Images, GIFs and footage

Status: Planned — not available in v0.2.0

Current limitation

EffectCraft's --values flag does not replace media (images, videos, GIFs). It only drives text, slider, and checkbox controls.

Media replacement requires EffectCraft's pipeline mode (essential.set), which is a different code path not yet exposed via CLI in a way lakreet-swarm can use.

What works today

• Media validation: lakreet-swarm checks that media file paths exist (via CSV column or --media-dir)
• Media references in template: manifest lists media placeholders
• Static media: Footage/images baked into the template render as-is

What doesn't work

Feature	Status
Swap image per row (e.g., different logo per video)	❌ Not supported
Swap footage per row (e.g., different background video)	❌ Not supported
Swap GIF per row	❌ Not supported
Dynamic media via CSV column	❌ Not supported

Workarounds

1. Multiple templates — One template per media variant, render separately
2. Post-process — Render with placeholder, replace media in post (ffmpeg, etc.)
3. Single template, no media swap — Use static media only

Planned

Track progress: GitHub Issue #XXX (to be created)

Planned approach:

1. Add essential.set support to effectcraft-cli (upstream)
2. Extend lakreet-swarm to use pipeline mode for media rows
3. Add media control type with file path validation

Next steps

• Templates concept — media in manifest
• Control types reference — planned media type
• GitHub Issues — watch for updates