all scenes | Lvl 2 | — |
| Fix one specific scene's image prompt | — | Yes |
| Correct a typo in one dialogue line | — | Yes |
| Swap a single per-account customization | — | Yes |
| Update the avatar reference URL after re-uploading | — | Yes |
Rule of thumb: if the change is a single targeted fix, it's surgical. If it's a coherent change applied across the workflow, it's a variant.
What you do¶
in XYZG3-V1, Scene 03's image prompt has the avatar in a blue shirt but the rest of the workflow has them in white. Fix just Scene 03 to match.
Surgical edit on Scene 03 image prompt:
Before: "white linen shirt" → "blue cotton t-shirt" After: "white linen shirt" → "white linen shirt" (matches rest)
Editing the Scene 03 image scene spec in tab Account A only. Bumping V0-N counter — V1 → V1-1? Or do you want to keep V1?
Surgical edits still bump the version if the workflow is at V0-N (testing) — every meaningful change archives the previous version. If the workflow is at V1+ (approved), a surgical edit can stay in place if you choose, or you can bump.
When a surgical edit needs a version bump¶
Always bump if:
- The edit changes anything the Generation Runner will read on its next pass (prompts, references, schema)
- The edit might affect multiple downstream nodes (e.g., a reference image swap touches every scene using that ref)
- You want an audit trail of what changed when
You can skip the bump if:
- You're correcting a metadata-only field (description in the version registry, comment in a JSON file)
- The change has zero generation impact
- You're recovering a temporarily-broken state to its prior known-good state
When in doubt, bump. The cost is one file in backups/ — well worth the audit trail.
How surgical edits differ from a Lvl ½ variant¶
The biggest practical difference: surgical edits don't go through the Script Writer or other prompt-writing agents. The Manager edits the file directly — usually by reading the existing prompt, applying your targeted change, and writing it back.
| Variant (Lvl 1 / Lvl 2) | Surgical edit |
|---|---|
| Goes through the Script Writer / Image Prompter | Manager edits the file directly |
Produces a new workflow file (decimal bump in approved/) |
Edits the existing workflow (V0-N bump or stay-in-place) |
| Coherent change pattern | Targeted, single-point fix |
| Auto-approved (Lvl ½ only) | Auto-applied — your call whether to bump version |
Per-account dialogue tweaks¶
Common case: a Lvl 1 variant rewrites canonical dialogue across all tabs, but one tab needs a small per-account persona swap. That's a surgical edit on top of the variant.
the Lvl 1 variant landed on XYZS1-V1-1 but Account B's row 3 should say "for one of my patients" instead of "for my mom" (that's Account B's persona).
[edits row 3 of Account B's dialogue dynamic node, saves]
The fan-out script's transforms can do this automatically as a post-variant pass. For one-off cases, manual is fine.
Example session — fixing a broken reference¶
I just re-uploaded Account D's avatar reference sheet to R2 with a corrected face crop. The new R2 URL is https://pub-xyz.r2.dev/ accountD-v2.png. Update XYZG3-V1 to use the new URL.
Updating the Avatar Media node in Account D's tab of XYZG3-V1.
Before: imageData = "https://pub-xyz.r2.dev/accountD-v1.png" After: imageData = "https://pub-xyz.r2.dev/accountD-v2.png"
Bumping V1 → V1-1 (workflow is in approved/, so the bump pattern matches Lvl ½). Old file moved to backups/.
Avatar ref URL also recorded in reference/avatar-sheets/r2-urls.md for future workflows.
Ready to regenerate Account D's scenes with the new reference.
What NOT to do surgically¶
Avoid using surgical edits for changes that should be a variant:
- A new wardrobe direction across all scenes → that's a Lvl 2 variant
- A rewrite of multiple dialogue lines → that's a Lvl 1 variant
- An environment change → that's a Lvl 3 variant (testing phase)
Surgical edits are for targeted, isolated fixes. If you find yourself making "one surgical edit" across 8 scenes, stop — it's a variant, not a surgical edit.
When you're ready¶
→ Next: Translating a Workflow — taking an English workflow and producing the Spanish version, or vice versa. Script Writer Mode 2.