How Chromatic works
How the canvas, nodes, the generate bar, Light, skills, credits and sharing fit together.
In Chromatic, each project is one board. Everything you make for the project appears on that board, next to the files it came from. This page explains what each part of Chromatic does and how the parts connect.
The canvas holds your work
A canvas is one board for one project, like the silver ring reel or a kurta catalogue. You open it from canvas home, where all your projects live.
Everything on the board is a node. An image, a video, a text note, a sketch and a sound clip are all nodes. When you make one node from another, Chromatic draws a line between them. You can move nodes, group them into sections and archive the ones you don't need. See The board.
The generate bar makes new nodes
On the canvas, you make new images and videos in the generate bar. You pick a model, set the frame and length, add references from the board and see the cost on the run button. When you press it, the result appears as a new node on the board.
Running again never replaces the old shot. Each version stays on the board until you archive it, so you can put three takes of the sneaker product shot side by side and keep the best one.
The models page lists every model you can pick in the bar and what each one is good at.
Nodes have their own tools
Once a node is on the board, its menu has the tools for that kind of node. You can edit, grade, cut out or upscale an image, or turn it into a video. You can edit or analyze a video, or pull frames and audio out of it. Each tool makes a new node and leaves the original alone. See Image tools, Video tools and Notes, sketches, and audio.
Light fills in the generate bar for you
Light is the agent on the canvas. You tell it the idea in plain words, and it picks the model, writes the prompt and places the shots, the same way you would in the generate bar yourself.
In Review, those shots wait on the board until you run them. In Create, they start on their own.
Skills tell Light how to work
A skill is a saved way of working, like how your brand shoots a product video. You call it with a slash name, and Light follows its steps instead of starting from scratch. You can use the ones in the catalog or write your own.
Credits pay for runs
Generations spend credits from your wallet, and one credit is one cent. You see the price on the run button before you spend anything, and a run that fails gives the credits back. Moving things around, grading, sketching and analyzing a clip don't spend credits. See Credits and Plans and billing.
Sharing sends a snapshot
When the work is ready for feedback, you share a review. Reviewers get a snapshot of the whole canvas or a selection, and leave comments on it. They never get into your canvas. To get feedback on a newer version, share it again.
Work from outside the canvas
MCP lets you ask for images and video from Cursor, Claude and other AI tools. The shots appear on a canvas in your account and spend credits from the same wallet as the website.
Custom workflows are jobs we build for your brand. They show up as one-click buttons on the nodes they work on.