Ppro bridge

Premiere Pro Agent Bridge (v0.2)

Control a live Premiere Pro session via CLI. Architecture: python ppro.py <action> → local broker (127.0.0.1:8017) → UXP panel inside Premiere. Every command prints one JSON object; exit code 0 = success.

Working directory for all commands: the cli/ folder of this repository.

Preconditions (check before anything else)

Run python ppro.py ping. If it fails: the broker isn't running (python broker.py in broker/, separate terminal, keep open) or the panel isn't loaded (UXP Developer Tool → Load; Premiere: Window → UXP Plugins → Agent Bridge). Report the failure instead of retrying blindly. transcribe.py works without Premiere.

Commands

Command	Purpose
python ppro.py ping	Liveness check
python ppro.py get_project / get_sequence	Active project / sequence info
python ppro.py list_transcripts	Every project clip + hasTranscript flag
python ppro.py export_transcript --output f.json [--item "name"]	Export a clip's Premiere transcript
python transcribe.py <media file> --output f.json [--language en] [--model large-v3] [--digest]	LOCAL Whisper transcription → Adobe-format JSON. GPU auto-detected; on CPU use --model medium
python transcript_digest.py f.json [--json] [--min-conf 0.8]	Transcript → sentence list with timecodes
python ppro.py import_transcript --item "name" --file f.json	Attach a transcript JSON to a clip in Premiere (optional; digest works without it)
python ppro.py export_otio --output f.otio	Timeline structure as OpenTimelineIO (includes each clip's source media path)
python ppro.py export_frame --dir d [--at sec] [--width 640] [--height 360]	One frame of the program output; real path in resolvedPath
python ppro.py import_media --path f [--path f2 ...]	Import media into project root
python ppro.py insert_clip --item "name" [--at sec] [--vtrack N] [--atrack N] [--mode overwrite|insert] [--in sec --out sec] [--label "text"]	Place a clip — with --in/--out, only that source range ("cut by sentence")

Track indices are 0-based (0 = V1). --mode overwrite (default) replaces what's under it; insert pushes content rightward. --in/--out come as a pair, in SOURCE seconds. Always pass --label describing the edit intent — it becomes the user's undo-history entry.

Getting a transcript (Whisper-first)

Preferred path — run local Whisper yourself; do not wait for Premiere:

1. Find the source file path: from the user, or from export_otio (each clip records its media path), or get_project context.
2. python transcribe.py "<path>" --output tr.json --language en (use zh for Chinese; omit --language to auto-detect). First run downloads model weights.
3. Whisper confidence values are REAL — --min-conf 0.8 on the digest is a valid quality filter.

Premiere-native transcripts (via export_transcript) are also fine when they already exist, but their confidence field is placeholder 1.0 — judge quality from the text. A transcript exporting ~170 bytes with words: [] and language und-zz is an empty placeholder: treat as "no transcript".

The three layers and their coordinate systems

1. Semantic — transcript digest: sentences with speaker/start/end in SOURCE-CLIP seconds.
2. Structure — OTIO export: which source file each timeline clip uses, its source range, its sequence position.
3. Perception — export_frame renders the program output (all tracks composited); --at is SEQUENCE seconds.

Conversion: sequence_time = clip_position + (source_time − source_range_start). The two systems coincide only while a full clip sits at position 0 — never rely on this after the first cut. One source sentence maps to multiple sequence positions if the clip is used more than once: convert per clip instance via OTIO, never a global lookup.

Raw shoot footage: take selection (common case)

Talking-head raw footage (interviews, pieces-to-camera) contains direction chatter and retakes. In the digest, expect and classify:

• Direction/setup: crew talk that is not part of the piece — framing and positioning instructions, readiness checks, count-ins, prompt/notes handling.
• False starts / broken takes: a passage that stops abruptly, followed by direction, followed by the SAME passage again.
• Clean takes: the repeated passage's complete, uninterrupted version — usually the LAST occurrence.

Rules: cut all direction chatter; for repeated passages keep exactly one take, preferring the last complete one (earlier takes exist because they failed); when unsure which take is cleaner, export a frame from each and compare, or ask.

Transcript-driven rough cut: standard workflow

1. Obtain digest (Whisper-first, above). Read ALL sentences before deciding.
2. Make every content decision in text first: classify takes, pick sentences, order them, compute total runtime against the user's target.
3. Merge digest lines that are one spoken sentence split across rows (contiguous timestamps, text flows on) — cut at real sentence boundaries, not row breaks.
4. Place cuts one sentence-run at a time: insert_clip --in <start> --out <end> --at <running position> --label "<short intent>". Add ~0.15 s breathing room at boundaries; prefer cutting in pauses. Treat timestamps as ±0.2 s.
5. Verify sparsely: export_frame --at at 1–3 cut points (mid-grimace faces, clipped gestures), not every frame.
6. Report: chosen sentences with timecodes, skipped material and why, total runtime, undo labels used.

Discipline and limits

• NEVER edit without a digest or explicit user timecodes — no blind cutting.
• Proper nouns from ASR are unreliable (names and places are frequently misspelled). Fine for cut decisions; NEVER copy transcript spelling into captions or on-screen text without verification.
• Speed-remapped clips break the coordinate formula — unsupported; stop and say so.
• Duplicate clip names resolve to the first match; if ambiguous, ask.
• Every write lands in Undo history under your --label; range placements are three labelled steps ([1/3]…) — say so when reporting.
• Do not run write operations on production projects without explicit user confirmation; prefer test projects or copies.
• If a command errors with a [step name] prefix, report the step verbatim.
• You cannot trigger Premiere's own Speech-to-Text; you don't need to — use transcribe.py.