Media Curator Framework Overview

What It Does

The Media Curator framework enables AI agents to build, curate, and maintain comprehensive media collections. It handles the full lifecycle from type-flexible assessment through acquisition, organization, verification, transcription where needed, research handoff, and multi-platform export.

Design Philosophy

Issue-Driven Development

This framework emerged from a real prototype: cataloging Twenty One Pilots' complete discography (1,109 files, 94GB). Every agent, command, and skill reflects patterns that were field-tested in production.

Quality Over Quantity

Not all media is worth collecting. The framework applies multi-dimensional quality scoring (audio, video, uniqueness) with configurable thresholds. Phone recordings are rejected by default, but "legendary" content (historically significant, only known recording) bypasses quality gates.

Classification by Production Context

A key field-test learning: classify media by how it was produced (studio, live, broadcast), not how it sounds (acoustic, electric). A stripped-down studio recording is still a studio recording.

Type-Flexible Entry

Unknown or mixed media starts with assess-and-plan rather than an audio-only path. The framework selects music/discography handling only when the request, metadata, filenames, or sources show that the archive is music-centered. See `type-flexible-curation.md` for the recorded routing decision.

Integrity First

Every archive includes self-verifying SHA-256 checksums and W3C PROV-compliant provenance tracking. Bit rot detection is built in, not bolted on.

Framework Components

Agents (6)

Agent	Purpose
Discography Analyst	Research eras, map catalog structure
Source Discoverer	Find content across platforms
Acquisition Manager	Orchestrate downloads
Quality Assessor	Score and filter content
Metadata Curator	Tag, name, organize
Completeness Tracker	Gap analysis and prioritization

Commands (9)

Command	Purpose
`/curate`	End-to-end orchestration
`/analyze-artist`	Discography analysis
`/find-sources`	Source discovery
`/acquire`	Download management
`/tag-collection`	Metadata application
`/check-completeness`	Gap analysis
`/assemble`	Narrative/playlist assembly
`/export`	Multi-platform output
`/verify-archive`	Integrity verification

Skills

Skill	Purpose
YouTube Acquisition	yt-dlp patterns
Archive Acquisition	Internet Archive patterns
Audio Extraction	ffmpeg audio extraction
Metadata Tagging	opustags/ffmpeg tagging
Quality Filtering	Accept/reject logic
Cover Art Embedding	Artwork embedding
Integrity Verification	SHA-256 manifests
Transcribe Media	Timestamped transcript sidecars
Curate	Assess-and-plan for arbitrary or mixed media
Gap Documentation	GAP-NOTE.md pattern
Provenance Tracking	W3C PROV-O for media

Pipeline Overview

analyze-artist → find-sources → acquire → tag-collection → verify-archive → check-completeness
                                                                              ↓
                                                                    assemble / export

Tools Required

Tool	Purpose	Required
yt-dlp	Video/audio download	Yes
ffmpeg/ffprobe	Transcoding, extraction, analysis	Yes
opustags	Opus metadata tagging	Yes
sha256sum	Integrity checksums	Yes (GNU coreutils)
wget/curl	Direct file download	Yes

Archive Structure

{artist}/
├── albums/{album_name}/
│   ├── audio/
│   └── video/
├── singles/
├── sessions/
│   ├── radio/
│   ├── interviews/
│   └── tv/
├── unofficial/
│   ├── live-performances/
│   └── rare-versions/
├── artwork/
│   ├── albums/
│   ├── artists/
│   ├── live/
│   ├── logos/
│   └── promotional/
├── lyrics/
├── .curator/
│   ├── manifest.json
│   ├── sources.json
│   └── gaps.json
├── CHECKSUMS.sha256
├── VERIFY.md
└── PROVENANCE.jsonld

Related

• Epic issue: #75
• Prototype: Twenty One Pilots collection (1,109 files, 94GB)
• Standards: ID3v2.4, SHA-256, PREMIS 3.0, W3C PROV-O, ISO 8601