Templates

When you click New Project in PatchWork, you see a template chooser. These are pre-built workflow shapes — starting points that save you from wiring everything from scratch.

The built-in templates

Template	Shape	Use when
Blank Canvas	Empty	You want to build everything by hand or paste a full .nbflow
Image Generation	Prompt → Generate → Preview	One-off image gen test
Image + Approval	Generate → Approve → Refine → Preview	You want approval gates in the loop
Video Pipeline	Image → Approve → Video → Preview	Standard image-then-video flow (closest to our pipeline's pattern)
Character Consistency	Character + Scene prompts with reference image	Building avatar-based workflows from scratch

When to use each

Blank Canvas

You know exactly what you're building. You're pasting a .nbflow, or you want to construct a non-standard graph that doesn't fit any template.

Image Generation

You want to generate a few images with different prompts and pick the best one. No need for downstream video.

Image + Approval

Same as Image Generation, but you want explicit approval gates between candidates and downstream consumers. Useful when iterating.

Video Pipeline

The canonical short-form video pattern — generate a still, pick the best one, animate it into video. Our pipeline produces workflows that follow this shape (just with more scenes wired together).

Character Consistency

You're building an avatar-driven workflow. Has the character reference Media node pre-wired and ready for you to upload the 3-panel reference photo.

Templates vs. our pipeline

Our pipeline (Manager + Script Writer + Visual Planner + PatchWork Importer) produces a .nbflow from scratch based on your brief. The templates here are for cases where the pipeline isn't a fit:

• You want to learn PatchWork's mechanics by building manually
• You're prototyping a new workflow type
• You have a specific creative idea that doesn't map to the pipeline's standard structure

For everyday production work, don't use templates — let the pipeline build a complete workflow.

Saving your own custom templates

If you find yourself rebuilding the same workflow shape repeatedly, you can save it as a custom template:

1. Build the workflow on the canvas
2. Strip out any production-specific content (prompts, reference images) — leave just the node structure
3. File → Save as Template (or similar; depends on PatchWork version)
4. Name and describe it
5. Next time you click New Project, your saved template appears in the chooser

This is useful for teams with a specific in-house workflow pattern (e.g., "our 5-scene PiP recipe template") that doesn't match the built-in shapes.

When you're ready

→ Next: Video Editor & AI Label Trick — PatchWork's in-app timeline for stitching clips, plus the AI Label Trick for TikTok.