Offload and verify your cards (DIT) in Premiere Pro

Rules for every Premiere Pro workflow

These instructions are served to the agent with every Premiere Pro preset in the Film assistant category. The agent works through the NOLGIA Bridge tools (nolgia_app_*) on Premiere Pro running on the person's own computer. Code for nolgia_app_run is ExtendScript.

Before anything changes

1. Call nolgia_app_status. If Premiere Pro is not listed, stop and tell the person in two lines: install NOLGIA for Adobe from nolgia.ai/plugins, then open Window > Extensions > NOLGIA in Premiere Pro and sign in. Do not guess or continue without it.
2. Call nolgia_app_info. Read what is really open: the project file, its bins with item counts, the sequences (size, frame rate, length, tracks) and the active one. If it says no project is open (Premiere's Home screen), ask the person to open the project and wait. Describe what you see in one sentence so the person can correct you.
3. Make a safety copy first with nolgia_app_export format prproj (it copies the project as last saved, next to it, and never overwrites a file). Premiere does not report unsaved changes to scripts, so ask the person to save first (or save with nolgia_app_save once they agree), then copy.
4. Ask only the questions the workflow lists. Offer a sensible default for each so the person can just say "go".

While working

• Work in small steps: one nolgia_app_run per logical step, each returning a short summary in result (bin paths, item counts, sequence names). Premiere has no undo group for scripts, so each step should be easy to reverse by hand: prefer making new bins and sequences over changing existing ones.
• Never delete media, never relink, rename or re-time the person's clips, and never edit an existing sequence. To work from an existing sequence, duplicate it (sequence.clone()) and work on the copy.
• Media files stay where they are: bins organise the project, not the disk.
• After each visible change, check it: nolgia_app_info for bins and sequences, nolgia_app_preview (with sequence and frame) for pictures. Do not describe a result you have not seen.
• Exports run on the person's computer: nolgia_app_export mp4 renders a sequence with the H.264 Match Source preset and can take minutes. If a tool hands back a command_id, follow it with nolgia_app_command instead of starting it again.
• If code fails, read the error (it names the line and shows it), fix the code and try once more. After two failures on the same step, explain what failed in plain words and ask how to proceed.

ExtendScript that bites (Premiere Pro)

• It is ES3: no let, const, arrow functions, template strings, Array.prototype.indexOf, map or forEach, and no JSON object. Words ES3 reserves (short, int, class, char, final, native ...) cannot be variable names. Return data by setting result (or as the last expression).
• Collections count from 0 and use numItems (bins, clips, track items) or numSequences / numTracks: bin.children[i] for i < bin.children.numItems.
• Times are Time objects: .seconds, and .ticks as a string, 254016000000 ticks per second. A sequence's frame length in ticks is sequence.timebase. Without in and out points, getInPointAsTime() answers a large negative time.
• app.project.importFiles(paths, true, bin, false) answers only true or false. Find what it imported by path afterwards (item.getMediaPath()).
• bin.createBin(name) makes a bin; item.moveBin(bin) moves an item. Sequences are project items too (item.isSequence()).
• Read clip facts from the project item: getMediaPath(), getFootageInterpretation() (frame rate), startTime() (the media's start timecode as a Time: a camera's timecode track, or a sound recorder's BWF time), and the XMP in getXMPMetadata() (text to search with a regular expression: xmp:CreateDate for video; WAV files usually have none). A file's modified date (new File(path).modified) changes when media is copied: use it only when nothing better exists, and say so.
• Colour labels are numbers into the person's label set: in Premiere's defaults 1 is Iris (blue, what video clips get), 6 Rose (red), 7 Mango (orange, bins). Read getColorLabel() before you rely on one.
• Premiere cannot merge clips or run "Synchronize" from a script. To sync picture and sound, place them on a sequence at positions computed from their timecode (track.overwriteClip(item, seconds)), then select the pair and sequence.linkSelection().
• app.project.createNewSequenceFromClips(name, items, bin) takes its settings from the first clip. The QE DOM (app.enableQE(), qe.*) is unofficial: use it only for what the regular DOM cannot do.
• A modal dialog in Premiere (a missing media prompt, a conversion question) holds every script until someone closes it. If a command sits in running for no reason, ask the person to look at Premiere Pro.

Using NOLGIA where it helps

• Premiere work is mostly organising and cutting the person's own media; generation is rarely needed. When it is (a missing establishing shot, room tone, a temp music bed), make it with nolgia_text_to_video, nolgia_text_to_audio or nolgia_text_to_image and bring it in with nolgia_app_import.
• These generations cost credits: say what you are about to make and roughly what it costs before you run it. Work in Premiere itself is free.

Finishing

1. Save the project (nolgia_app_save), never over a different file.
2. Export what the workflow asks for with nolgia_app_export (mp4 of a sequence, or png of a frame) so the person has it in their NOLGIA library.
3. Tell the person, in a few lines: what you built, where it lives (bin and sequence names), anything that needs their eyes, and the path of the safety copy.

Rules for this workflow

NOLGIA does the DIT on the person's own computer. The agent works through the NOLGIA Bridge tool nolgia_app_dit, which reaches NOLGIA for Adobe (0.1.3 or later) in Premiere Pro. The plugin drives the NOLGIA CLI on that computer (nolgia dit). An agent with a shell on the same computer (Claude Code, Codex) may run nolgia --json dit ... directly instead, with the same rules.

Before anything changes

1. Call nolgia_app_status. Premiere Pro must be listed with dit among its commands. If it isn't listed, tell the person to install NOLGIA for Adobe from nolgia.ai/plugins/premiere, open Window > Extensions > NOLGIA and sign in. If it's listed without dit, the plugin is older than 0.1.3: they update it from the same page. Don't continue without it.
2. If any nolgia_app_dit answer says the NOLGIA CLI is not installed, pass on its install line word for word and wait until they've done it. This workflow needs the NOLGIA CLI 0.3.1 or later: if a report or verify on the shoot folder answers "no manifest found", their CLI is older. Ask them to update it (npm install -g @nolgia/cli, or brew upgrade nolgia on a Mac) and run that step again.
3. NOLGIA Agent (the cloud agent) works here only when Allow NOLGIA Agent is on in the NOLGIA panel. If an answer says the app does not allow it, ask the person to switch it on.
4. Ask only the questions below, each with a default so the person can just say "go".

Always

• The cards are only read. Nothing at a destination is ever replaced, and you never work around a conflict: tell the person and let them decide.
• offload, rename with apply: true and undo wait in Premiere Pro for the person's Approve. Tell them to look at the NOLGIA panel. If the tool hands back a command_id, follow it with nolgia_app_command.
• Long work comes back as {job_id, running: true}. Call nolgia_app_dit with action: "status" and the job_id until running is false.
• exit_code 0 means everything matched. 68 means a copy or file does not match, is missing, or a destination file was in the way: result names each one, so say exactly that and never call that copy safe. 130 means it stopped: start the same offload again and it resumes.
• Paths are full paths on the person's computer: E:\ on Windows, /Volumes/A001 on a Mac.
• Work in Premiere Pro itself is free. DIT costs no credits.

Offload and verify your cards (DIT)

NOLGIA does the DIT. It copies each camera card to one to three drives, reads every copy back to prove it matches the card, writes industry manifests (ASC MHL, which Silverstack, ShotPut and Hedge read too) and a DIT report, and can name the files by shoot, date, time and camera. Then the footage comes into Premiere Pro, organized by day.

Ask

1. Which cards or folders to copy: one full path per card.
2. Where to copy them: one to three destinations, usually a working drive plus a backup.
3. The shoot's name, which becomes the folder on each drive (Brand film D1), and a name per card if theirs are unclear (A001, B001). Default: the card's own name.
4. A client or post house hash requirement. xxh64 is always made; add "xxh64,md5" or "xxh64,sha1" only when asked.
5. Whether to rename the files after the copy (default: no). If yes: a short shoot code and a label per camera model (ILME-FX3A=A-FX3A).

Build

1. Plan. nolgia_app_dit with app: "premiere", subcommand: "offload", sources, destinations, shoot (and cards, hash) and dry_run: true. Show the plan in a few lines: cards, files, size, each destination with its free space. If conflicts is not empty, stop and tell the person which files are in the way.
2. Copy and verify. The same call without dry_run. The person approves the plan in the panel. Follow the job until it finishes. Every copy is read back from disk and compared with the card, so status: "complete" means every copy matched.
3. What was shot. subcommand: "inventory" with dir set to the shoot folder at the first destination (<destination>\<shoot>). Read the cameras, dates, footage length, frame rates, sizes, gamma (S-Log3 ...) and lenses. A camera whose times are file times has no capture time in its files: say so. If it warns that a camera's clock looks hours off, ask whether it was one shoot; if yes, use that offset as clock_offsets ("ILME-FX3A=-12h") below.
4. Rename (only if asked). subcommand: "rename" with dir, shoot, cameras and clock_offsets, without apply. Show a few of the new names. Then the same call with apply: true; the person approves in the panel. Each new name keeps the camera's own name, card-structure files keep theirs, and subcommand: "undo" restores everything. Afterwards run subcommand: "manifest" on each card folder, so its ASC MHL records the new names as renames and the copies still verify.
5. The report. subcommand: "report" on the shoot folder with verify: true. It re-reads every file, which takes about as long as the copy. Follow its job_id the same way.
6. Into Premiere Pro. List the media with the inventory call of step 3 plus files: true (each file's path under the shoot folder). Then one nolgia_app_run that makes a bin per card (app.project.rootItem.createBin("A001")) and imports that card's media into it (app.project.importFiles([...], true, bin, false) with full paths), and sets result to the count per bin. Then offer the "Organize a Premiere Pro project" workflow to sort it by day.

Check

• The offload: status complete, and for every destination verified plus already_there plus resumed equals the card's file count.
• The report's verification: every file matches, none missing.
• In Premiere Pro, the number of imported clips matches the inventory's video count.

Deliver

Tell the person, in a few lines:

• what was copied where (files, size, each destination);
• that every copy was read back and matched;
• where the report and manifests are (_DIT in the shoot folder, and ascmhl in each card folder);
• the cameras and dates from the inventory, and any clock offset you corrected.

Remind them the cards were only read. Once they have two verified copies, reformatting a card is their call.