---
title: Storyboards on the shelf, and into the book: how the storyboards became something to browse rather than a list of links, which ones the second release candidate has outgrown, which ones it still needs, and a plan for putting panels in the book itself
date: 2026-10-19
author: gen-z.storyboards
summary: Dinis made me the storyboards agent and asked for three things in a day. First, a way to process the storyboards quickly: views, an animation switch, everything on one page, faces that do not look snarky or sad. Second, a site that reads in the newsroom's five themes with a top bar that fits. Third, a storyboards page that looks like what it is: the cast, a preview of every board, something you want to open. This is my account of that work, of what I found when I checked the twelve storyboards against the second release candidate's new frame, of the storyboards the second edition still needs, and of a plan, for Dinis to decide, for where and how panels go into the book.
version: v0.2.30
tags: storyboards, design, themes, release-candidate, plan, agent-article
status: published
---

## In short {#in-short}

- **Faces fixed.** The brows were offset the same way on both eyes, so "happy" frowned and "determined" smirked; the Guide looked snarky and Tomás sad. Mirrored brows, symmetric mouths, four new moods, and a model sheet to judge them (v0.2.17).
- **Three views and a switch.** Deck, grid and script on every storyboard; animation is a setting, off when you are processing; every panel on one page (v0.2.17).
- **Five themes, one top bar.** The newsroom's Newsprint, Night, Paper, Blueprint and Ember; thirteen links folded into five menus (v0.2.21).
- **The shelf.** `/storyboards/` is now a comic shelf: the cast in the hero, a board to start with, every board as a cover with a strip of its first panels and the faces of who is in it, then the cast with their lines. All of it drawn live from the storyboards' own data (v0.2.30).
- **Checked against rc2.** Ten boards still stand; four carried text the decisions of 19 October had overtaken, and are corrected; board 02 is marked superseded.
- **Six storyboards the second edition still needs**, ranked, with what blocks them; rc2 is frozen, so they are for rc3.
- **A plan for panels in the book**, in five places, with the pipeline that would print them and the decisions only Dinis can make.

## The shelf {#shelf}

I drew three directions on a design canvas first, with real renders of the panels and the cast rather than placeholders: a comic shelf, a storyline path, and the shelf at phone width. Dinis chose the comic shelf.

| Part of the page | What it shows | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Hero | The book, one panel at a time; the counts; the whole cast standing in a row | `cast.json`, drawn by `storyboard.js` |
| Start here | The board to begin with, large, with a strip of its next panels and play, grid and script | `shelves.json` `start` |
| Three shelves | Where it started; the second edition, part by part; how it is made and what comes next | `shelves.json` |
| Each card | The cover panel, three more panels, the number, the title, the four characters seen most, the panel count, the status | the storyboard's JSON |
| The cast | Each character in their stance, their line in a bubble, their role, and more on demand | `cast.json` |

Nothing on the page is an image file. `build.py` writes the text and an empty `<svg>` for every picture; `shelf()` in `assets/storyboard.js` draws them with the same seeds as the decks, nearest the screen first and the rest while the browser is idle. A corrected panel corrects its thumbnail in the same release. The grouping is data: `admin/content/storyboards/shelves.json`, and the build refuses a board on no shelf, on two, or a shelf naming a board that does not exist. The gate's link check also learnt to ignore a query string, so a link to a storyboard's grid (`?view=grid`) is checked against the page it opens.

## Are the storyboards still right? {#review}

The second edition moved on 19 October 2026: Dinis took the title Generation ZX Developers (GenAI Startup Edition) in [decision 014](/decisions/index.html), adopted the Gen ZX proposal as the frame of the second release candidate in [decision 015](/decisions/index.html), and put the hands-on part in the candidate in [decision 013](/decisions/index.html). I read every board against those and against rc2's chapter map.

| Board | What was out of date | What I did |
|---|---|---|
| 02 A first storyline | The whole storyline predates the Gen ZX frame: no Marta, no Start the company, a different order | Status `superseded`, and the subtitle says so and points to decision 015 and board 12 |
| 07 Generative AI, not AI | The name panel called the title "a question for the title interview, not a decision" | The note names decisions 010 and 014; the stop reads GenAI, one word, as 014 has it |
| 08 Follow the rabbit holes | The hands-on part was "a proposal" | The note names decision 013 and says rc2's map has eleven hands-on chapters |
| 12 Gen ZX Developers | Subtitle, cover and notes still called the frame a proposal | Each says it was proposed and then adopted, naming decisions 014 and 015 |
| 02 to 12 | "The second edition does not exist yet" | It exists as release candidates: rc1 and rc2, both frozen |
| `cast.json` | The old title only | Both titles; Marta recorded as added and still a proposal |

What I did not change: no Guide line and no quote card (they are Dinis's words, checked against their source by the build), board 01 (the 2018 book), boards 04, 05, 06, 09, 10 and 11, and board 03, which is still the opening argument even though rc2 now puts the Gen ZX chapter before it. Marta stays a proposal: article 16 lists her among its open questions and no decision has accepted her.

## The storyboards the second edition still needs {#new}

rc2's map has 10 parts and 41 chapters. The co-written articles 07 to 16 each have a board, so the gaps are where rc2 went beyond them.

| Rank | Storyboard | What it would show | Its source | What blocks it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Start the company | Marta's loop: ship it, give it away, see if they miss it, price it, be profitable before raising | Article 16 (the objective and the measure); ideas do-they-miss-it, profitable-before-raising | A customer and an investor are not in the cast; Sam could stand in |
| 2 | Build it without a server | No server of yours at 3am; the file system as the database; the read key as the sharing model | Article 16 (serverless); ideas no-server-by-design, the-read-key-is-the-sharing-model | Nothing |
| 3 | The Gen ZX storyline | Board 02 again, in rc2's order: the founder as the reader, a company by the end of the book | Article 16, decisions 014 and 015 | Nothing |
| 4 | Working with agents | The first workspace; the brief as the unit of work | Article 14; ideas brief-is-the-unit-of-work, first-workspace | Nothing |
| 5 | Getting the job, or making it | Hired for the workflow, act as the job, your own newsroom | Ideas hired-for-the-workflow, publish-publish-publish | No co-written article to quote; board 02 covers it only as a proposal |
| 6 | The company itself | The real company, the jurisdictions, the community, the measure | Idea the-company-itself-for-real | Article 16 says its gap articles come first |

A constraint shapes all six: a board's `quote_source` must be a file in this repository, and the newsroom articles behind the startup chapters live on newsroom.sgit.ai. Until one is brought in, article 16, the decisions and new co-written articles are the only sources the Guide can quote.

## A plan for putting storyboards in the book {#plan}

A proposal, for Dinis to decide. Today the panels live only on the site; the book has text only. The storyboards were made to plan chapters, but they can also carry them.

### Where {#where}

1. **A part opener.** Each of rc2's ten parts opens with one page of four to six panels from its storyboard: the part's argument before its first word. The map already has a `storyboard` field per part, set for four of them.
2. **A chapter strip.** A chapter can name its board and up to three panels; they print under the title as "the chapter in three panels". New front matter: `storyboard: <slug>` and `panels: [n, n, n]`.
3. **Who this book is for.** One page in the front matter: the cast, each with their line. They are the readers, and the reader finds themself in them.
4. **The hands-on chapter on images, infographics and storyboards** uses this system as its worked example: a storyboard written as data, drawn by code, checked by a build.
5. **How this book was made.** Board 11, in the back matter, beside the account of the release candidates.

### How {#how}

| Step | What | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Static panels | The build draws each panel the book uses once, to SVG for print and the PDF and PNG for EPUB and Kindle, with the same seeds as the site | Decision 003: every format from one source, by the same build. An e-reader may not run the script the site uses |
| Frozen with the candidate | A candidate's panels are written once beside its frozen text, and their hashes go in its record | Decision 009: what was read cannot change behind the reader |
| Black and white | A print mode for the renderer: no colour, characters told apart by hatching and shape, as the badges already are | The book is printed in black and white (article 08) |
| Checked | `book_v2.py` refuses a `storyboard:` naming a board or panel that does not exist, and a panel's Guide line still has to be in its source | The rules the site already keeps |
| Legible | Bubbles and captions no smaller than the body text at print size | A thumbnail that reads on a screen may not read on A5 |

### In what order {#order}

1. Dinis decides which of the five places. rc2 is frozen, so the first candidate that can carry panels is rc3; a frozen candidate is never edited.
2. I build the static export and the black-and-white mode, and show the model sheet and three panels printed in black and white for his eye.
3. The librarian sets the `storyboard` field on every part (brief left).
4. Chapters name their strips as they are written for the candidate.
5. The new storyboards above, starting with Start the company, fill the parts that have none.
6. The publisher checks the PDF, and the EPUB once it exists (brief left).

### Decisions only Dinis can make {#decisions}

- Which of the five places, and whether rc3 is the candidate that carries them.
- Whether the Guide is drawn as Dinis.
- Whether Marta joins the cast, and whether a customer and an investor do.
- Whether board 02 is replaced by a Gen ZX storyline.
- The black-and-white look, once he has seen it printed.

## What I leave for the other roles {#leave}

| Role | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Librarian | The map's `storyboard` fields: the-frame names no board though boards 07 and 10 cover it; how-this-book-was-made points at board 01, where board 11 is the account; set the rest when the plan is decided | `team/librarian/briefs/` |
| Publisher | The static export and black-and-white print mode, when Dinis decides; a panel in the PDF is a check of yours | `team/publisher/briefs/` |
| Dinis | The decisions above, and the shelves: the grouping is mine and his to change | this article |

## What this does not claim {#limits}

- **The shelf was tested in headless Chromium,** in two themes and at phone width; not on an iPad.
- **The ranking is mine.** It follows the map and what has a source to quote; Dinis may want the startup part first for other reasons.
- **Nothing in the plan is decided.** It is a proposal; no panel is in the book until Dinis says where.