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Assets and files

Kitly draws a line between plain files sitting in your project folder and registered assets it knows about. Understanding the difference explains most of how the app behaves.

Plain files vs registered assets

A plain file is just that: a file in the project folder. You can see these in the Files panel's Folders tab, browse them with the breadcrumb starting at "Project", and manage them (Duplicate, Move, Delete) without Kitly attaching any meaning to them.

A registered asset is a file Kitly tracks. It gets a record in the hidden .cgasset/ bookkeeping folder: a thumbnail, a kind, lineage, and channels. Registered assets show in the Files panel's Assets tab, can be dragged into generation slots, previewed in the viewer, and referenced from anywhere in the app. Everything Kitly generates is registered automatically. Files you import (drag and drop, Import Assets..., or Ctrl+V paste) get registered too.

Kinds

Every registered asset has a kind, and the kind decides which viewer opens and which operations accept it:

  • Image, including image sequences (a numbered frame set counts as one asset)
  • 3D: geometry, rigs, animation clips, cameras, splats
  • Audio
  • Video
  • Text
  • Other

The Assets tab has filter tabs for exactly these: All, Image, 3D, Audio, Video, Text, Other.

Lineage

Kitly remembers where each generated asset came from. Select an asset and the Inspector's Lineage section shows when it was created and a SHA-256 fingerprint (a unique checksum of the file's exact contents, shown as its first 16 characters). The Prompt, Model, and Settings sections show what produced it: the exact prompt, the pipeline, and every recorded input. That means you can always reconstruct how a result was made, and rerun or tweak it via the copy-to-Pipelines buttons.

Channels

An asset can carry companion layers called channels. Think of them like the extra passes on a render: same subject, different data. The channel switcher in the viewer toolbar flips between them, starting from "Original".

Channel Attached to What it is
Depth Images, video A depth map: brighter or darker per pixel by distance, like a Z-depth pass
Masks Images, video Cutout mattes, like the alpha or ID passes you'd pull for a comp
Splats Images only A Gaussian splat, a 3D point-cloud-style capture you can orbit
Subtitles Video only Timed caption tracks
Audio Video only An attached audio track
Animations Geometry only Animation clips paired with a rig

You can generate some channels in one click. With an image or video selected, the Inspector's Channels section lists the rows with View chips, plus quick-generate buttons: Marigold or MiDaS for Depth, Bria or Ideogram for Masks. To attach an existing file as a channel instead, right-click an asset and choose Set as Channel....

Referencing assets

Two handy ways to point at an asset from elsewhere:

  • Right-click an asset and choose Copy As Reference to put an asset://<id> token on your clipboard. Paste it wherever Kitly accepts a reference.
  • When an operation has several reference slots, each slot gets a token badge like @Image3 that you can cite inside your prompt text.

Where the pieces live