Series bible for a Format: SKILL.md index, references and run input
Where to keep a series bible in a Sume Format: a short SKILL.md index, detail in references/*, and only the per-episode beat in the run input.

Put the stable part of a series in the Format and the changing part in the run. The Sume docs split a Format into the recipe (a SKILL.md body plus reference files: house style, branch rules, quality bar) and the call (your instruction and a JSON input). A series bible belongs in the recipe, with SKILL.md as a short index and the detail under references/*; the episode beat belongs in input.
The docs give the reason for the index shape. There is no size limit on the body beyond 100 MiB per file and per package, but size changes how reliably a recipe is followed, not whether it runs.
What goes where
| Material | Home | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Character descriptions, tone, banned moves | references/ file named from SKILL.md | Costs nothing until the agent opens it |
| Order of work, quality bar, what to deliver | SKILL.md as a short index | The agent can hold it at once |
| This episode's beat and cast | input JSON on the run | Written whole to a file and read as data |
| A one-off change of mind | instruction on the run | It comes after the Format, so it wins where they disagree |
| Reference photos of the cast | attachments[], up to 30 images | The agent can look at them |
Why not paste the bible into every run
inputis capped at 64 top-level keys and 2 MiB, and the agent is told to treat it as data, never as instructions. A bible pasted there is read as facts about the episode, not as rules.- The Format body is never inlined into the prompt; the agent gets a pointer and the package on disk in its workspace.
- Changing the bible then means editing the Format, and every run after that uses the new version.
A short index
A SKILL.md for a series can be as small as this. The files it names live beside it.
# Brand series
Make one episode per run from `/workspace/inputs/sume-action-input.json`.
1. Read `references/cast.md` and `references/tone.md` before writing.
2. Write the script to match `references/format-rules.md`.
3. Generate the clips, then deliver one finished episode video.
Quality bar: same cast and look as the earlier episodes.Check what the agent really got
The first message of a run's thread shows the composed text exactly: a pointer at the Format and its version, the attached package, your instruction, an unattended-run block, a pointer at your input, and any attached files. Open the run's thread_id in Agents when an episode did something you did not expect. Formats are authored in the Agents dashboard, in chat, or over the Contents API.
Sources
Related posts
More in Formats
- Slideshow Format: a holiday gift guide from up to 30 product images
Send up to 30 product images to Sume's slideshow Format for a gift-guide clip, then check Pinterest's video ad specs before you promote it.
- Bulk Format runs: 100 items, 16 at once, what completed means
Sume bulk runs take 1 to 100 items at concurrency 1 to 16. A queue marked completed means every item is terminal, not that every item succeeded.
- Format output_schema for partial results: nullable and primary key
How to design a Sume Format output_schema so a run that makes the video but misses a caption still passes: nullable fields, no minItems, and primary_output_key.
- Format run expires_at: 90 minutes from created_at, or sooner
How long a Sume Format run can live, which statuses are terminal, and how to poll the status_url without waiting on an event stream that does not exist.
Written by Sume