script-doctor

Script Doctor

A complete screenwriting and script development methodology for your AI coding agent, built on composable skills that activate automatically when you're working on a screenplay, teleplay, or any dramatic writing project.

Inspired by Superpowers — the agentic software development framework — Script Doctor adapts the same rigorous design-then-execute pipeline to the craft of screenwriting.

How It Works

When you tell your agent you want to write a screenplay, it doesn't just start generating pages. Instead, it steps back and asks you what the story is really about.

Once it's developed a Story Bible through Socratic questioning, it shows you the concept in digestible chunks: logline, theme, characters, world, tone, structure. You approve each piece before moving on.

After you've signed off on the story, your agent builds a beat sheet — a granular scene-by-scene plan with acceptance criteria for every beat. Then it drafts scene by scene, checking each one against its criteria before moving forward.

There's a bunch more to it — coverage reviews, plot hole auditing, draft branching for alternate structures — but that's the core. And because the skills trigger automatically, you don't need to do anything special. Your agent is just a Script Doctor.

Installation

Claude Code

Add the marketplace, then install the plugin:

/plugin marketplace add bflandev/script-doctor
/plugin install script-doctor@script-doctor

Or load from a local clone for development:

claude --plugin-dir ./script-doctor

The Basic Workflow

1. story-development — Activates before writing pages. Refines the premise through Socratic questions, explores alternatives, builds the Story Bible in sections for validation.
2. beat-sheet-planning — Activates with an approved Story Bible. Breaks the screenplay into granular beats with scene numbers, locations, characters, dramatic purpose, page targets, and acceptance criteria.
3. consistency-driven-drafting — Activates during scene writing. Enforces CRITERIA-DRAFT-POLISH: write acceptance criteria first, draft the scene to pass them, then polish without breaking any.
4. scene-delegation — Activates with a beat sheet. Dispatches a fresh context per scene with tight instructions — the Story Bible, that scene's beat entry, continuity notes, and acceptance criteria. Two-stage review after each scene.
5. script-coverage — Activates between scenes or sequences. Reviews against the beat sheet, checks character consistency, dialogue distinctiveness, format compliance. Reports issues by severity.
6. plot-hole-auditing — Activates when something feels wrong. 4-phase root cause process: identify the symptom, trace backward, fix at the source, verify the fix didn't break anything else.
7. draft-branching — Activates when exploring structural alternatives. Creates isolated draft branches for experiments ("What if we open in media res?") without destroying the working draft.
8. draft-locking — Activates when a draft is complete. Full verification pass, revision color management, merge/keep/discard options.
9. drafting-sprints — Activates during sustained drafting. Batch execution through the beat sheet with checkpoints every sequence (10-15 pages).
10. pre-submission-checklist — Activates before declaring a draft done. Format scan, page count check, character voice audit, first-ten-pages cold read.

What's Inside

Skills Library

Story & Structure

• story-development — Socratic premise refinement → Story Bible
• beat-sheet-planning — Granular scene-by-scene plans with acceptance criteria

Drafting

• consistency-driven-drafting — CRITERIA-DRAFT-POLISH cycle
• scene-delegation — Fresh-context scene drafting with two-stage review
• drafting-sprints — Batch execution with sequence checkpoints

Review & Debugging

• script-coverage — Internal coverage notes (structure, character, dialogue, format)
• plot-hole-auditing — 4-phase root cause analysis for story logic issues

Draft Management

• draft-branching — Isolated experiments on alternate structures
• draft-locking — Verification, revision colors, merge workflows
• pre-submission-checklist — Final quality gate before the draft goes out

Meta

• writing-craft-skills — Create new personal craft skills (action sequences, exposition techniques, etc.)
• using-script-doctor — Introduction to the skills system and how skills compose

Philosophy

• Criteria before pages — Know what a scene must accomplish before writing it
• Systematic over ad-hoc — Process over inspiration-waiting
• Fix at the root — Don't patch plot holes with exposition; earn the moment earlier
• Every scene must turn — If nothing changes, it's not a scene

License

MIT License — see LICENSE file for details.