# Characters and projects

Updated 2026-09-27. Web page: https://kitcut.ai/docs/characters-and-projects

KitCut remembers the characters Claude draws, so a later film can bring them back: the same fox, the same look, voice and music. There are two ways to use this.
- **An account's own characters** come back in the person's next films made on the home page or through an assistant.
- **A project in the Studio** (kitcut.ai/studio) keeps a separate set for one series, with its own brief and pictures.

## Characters that come back

- **What is kept:**
  - After a film is finished, each character Claude drew as a reusable cast member is kept, with a small picture of it.
  - A changed character is kept as a new version; the last 5 versions are kept.
  - A failed or stopped film keeps nothing.
- **What a new film starts with:**
  - up to 24 characters, the most recently used first;
  - the 5 most recent films (their script, narration, music and look), which Claude may read.
- **Bringing one back:** name it in the idea, e.g. "the same fox as last time" or "Pip and Mo visit the sea". Whether a film continues a series is Claude's decision. A continuation keeps the cast, the look, the voice and the music unless the idea says otherwise.
- **Only drawn characters are kept.**
  - Characters in the painted look are painted fresh each time, so they may look different between films.
  - To keep a painted character close, describe it the same way every time.
- **Who has characters:** signed-in accounts only. Each account's characters are its own; nobody else's films can use them.
- **Seeing and forgetting them:** through an AI assistant, with `list_characters` and `forget_character` ([Assistants](https://kitcut.ai/docs/assistants.md)). A forgotten character is left out of new films. The website has no page for the account's own characters; a project's characters are on its Cast tab.

## Projects (the Studio)

![The Studio at kitcut.ai/studio: a list of projects, each a card with its name, look and episode count, with a red circle around the New project button.](https://kitcut.ai/docs/img/studio.webp "The Studio lists the account's projects; New project starts a series.")

A project is a series. Every film made in it is an episode and uses the project's own characters and pictures, not the account's.

| Setting | Limit |
| --- | --- |
| Name | up to 80 characters |
| Brief | up to 2,000 characters: the series' premise, audience, tone and rules. Claude reads it for every episode. |
| Look | hand-drawn or painted |
| Default length | from 5 seconds, in steps of 5 seconds, up to the plan's longest film |
| Bring in my characters | on by default. The project starts with the characters from the account's films made outside projects. |
| Projects per account | 20 open, 100 in all (archived ones included) |
| Pictures per project | 6: PNG, JPEG or WebP |

![A project's page with its tabs - Episodes, Cast, Pictures and Settings - showing the Cast tab with the series' characters, with a red circle around the tabs.](https://kitcut.ai/docs/img/project-cast.webp "A project's Cast tab: the characters its episodes share.")

**A project's page has four tabs:**
- **Episodes:** make a new episode (an idea, the look and a length, like on the home page) and see the earlier ones.
- **Cast:** the project's characters, each with its picture, description, how many episodes it appeared in, and its version. A character can be removed.
- **Pictures:** pictures every episode can use, such as a logo, a product or a character sheet.
  - Each picture has a name (lowercase letters, digits and `_`).
  - Claude sees it as `pic_<name>` and can show it in any episode.
  - A picture an episode doesn't use is left out of that episode's render.
- **Settings:** the name, brief, look and default length; archive or restore the project.

**How episodes work:**
- **An episode is an ordinary film:** the same credits, lengths, limits and film page. See [Making a film](https://kitcut.ai/docs/making-a-film.md).
- **One film at a time per account,** across all projects and the home page.
- **Episodes are public** like other films made on the website, and can appear in the gallery. The brief can show in an episode's making log.
- **Episodes take no attachments of their own.** Use the project's Pictures tab.

**Other rules:**
- **Archive and restore only; projects can't be deleted.** Restoring is refused when 20 projects are already open.
- **The Cast and Pictures tabs need the film-making service online.** Episodes are listed even when it is offline.
- **Projects are on every plan,** Free included.
- **Assistants can't use projects:** films made through an assistant use the account's own characters.