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Asset Management

PatchWork's Assets section is where you organize reference images, products, avatar refs, and any other media you want to reuse across workflows.

Open: Left sidebar → RESOURCES → Assets.

What goes in Assets

Asset type Examples
Avatar reference sheets The 3-panel face-lock photos per account
Product photos Branded product hero shots, transparent background versions
Setting / location references A specific kitchen, bathroom, car interior you want to recreate consistently
Logo / branding If a workflow needs a brand mark visible
Saved generation outputs Images you generated in Studio that you want to reuse as references
Misc media Anything else you'll wire into multiple workflows

How Assets help

Without Assets:

  • You upload an avatar reference photo each time you start a new workflow
  • Different workflows end up with slightly different versions of the same reference
  • No way to know which workflows use which reference

With Assets:

  • One canonical version per reference, stored on R2 with a stable URL
  • Every workflow references the same Asset by ID — they all point at the same R2 file
  • Updates to an Asset propagate (with caveats — see Versioning the avatar reference)

How to add an Asset

  1. Open Assets
  2. Upload button — pick local files (images, MP4s, etc.)
  3. PatchWork uploads to R2 via the Worker proxy (no credentials needed on your end)
  4. Asset appears in the library with a thumbnail, name, and tags

The R2 URL is auto-assigned. You can copy it from the Asset's properties panel if you need it for a .nbflow patch or an external reference.

Tagging and organization

Assets can have:

  • Name — what the asset is (e.g. "Account-A avatar ref v2")
  • Tags — categorize by purpose (e.g. avatar, account-a, v2)
  • Project links — which workflows use this asset
  • Notes — context for future you / your team

Tag aggressively. With 50+ assets, finding the right one without tags is a chore.

Asset versioning

When you upload a refined version of an existing asset:

Replace in place (same URL)
The asset slot stays the same; the file at the R2 URL is overwritten. Risk: workflows that cached the old version may behave inconsistently.
Upload as a new version
New R2 URL with a suffix (account-a-v2.png etc.). Old version stays accessible. Newer workflows use the new URL; older workflows keep working with the old.

Default to new version with suffix unless you're 100% sure no workflow needs the old.

Asset library hygiene

Some habits that keep the library usable:

  • Delete obvious junk — failed uploads, test images, one-off references you'll never reuse
  • Rename right after upload — "IMG_2847.jpg" tells you nothing six months later
  • Tag every avatar reference with the account code and version
  • Note which workflow first used each asset — helpful for finding "the one for that magnesium video"

Sharing assets across the team

PatchWork's local Asset library is browser-local. To share across the team:

  • Upload to a shared R2 bucket (PatchWork's default is a personal bucket; switching is configured in Settings)
  • Use the R2 URL directly in workflows — anyone with the URL can use the asset
  • Record canonical asset URLs in a shared doc (e.g. reference/avatar-sheets/r2-urls.md in our repo)

When you're ready

→ Next: Generation Studio — ad-hoc image / video gens without building a full workflow.