Save a project as JSON

Portable backup, move a paper edit or a mosaic between Macs

Sometimes you want the project itself, not a render. A backup before a risky change, a copy moved to a second Mac, a file you can hand-edit in a text editor. JSON is for that.

How to save

In Paper Edit, Export → Paper Edit → Save as JSON. In Mosaic, Export → Mosaic → Save as JSON. Pick a filename.

What lands on disk is pretty-printed JSON with sorted keys. Readable in any text editor, diffable in git, easy to skim if you ever need to.

What's in a Paper Edit JSON

The project shell:

• Schema version
• Project name
• Frame rate, output resolution
• Color label, starred flag

Plus every selection in your script, sorted by order. Per selection: asset ID, in and out in seconds, cached text, word indices, enabled flag, transforms, padding overrides, fill offsets, baseline timestamps. Default fields are omitted to keep the file small.

What's in a Mosaic JSON

Same idea, different shape:

• Name, script, every entry sorted by order
• The corpus
• Settings: output resolution, frame rate, max splice length, breath level
• Any caption payload attached to the mosaic

Round-trip is real

Importing a JSON exported by ReelChest produces a project that yields identical exports. Schema versioning is in there for a reason: when we evolve the format, old JSON files keep loading.

That makes JSON good for three things: backing up before a risky session, moving a project to another Mac, and handing a project to someone else without sending the media.

The media itself doesn't ride along. JSON is the recipe, not the ingredients. Asset IDs need to resolve on the other machine, so the media has to live somewhere ReelChest can find it.

A flat text file you can open and read is its own quiet luxury.