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# Product

## Overview

Hypnograph is a macOS instrument for real-time audiovisual composition and performance using personal photo and video archives as living source material.

It is designed as an autonomous visual instrument: the system starts generating quickly, then invites progressively deeper intervention. The product intent is aesthetic witnessing through live, visceral re-encounter with personal media rather than productivity or curation workflows.

## Core Promise

Hypnograph should let a single operator move quickly from source material into a coherent live visual state, while still supporting return, refinement, and performance.

## Experience Principles

* Immediate generation from authorized local media with minimal setup.
* Progressive control over timing, source constraints, layering, and effects.
* Live reliability and responsiveness as first-class experience requirements.
* Saved states (hypnograms) supporting return, refinement, and sharing.
* Effect-first creative workflow with reusable chains and presets.
* Hypnogram recipe format for resumable visual states.
* Live-oriented operation with quick keyboard control paths.
* Apple-native implementation focused on real-time rendering quality.

## Boundaries And Non-Goals

* No collaborative editing, cloud platform, or hidden background automation.
* No requirement for heavy setup or premeditation before output appears.
* No AI-driven generative decision-making as a product center.
* Maintain deterministic, low-latency input and rendering behavior as release-gate quality.
* Treat this as a single-operator instrument by default.

Technical implementation details belong in `reference/tech-stack.md`.
Current prioritization belongs in `queue.md`.