data-* timing attributes and a GSAP timeline, so every edit you’d make in a non-linear editor maps to a specific, inspectable change in the source. You don’t re-specify the video; you name the edit the way you’d say it to a human editor, and the agent makes the smallest change that does it.
This page maps the editor verbs to the prompts that land them. The examples name elements from a typical composition — swap the noun (“the lower third”, “scene 2”) for whatever yours is called. Two habits from Iterating apply to every one of them, so keep them in mind: change one thing per render, and state targets as absolute values (“scene 2 = 2 seconds”, not “a bit shorter”) so the agent lands it in a single pass instead of oscillating.
The verb → edit map
Every timeline verb resolves to adata-* attribute or an inline style. This is what each one touches under the hood — useful to know because it’s why absolute targets work and why some edits are cheap:
| You say | Editor verb | What the agent edits |
|---|---|---|
| ”start scene 2 later / earlier” | Move | data-start |
| ”put the captions on top of the video” | Restack | data-track-index + inline z-index |
| ”end the logo sooner” | Trim (right) | data-duration |
| ”skip the first second of the clip” | Trim (front, media only) | data-media-start / data-playback-start |
| ”make scene 2 two seconds long” | Retime | data-duration (and the GSAP timeline length) |
| “the audio bed is too loud” | Level | data-volume |
The mental model the Studio timeline uses: move changes when a clip starts, right trim changes when it ends, and front trim only exists for media clips — a
<video> or <audio> can skip into its own content, but a GSAP-driven <div> can’t start halfway through its animation. See Timeline editing for the full clip-type breakdown. One more surface the map can’t show: retiming a scene that spans the whole composition also needs the root’s data-duration bumped — the root governs total length, so a longer child never renders past it.Trim, move, and restack
These are the pure-timing edits — no visual change, just when and where a layer lives on the timeline.Trim the intro so it ends at 0:03 instead of 0:05.
Move the lower third to start at 0:06.
The captions are rendering behind the video — put them on a higher track so they sit on top.Bound moves by the composition’s length — a 4-second clip moved to 0:08 in a 10-second video barely appears before the end. And absolute targets matter most here: “make the intro shorter” invites a guess; “the intro should end at 3.0s” is a single
data-duration write with nothing to overshoot.
- ❌
tighten up the opening - ✅
intro clip duration = 3s; leave its animation and position alone— one attribute, and the freeze clause stops a rebuild from drifting on axes you’d already settled
Split a scene
The Studio timeline exposes move and trim as drag gestures but does not yet offer split, slip, slide, ripple, or roll. You can still split by directing the agent, because it edits the HTML directly — a split is just one clip becoming two with adjusteddata-start / data-duration:
Split scene 2 at 0:04 so I can drop a transition between the two halves.Name the exact cut point. The agent turns one clip into two adjacent clips; you then treat each half as its own layer.
Retime a scene
Retiming is a duration change, but with one catch worth knowing: a scene driven by a GSAP timeline needs the timeline to be at least as long as the new duration, or the render cuts off early.Make scene 2 run 4 seconds instead of 2.5 — keep the animation, just give it more room.
- ❌
stretch scene 2— ambiguous whether you mean slower motion or a longer hold - ✅
scene 2 duration = 4s, same motion, add the extra time as a hold at the end
Make it snappier (retiming feel, not just duration)
“Snappier,” “punchier,” “more relaxed” are pacing words, and they map to concrete easing and timing choices — Vocabulary has the full table. The agent reads “snappy” as a decisive ease (power4.out) and tighter durations, “dreamy” as slow symmetrical motion, and so on.
Make scene 2 snappier — quicker entrances, harder cuts.
The reveal feels robotic; give it a bouncy overshoot.Change one scene’s feel per render so you can attribute what helped. If a scene keeps missing, strip it to the minimal version (subject + its motion only), confirm it reads, then re-layer.
Adjust a keyframe
Individual animation properties are editable — the value, the ease, the timing of any tween. You can direct these by prompt, or edit them yourself in the Studio Design Panel; either way they resolve to the same GSAP code.The title slides in from too far — change its entrance to travel 40px, not 200.
Give the add-to-cart item an arc instead of a straight diagonal, like it’s being tossed into the cart.State the property target absolutely (
Move X = 40, arc curviness ≈ 1.5). Keyframes & arc motion covers what’s editable, arc-motion paths, and gesture recording.
Swap an asset
Replacing a video, image, logo, or audio track is a source-swap. The one rule: name the path. The agent will search for “my logo,” but a path skips the search and removes the ambiguity of which file you mean.
Replace the background music with assets/track.mp3.
Swap the hero image for assets/product-v2.png and keep its animation.
- ❌
use the new logo - ✅
swap the logo for assets/logo-2025.svg
Change copy
On-screen text is edited verbatim when you quote it. Unquoted text gets paraphrased — the agent treats a description as an instruction to write copy, not to place it exactly.Change the headline to “Ship faster.” — exact text, keep the styling.
- ❌
update the title to say something about speed - ✅
title copy: "Ship faster."
Restyle one element
Visual tweaks — color, size, weight, position of a single element — are where the “freeze the rest” clause earns its keep. Without it, a restyle prompt can trigger a rebuild that drifts on layout or motion you’d already approved.Make the CTA button 20% larger and switch it to the accent color — don’t touch anything else.
- ❌
make the CTA pop more - ✅
CTA background = accent color, font-size = 1.2× current; framing and motion are right, leave them
Related
Iterating
One variable per edit, absolute targets, freeze what works
Vocabulary
Pacing and easing words that retime the feel of a scene
Timeline editing
Which edits the Studio timeline persists, and how
Video editor cheatsheet
The
data-* attributes as timeline controls