How do you use a 'sitrep' prompt to track what's locked and what's still open during AI video production?

A sitrep prompt is a mid-project message to the invideo agent — "Give me a sitrep: what's locked, what's open — cast, wardrobe, location, music" — that turns implicit project state into an explicit report. You then give direction on every open item and only spend video credits once nothing on the list is unresolved.

Run a sitrep at every phase transition: before storyboarding begins, before any video generation batch, and any time you've been iterating long enough to lose track of what's actually approved. The invideo agent holds every prior decision — locked character versions, approved locations, chosen voice, the shot breakdown — in the project's context tab, so it can report state accurately when asked; invideo is an agentic video creation tool where that persistent project context is what makes the report reliable.

The prompt itself is short. The documented phrasing from a jewelry campaign that produced three ads for ~$2,400 with 100% product consistency: "Ask for a sitrep. What's locked, what's open — cast, wardrobe, location, music. Then give it direction across each." Adjust the line items to your format — for a UGC ad the standard pre-production list is hook, script, voiceover, shot breakdown, and duration; for a brand film it's cast, wardrobe, location, and music.

Ask for the report in three sections so it's scannable: Locked (assets confirmed, with their version numbers), Open (options generated but nothing chosen), and Needs decision before next generation. Requesting version numbers on locked items matters — referencing exact versions in a lock command ("lock v3 of the character sheet") ensures every subsequent generation uses those precise outputs rather than a fresh interpretation.

Then resolve the open items one by one, conversationally, and issue an explicit lock for each. Re-run the sitrep after directing to confirm the open column is empty. If you want cost visibility at the same time, ask the invideo agent for an estimated generation breakdown alongside the sitrep — how many images, clips, and assets it plans to generate — so you know roughly what you'll spend before committing.

The reason this gate pays for itself is clip yield. Video generations spent while decisions are still ambiguous are the ones you discard: one documented product ad generated 39 clips to use 10 (26% utilization), another generated 11 clips and used 1, and a full 4-ad run generated 108 images and 103 videos to use 49 clips. The productions with the best economics ran the opposite discipline — one creator's summary: "I only spent video credits on locked frames." In the campaign where the sitrep prompt was documented, all 13 shots of one film were storyboarded and locked on image before any video generation began. The sitrep is how you verify you've actually reached that state instead of assuming it.

Watch some of these to see what works for you:

Ask for a sitrep. What's locked, what's open - cast, wardrobe, location, music. Then give it direction across each.

— invideo's creative team