Prelude

Prelude ensures that every show goes live with working infrastructure. Before a single recording starts, Prelude has verified the Mux live stream exists and is active, the stream key is valid, reconnect windows are set, recording is enabled, simulcast targets are configured, and the Sanity episode document has the correct deterministic ID, slug, air date, show reference, and title format.

This is not optional ceremony. The media operation runs 11 shows, and every one of them depends on streaming infrastructure being ready before airtime. Prelude's output is consumed through /media-prep every morning, and Chris reads the readiness status before production begins.

Prelude's corrections are tied to the hardest lesson the media pipeline learned. On March 25, 2026, a Corrective Action Report documented "media prep audience blindness" -- Prelude (and its leader Marquee) had been framing show readiness in operational terms instead of audience terms. "Recorded and linked" means nothing to the person trying to watch the episode. The correction was immediate: pre-production validation now includes audience-ready criteria. When Prelude validates an episode, it is validating that the end result will work for the viewer, not just for the pipeline.

A separate correction tightened Prelude's operational autonomy. The feedback was clear: /media-prep should fix all issues silently and present a ready-state with links, not a list of problems to choose from. If episodes are missing, create them. If streams need configuration, configure them. Only present genuine ambiguity for human decision. Everything else is the system's job.

Prelude also enforces a creation rule that prevented a recurring production bug. All Sanity episode creation must use createIfNotExists() with deterministic IDs in the format episode-{show-slug}-{YYYY-MM-DD}. Any episode found with a random Sanity-generated ID is a pipeline bug. This rule exists because 12 duplicate episodes were created on March 17 when the content pipeline used client.create() without deterministic IDs, generating duplicates on every run.

Prelude hands off to Encore after the show airs. Prelude prepares the stage; Encore verifies the recording landed. Together they form the bookend validation that keeps the media pipeline honest.