--- name: overcast-timeline description: >- Reconstruct a single event from multiple clips — sense each one, cross-anchor shared moments, surface corroborations and contradictions, and produce one cited chronological brief. --- # overcast-timeline Use this skill to "walk through what happened" across several recordings of one event (bystander videos, multiple cameras, a sequence of clips): build one ordered, cited timeline and flag where accounts disagree. Use the broad `overcast` skill and `overcast/reference/verbs.md` for exact flags. ## Workflow 1. Sense every clip — `watch` for the visual timeline, `listen` where audio carries the account: ```bash overcast doctor --json overcast case init --json overcast watch ./cam1.mp4 --json overcast watch ./phone-clip.mp4 --json overcast listen ./phone-clip.mp4 --json ``` 2. Cross-anchor shared moments with span notes — a visible clock, a shared sound, a lighting change lets you line clips up on one timeline: ```bash overcast note "wall clock reads 21:14 as the door opens" --ref --at 12-15 --tag anchor --json overcast note "same doorbell chime as cam1@13 — clips overlap here" --ref --at 3-6 --tag anchor --json ``` 3. Corroborate and contradict across clips. File a conflict finding ONLY when the answer actually reports a disagreement — don't invent one every run; if the accounts agree, record that and skip the finding: ```bash overcast ask "order the events across all clips with timestamps; where do accounts agree or conflict? cite record.id + media.at" --json # only if the answer reports a real conflict: overcast finding create "conflict: cam1 shows the car arriving BEFORE the shout; phone-clip audio has the shout first" --ref --at 12-15 --confidence low --json ``` 4. Produce the chronological deliverable, and always leave a `tldr` note first: ```bash overcast note "reconstructed clips into one timeline; firm anchors; unresolved conflicts" --tag tldr --json # Wait for the note result before exporting, so the TL;DR is included. overcast brief --export ./timeline.html --json ``` ## Output One ordered chronology of the event, each entry cited to a `record.id` + `media.at`, the anchor moments that let clips be aligned, and an explicit list of unresolved contradictions. Where clips can't be ordered relative to each other, say so rather than guessing. ## Caveats Device clocks and upload times drift — prefer content anchors (a shared sound, a visible clock, a synchronized event) over file timestamps when aligning clips. Absence of a moment in one clip is not evidence it didn't happen — it may be off-frame. Keep observed facts (in `note`) separate from inferred ordering; a contradiction is a finding to review, not a settled conclusion.