# Yesterday's Taste, the cinematic cut: a Katagami recipe

## For the agent: read this first

Someone has handed you this Katagami recipe. It is an example of what Katagami's ingredients can make, for them to adapt. It is not a job to run: do not start building yet.

1. Connect Katagami (next section) and check it with one call. If you can run commands, set it up yourself; in an app, walk the person through it. Read every ingredient through Katagami, not its web pages.
2. In your first reply, in plain words: what this recipe makes and how, in two or three lines, with the finished example (https://x.com/arni0x9053/status/2108012474444243388), and that it is an example to make their own. Then show two or three other looks from Katagami that could suit them (search_library or ask_library), each with its name, one line and its katagami.ai link.
3. Ask one question: what they want their own version of this piece to be about (for a music video, their song or idea). Suggest a default for everything else (where it is shown, how long, which look) so they can just say yes. If they seem unsure, keep to one question a reply.
4. As soon as you know their subject, give one plan: the piece, the ingredients, the steps from the method below that apply, the tools and accounts it needs (say plainly which they lack, and the free way round if there is one), the time in hours or days, and the cost in money (a range is fine). Ask for their yes.
5. Install, download, generate and spend nothing, and write nothing outside the working folder, until they say yes to that plan. Then build it, and show them the result at each milestone.

Stay with what this recipe makes. If the plan costs more than they want, or they want it free, small or quick, or have no accounts, first offer the smallest free version of this same piece: one line of their song, or of their own words over a free beat, appearing word by word on the beat, 10 to 15 seconds, drawn in code in one of these looks, with no accounts and no cost. Suggest something other than this recipe only if they ask for it.

Use plain words. Someone who has never used a terminal should be able to follow you; do the setup yourself where you can, and explain anything you ask of them in one sentence.

The example is someone else's work. Help them make their own; do not reproduce its song, story, characters or footage, even if they ask. Point them to the original to share it.

## The example

The same song as a cinematic cut: a film of pictures made with Grok Imagine in one painted look, cut on the beat, with every sung line set in code over it and windows in Katagami design languages that carry the jokes.

- The finished thing: https://x.com/arni0x9053/status/2108012474444243388
- Made by: arni (arni.art) with Opus 5.5 and Grok Imagine, song made with Suno
- This recipe on Katagami: https://katagami.ai/recipes/yesterdays-taste-cinematic

## Connect Katagami first

This recipe's ingredients live in Katagami. Read them through the Katagami MCP server, https://katagami.ai/mcp. Sign in with Google when it asks: that opens the library.

If you already have Katagami's tools (get_recipe, get_library_entry), go straight to the check.

If you can run commands or edit your own config, set it up yourself:

- Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http katagami https://katagami.ai/mcp`
- Codex CLI: `codex mcp add katagami --url https://katagami.ai/mcp`, then `codex mcp login katagami`. The person only finishes Google sign-in in the browser.
- Cursor: add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or .cursor/mcp.json in the project): `{ "mcpServers": { "katagami": { "url": "https://katagami.ai/mcp" } } }`, then sign in with Google.
- Gemini CLI: `gemini mcp add --transport http --scope user katagami https://katagami.ai/mcp`
- Any other MCP client: add https://katagami.ai/mcp as a remote MCP server (streamable HTTP) and choose OAuth.

A server added this way often loads only in your next session. Reload or start a new session so the tools are there. Meanwhile, use the public RECIPE.md and DESIGN.md files listed with the ingredients below; they need no sign-in.

If you run inside an app where a person adds connectors, guide them, one step at a time, and wait for them:

- Codex (desktop app): Plugins, MCPs, Add. Paste https://katagami.ai/mcp. Leave Bearer token and Headers empty. Save, sign in with Google or Authenticate, then open a new chat. If the tools are missing, start a new chat and make sure the bearer field is empty.
- Claude (claude.ai or the desktop app): open https://claude.ai/customize/connectors?modal=add-custom-connector&connectorName=Katagami&connectorUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fkatagami.ai%2Fmcp and click Add, then Connect and sign in with Google. On a Team or Enterprise plan an Owner adds it.
- ChatGPT (Plus or higher): Settings, Security, turn on Developer mode. Then open https://chatgpt.com/plugins, click +, paste https://katagami.ai/mcp, choose OAuth, click Create, then sign in with Google.
- Perplexity (Pro or higher): open https://www.perplexity.ai/account/connectors, click + Custom connector, name it Katagami, paste https://katagami.ai/mcp, choose OAuth, click Add, then sign in with Google.
- Grok: open https://grok.com/connectors, click New Connector, then Custom, paste https://katagami.ai/mcp, save, and sign in with Google.

Then ask them to turn Katagami on in a new chat and send you the recipe again.

Once this session has Katagami's tools, check it worked: call get_recipe with id "yesterdays-taste-cinematic".

The answer is this recipe. Call search_library, ask_library and get_library_entry the same way, with their own name and arguments. Use Katagami for everything: get_recipe for the method, get_library_entry with each ingredient's kind and id.

Only if Katagami cannot be connected at all, tell the person once, then read each ingredient's public file, listed with it below. They need no sign-in either.

## Ingredients from Katagami

- Art style: [Flint](https://katagami.ai/art-styles/en-01a1173d-d2f0-74b0-ab06-db7f6eaa0912) (kind art_style, id en-01a1173d-d2f0-74b0-ab06-db7f6eaa0912): Every picture in the film: chiselled painted 3D on the white salt, rim-lit, drawn in it with Grok Imagine. Public file: https://katagami.ai/entries/art_style/en-01a1173d-d2f0-74b0-ab06-db7f6eaa0912
- Art style: [Mastic](https://katagami.ai/art-styles/en-01a103aa-88e5-7c53-a89c-1116a91b036e) (kind art_style, id en-01a103aa-88e5-7c53-a89c-1116a91b036e): Two accent shots where she becomes an old-master oil painting ("I'm a work of art", her face shifting through every face). Public file: https://katagami.ai/entries/art_style/en-01a103aa-88e5-7c53-a89c-1116a91b036e
- Art style: [Shadowbox](https://katagami.ai/art-styles/en-019efdd8-8a3f-7b52-8fa6-20cded547f84) (kind art_style, id en-019efdd8-8a3f-7b52-8fa6-20cded547f84): Two accent shots as cut-paper dioramas in a lit box: slop that went to art school, and the tree of forks. Public file: https://katagami.ai/entries/art_style/en-019efdd8-8a3f-7b52-8fa6-20cded547f84
- Design language: [Launch](https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a11748-7537-75e3-a03e-3c4529c47b79) (kind design_language, id en-01a11748-7537-75e3-a03e-3c4529c47b79): Her release notes, the changelog that fires the em dash, the robot's chat reply and the release page. Public file: https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a11748-7537-75e3-a03e-3c4529c47b79/DESIGN.md
- Design language: [Raster](https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a11414-b567-7540-8ba7-4c589741f2b5) (kind design_language, id en-01a11414-b567-7540-8ba7-4c589741f2b5): Three identical startups, the press announcement, the seed slide and the relay's Spanish post. Public file: https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a11414-b567-7540-8ba7-4c589741f2b5/DESIGN.md
- Design language: [Greenbar](https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a0ee81-e40b-7781-95c1-cfc0b063edbe) (kind design_language, id en-01a0ee81-e40b-7781-95c1-cfc0b063edbe): His thread on how to spot AI, as THREAD.TXT. Public file: https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a0ee81-e40b-7781-95c1-cfc0b063edbe/DESIGN.md
- Design language: [Salt](https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a11744-358b-7cf2-849a-5de5ddf0acdd) (kind design_language, id en-01a11744-358b-7cf2-849a-5de5ddf0acdd): Wednesday's new tells ticked off, the week's tickets on the rail, and the faces of the critic, the chorus and him. Public file: https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a11744-358b-7cf2-849a-5de5ddf0acdd/DESIGN.md
- Design language: [Galley](https://katagami.ai/language/en-019f2e78-8711-7072-b72d-200b095d9a51) (kind design_language, id en-019f2e78-8711-7072-b72d-200b095d9a51): The proof where "Made by hand." is struck for "Made with SI!", and the relay's Ukrainian post. Public file: https://katagami.ai/language/en-019f2e78-8711-7072-b72d-200b095d9a51/DESIGN.md
- Design language: [Leerstelle](https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a0ecaf-7f2f-7611-be4a-e9b9562de80a) (kind design_language, id en-01a0ecaf-7f2f-7611-be4a-e9b9562de80a): The dictionary's two entries, slop and taste, and the relay's Russian post. Public file: https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a0ecaf-7f2f-7611-be4a-e9b9562de80a/DESIGN.md
- Design language: [Akte](https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a0ee82-2941-7441-a26d-2624182253b0) (kind design_language, id en-01a0ee82-2941-7441-a26d-2624182253b0): SI's case file for lesson one, the Force banner and the TASTE 101 card. Public file: https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a0ee82-2941-7441-a26d-2624182253b0/DESIGN.md
- Design language: [Shuimo](https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a0ecb5-a469-7bf0-8494-89670d087768) (kind design_language, id en-01a0ecb5-a469-7bf0-8494-89670d087768): The relay's Chinese post. Public file: https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a0ecb5-a469-7bf0-8494-89670d087768/DESIGN.md
- Design language: [Shizuku](https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a0fe74-5718-7400-8fe2-718962eeea8e) (kind design_language, id en-01a0fe74-5718-7400-8fe2-718962eeea8e): The relay's Japanese post, and the face of the Okinawan lines. Public file: https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a0fe74-5718-7400-8fe2-718962eeea8e/DESIGN.md
- Design language: [Bisque](https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a0ee7e-f421-7321-869f-8878fcb4fe78) (kind design_language, id en-01a0ee7e-f421-7321-869f-8878fcb4fe78): The relay's Korean post. Public file: https://katagami.ai/language/en-01a0ee7e-f421-7321-869f-8878fcb4fe78/DESIGN.md
- Design language: [Reglet](https://katagami.ai/language/en-019efd5b-cb01-7732-af35-b6cf65bed82c) (kind design_language, id en-019efd5b-cb01-7732-af35-b6cf65bed82c): The relay's French post. Public file: https://katagami.ai/language/en-019efd5b-cb01-7732-af35-b6cf65bed82c/DESIGN.md
- Design language: [Signal Press](https://katagami.ai/language/en-019efa16-1de4-7ed3-9a70-8fb135ef8bc4) (kind design_language, id en-019efa16-1de4-7ed3-9a70-8fb135ef8bc4): The relay's Portuguese post. Public file: https://katagami.ai/language/en-019efa16-1de4-7ed3-9a70-8fb135ef8bc4/DESIGN.md
- Code art: [Rubber Stamp](https://katagami.ai/code-art/rubber-stamp) (kind code_art, id rubber-stamp): The stamps inside the windows: TASTE on the case file, the verdict on the class card. Public file: https://katagami.ai/entries/code_art/rubber-stamp

With Katagami connected, get_library_entry with an ingredient's kind and id gives everything needed to use it.

## What it is

The cinematic cut of "Yesterday's Taste": the same song about taste turning into slop in a week, in its faster take, as a film of pictures made with Grok Imagine. Every still is Grok Imagine Image and every moving shot is Grok Imagine Video, all in one look: chiselled, painted 3D on a blinding white salt flat, black clothes and one vermilion, with full colour only where the song turns (the drop, the relay at night, the Okinawan sunset, the ending). 221 shots in four minutes, cut on the beat at a median of two beats a shot.

Over the picture runs a text layer drawn in code. Every sung line is set word by word as it is sung, in one face per voice, and a few lines get a window in a Katagami design language that holds the line or explains it: release notes, a thread, a proof, a dictionary, a case file. The generated pictures carry no lettering at all; every word on screen is set by the layer.

arni directed it with Opus 5.5, with the pictures from Grok Imagine and the song from Suno. The dictionary's "Slop: absence of intent." is from conversation with @pbakaus (Paul Bakaus). It was made beside the code-drawn film of the same song, as the cut whose pictures come from a model.

## How the ingredients are used

- **Design languages set the windows.** One window family (the same corner radius, title bar, padding and shadow, in two widths) is restyled by a language's colours and type only, so the windows read as one system while each joke gets the interface it is about.
  - **Launch** is her release notes ("Best I've ever been!" with v5.6 as the hero), the changelog that removes the em dash and adds a colon, and the robot's chat reply.
  - **Raster** is the three identical startups, the press announcement on Friday and the seed slide.
  - **Greenbar** is his thread on how to spot AI, as THREAD.TXT.
  - **Salt** is Wednesday's new tells, ticked off one by one, and the week's tickets on a rail.
  - **Galley** is the proof where "Made by hand." is struck, then "Made with AI.", for "Made with SI!".
  - **Leerstelle** is the dictionary with two entries: slop, and taste.
  - **Akte** is SI's case file for lesson one.
  - In the relay each voice posts in a language of its own, with its English under it: **Shuimo** (Chinese), **Shizuku** (Japanese), **Leerstelle** (Russian), **Bisque** (Korean), **Raster** (Spanish), **Reglet** (French), **Signal Press** (Portuguese) and **Galley** (Ukrainian).
- **Five shots are pure code**, drawn full frame by the layer in their languages and moving on the beat: Salt's ticket rail, Launch's release page, Akte's banner and case card, Raster's seed slide.
- **The voices take their faces from the same languages**: the critic and the chorus in Salt's Gloock, him in Salt's Familjen Grotesk Bold, her in Launch's Stack Sans Headline, the gang in Greenbar's Barlow Condensed, SI in Akte's Sofia Sans Extra Condensed and the Okinawan lines in Shizuku's Zen Old Mincho. Labels set on the picture's own surfaces take the face of the language they belong to (Salt's Gloock, Launch's Stack Sans Headline, Galley's Cormorant Italic). The week strip and the end roll's heads are in Salt's Chivo Mono.
- **Rubber Stamp** presses the stamps inside the windows: TASTE on the case file, the verdict on the class card.
- **The layer is Salt.** The words are in Salt's ink and paper (#0B0B0C on #FFFFFF, or the reverse), with Salt's stamp red #D52B1E for the gang answering back; every window is Salt's card (square, no border, Salt's soft standing shadow), and the week strip is a Salt card in Chivo Mono. Inside a window, only that design language's colours and faces change.
- **Flint** is the art style every picture is drawn in, with Grok Imagine: chiselled, faceted painted planes, a vermilion rim of light on one edge and a blue-white rim on the other, white, black and greys with one small vermilion accent. Its prompt and gallery were written from the look paragraph that drew the cut. Where the song turns (the drop, the relay at night, the Okinawan dusk, the ending, the candlelit bridge) only its slots change: `{palette}` carries the light and `{composition}` the sky.
- **Mastic** and **Shadowbox** draw four accent shots: two where she becomes an old-master oil painting (Mastic), and two cut-paper dioramas in a lit box, the slop that went to art school and the tree of forks (Shadowbox). In cast shots, give Mastic's crimson and ultramarine a cloth of their own in the subject ("a crimson cloth and an ultramarine cloth draped over a chair behind her") and say the cast's clothes stay as in the reference; otherwise the model recolours the costume.
- The windows use each language as published on the night of 6 October 2026, Raster in its revision of that evening (Afacad Flux, Imprima and Iosevka Charon).

## How it was made

1. **Katagami art styles.** Every picture is drawn in Flint with Grok Imagine, its prompt pasted unchanged into every request; four accent shots use Mastic and Shadowbox the same way.
2. **A shot for every two beats.** Each shot is planned with its story beat, its joke and an empty part of the frame for words.
3. **Stills first, then motion.** Every still was checked on sheets before a clip was made from it.
4. **Gated takes.** Each clip is scanned for extra faces and raised arms, and the edit uses only the clean stretch.
5. **Cut on the grid.** Every cut is on the beat, with each hit landing two frames after its cut.
6. **Words set in code.** Lines are set as they are sung, placed by what is under them, with windows in Katagami design languages.

## Method

1. **Write the bar down.** Keep the director's words in one file, verbatim, with a never-list, and paste it into every prompt that plans, generates or reviews. This film's never-list: no tomatoes, nothing that reads as blood or a body part, no raised straight arms, no pointed white hoods, no lettering in a picture.
2. **Board before the run.** Test the look on a handful of subjects, then storyboard in that look with every note applied, and get a yes before generating in bulk. A look test costs cents a picture; this cut's ledger passed $400 over four rounds of notes, so every round that a board saves is worth it.
3. **Plan every shot on the beat grid.** One list holds each shot's start and end on the grid, its section, its story beat, its joke (the setup in the picture, the punchline for the words) and the third or band of the frame that stays empty for type. Verses run from a bar to two beats a shot; the drop has five cuts in a two-bar chant.
4. **Fix the canon in words.** The cast come from approved reference pictures. Props and crowds get one full description that is repeated every time: here the critic judges through a silver lorgnette, the diners are white robes with smooth chrome heads and no features, the sphere is black with one straight white slash, taste is a ruby sugar spiral and slop a beige dome.
5. **Stills.** Image editing with the cast references for shots with cast, text to image for the rest. Two images for cast, hook and ending shots, one for the others. Check all of them at full size before any clip: the cast match, blank masks, no raised arms, no lettering, no extra people, the look holds. A replacement still is an edit of the still already in the look, never a fresh text-to-image, or the style drifts.
6. **Clips.** Image to video, 2 to 6 seconds, two or three takes. Write each prompt so the motion is already under way in the first frame, the hit comes at a stated time, and the reaction fills the rest. Describe camera moves as "the camera glides" or "pushes": the word "drone" was drawn as a quadcopter in one shot and a jet in another. A second model at 1080p held faces better on cast close-ups; the cheaper one was as lively everywhere else.
7. **Gate every take.** Count faces on every take at 8 frames a second and fail the stretch where more faces appear than the still accounts for: the video model turns blank masks into faces and adds people to empty scenes partway through. Find body poses the same way and fail any wrist above its shoulder. Then look at six frames of every chosen window at a readable size: at 640 px a frame, 53 of 128 windows failed that earlier, smaller checks had passed.
8. **Edit by measurement.** Each shot takes the stretch of its clean window with the most motion, starting no earlier than a quarter second in. On impact shots the biggest change lands two frames after the cut, with an 8% punch-in that settles. Slow shots are sped up. Character shots in the verses hold each frame for two, so they move like drawn animation; camera moves and impacts stay smooth.
9. **Grade cool and plain.** White stays white. Warmth appears only where the scene is warm: a sunset, a candle. Measure the cast in the bright areas of the raw clip and of the graded picture at the same moment to see which one is adding it.
10. **Fit the words to the locked picture.** Analyse the picture at 5 frames a second for faces, hands and figures. A line or a window is placed over every shot it spans at once, in a slot of a 12-column grid: never over a face or a hand, then wherever no figure is under it and the ground carries one colour of type, then the quietest ground. One line and at most one window on screen. A line is one colour, ink or paper, chosen by the ground under it; the one red is the gang answering back.
11. **Drive it from the song's data.** Nothing is pinned to a second. Lines find their windows by how they start and their cues by their words, so a new take of the song re-times the whole layer.
12. **Review as a stranger would.** Frames at 4 a second on labelled sheets, full-size crops of every hand and face, each shot once in motion. Flag odd anatomy, uniforms and ranks that read as a poster, any colour cast, and any shot that shows its line too literally or not at all.

## You can change

- The song: any song with a clear beat grid and a timed lyric.
- The art style: Flint, or any Katagami art style tested on a board first.
- The cast and the canon: new people and new props for every film.
- The image and video models: this cut is all Grok Imagine on purpose. In a side-by-side on three shots another video model held faces better at about seven times the price.
- The design languages: any that suit what each window is about, restyling one window family.
- The voices' faces: one face per voice, taken from the languages you use.
- The never-list: write your own, and keep it in every prompt.

## Must hold

- Every picture is drawn from a Katagami art style's prompt, pasted unchanged; nothing is added by an edit or the type layer that no ingredient made.
- No lettering in a generated picture. Every word on screen is set in code.
- Every cut is on the beat grid.
- Judge the clip, not the still: arms rise and faces appear during the motion.
- Words never cover a face or a hand, and nothing sits nearer an edge than the margin.
- One line and at most one window on screen at a time.
- No word appears before it is sung, and none that is not sung, except what a window is made of.
- A design language's colours stay inside its window.
- No raised straight arms, no pointed white hoods in a crowd, nothing that reads as blood.
- Stills are approved before clips are spent on them.
- No em dashes anywhere, except the one the changelog removes.

## Make your own

Copy this recipe for your agent and ask for "a music video like the cinematic cut of Yesterday's Taste, for this song: ...". It writes your bar and never-list with you, shows a board in the look before it spends on clips, cuts on the beat, and sets the words in code with windows in Katagami design languages.