OpenClaw ShortDrama Plugin

Native OpenClaw plugin that exposes the short drama workflow as a native tool. The plugin acceptance target is the local OpenClaw workflow.

For the full packaging, runtime, and release checklist, see PLUGIN_GUIDE.md.

What it does

• Registers a native shortdrama_generate tool that returns a safe manual run plan
• Keeps the core plugin acceptance path local and tool-first
• Lets OpenClaw continue the workflow from the generated plan when running from a source checkout
• Intended to reuse OpenClaw's bundled byteplus provider instead of defining a duplicate provider plugin
• Runs the workflow against a plugin-local workflow/ work root instead of a legacy bundled runtime directory
• Keeps media prompts fictional-only: no real-person likeness, no celebrity resemblance, and no documentary-style human reference look

Requirements

• python3
• ffmpeg
• Network access to the BytePlus ARK APIs
• One BytePlus credential: BYTEPLUS_API_KEY preferred, or ARK_API_KEY as the backward-compatible fallback
• Optional SEEDANCE_API_KEY if your Seedance environment is keyed separately
• The package manifest declares BytePlus auth env metadata for byteplus and byteplus-plan, and advertises the BytePlus API-key choice explicitly
• Optional ARK_BASE_URL if you need to override the default BytePlus Ark endpoint for your region
• Optional BRIDGE_DURATION_SECONDS if you want to tune how strongly adjacent clips blend at the boundary

Default models

The workflow uses these default BytePlus models unless you override them in the environment:

• Language model: seed-2-0-pro-260328
• Image model: seedream-5-0-260128
• Video model: dreamina-seedance-2-0-260128

Portability checklist

To make the plugin runnable on another machine, keep these items in place:

1. openclaw.plugin.json at the package root.
2. package.json with the openclaw.extensions entry.
3. workflow-core/requirements.txt empty and offline-friendly.
4. A working python3 and ffmpeg on the target machine.
5. BYTEPLUS_API_KEY in the plugin-local .env at the repository root, or ARK_API_KEY as the backward-compatible fallback.
6. A smoke test command that uses the local wrapper:

./scripts/run_shortdrama.sh --brief "A healing rainy-night story about a girl and a cat." --core-only

If ./scripts/bootstrap_env.sh and the smoke test both pass, the plugin is in a good state to run on another machine with the same basic runtime assumptions.

Dependencies

Core workflow dependencies:

• No additional OpenClaw plugins are required.
• The workflow is designed to use OpenClaw's bundled byteplus provider when that provider is available in the installed OpenClaw build.

API keys

Prefer this environment variable:

• BYTEPLUS_API_KEY

Legacy compatibility is still supported:

• ARK_API_KEY

If BYTEPLUS_API_KEY is present, the local workflow maps it to ARK_API_KEY for backward compatibility.

The shipping workflow does not use Telegram, Discord, Feishu, or other chat-delivery environment variables in the core path.

By default the workflow reads the plugin-local .env at the repository root. It does not read ~/.openclaw/.env; keep plugin credentials scoped to this project. If you want to point at a different local env file, set SHORTDRAMA_ENV_FILE=/absolute/path/to/file.env.

You can obtain or manage the BytePlus API key here:

• https://console.byteplus.com/auth/login

If you are setting up OpenClaw for the first time, the host-side setup and auth guidance lives in the OpenClaw project repository:

• https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw

That is the right place to look for the BytePlus/OpenClaw auth flow and the host configuration that provides the API key to plugins.

Mode

• Core workflow only: this is the primary and supported plugin acceptance path.

Local install

openclaw plugins install -l /path/to/openclaw-shortdrama-plugin
openclaw plugins enable shortdrama
openclaw gateway restart

Recommended provider setup

Use the bundled BytePlus provider:

openclaw onboard --auth-choice byteplus-api-key

The shipped workflow also accepts legacy ARK_API_KEY, but BYTEPLUS_API_KEY is the preferred env var for this plugin.

First run

1. Create the plugin-local .env from the template at the repository root:

cp .env.example .env

2. Fill in the environment variables in .env, at minimum your BytePlus key, for example:

BYTEPLUS_API_KEY=your_byteplus_key

The local wrapper auto-loads the plugin-local .env by default and does not read host-level OpenClaw env files.

3. Create a brief file:

mkdir -p workflow/runtime
printf '%s\n' 'A healing rainy-night story about a girl and a cat.' > workflow/runtime/current_brief.txt

4. Run the workflow from the plugin root:

./scripts/run_shortdrama.sh --brief-file workflow/runtime/current_brief.txt --core-only

5. To retry only media stages:

./scripts/run_shortdrama.sh --brief-file workflow/runtime/current_brief.txt --skip-story --core-only

Tool-first usage

The preferred plugin runtime is the native tool:

• Tool name: shortdrama_generate
• Required parameter: brief
• Optional parameters: force_media, skip_story

This keeps the fixed pipeline inside the plugin runtime as a planning surface instead of making any external notification layer part of the core execution path for this repository. The tool does not execute the workflow. If you are working from a git checkout, the shell wrappers remain available for manual smoke tests and local scripts. If you are using OpenClaw interactively, you can feed the generated plan back into the agent and continue from the same brief.

Work root

The plugin's generated outputs live under workflow/:

• workflow/docs/
• workflow/scripts/episode-01.md
• workflow/storyboards/
• workflow/assets/
• workflow/deliverables/

The legacy implementation sources now live under workflow-core/. That directory is not the primary runtime surface of the plugin.