Chains
What a chain is
Several tools stacked in one frame and run as a single action, in order, at the summed price.
A chain is several tools dropped into one frame and run as one action. The steps run top to bottom, each one taking what the last produced. Order is the only wiring. There are no connections to draw, no ports to match and no graph to learn: a step's position in the stack is its place in the sequence, and that is the entire model. ## What it looks like The frame holds a row per step, and each row reads like a miniature version of the tool card it stands for: the tool's icon and name on the left, its model pill on the right, and anything you tuned folded into one grey line underneath. Above the rows sits the chain's one input, when its first step is a tool that takes a picture or a clip. Below them sits Run, carrying the summed cost of every step, so a four-step chain shows what four steps cost before you commit to any of them. The number beside Run is how many times one press fires, and the padlock next to the chain's name keeps the frame open while it works so the results gather in one place. ## Why this and not a node graph A node graph is the general answer and it is a bad first answer. Ports, types, wires and layout are all things to learn before you make anything, and most real sequences are a straight line. Chains take the straight line and remove everything else. If your sequence genuinely branches, it is two chains. :::note[Under the surface it is one run] The steps compile into a single composite operation at run time rather than firing as four separate jobs. That is why a chain behaves like one generation on the board: one press, one pill, one result landing. ::: ## What a chain is made of The steps inside a chain are configurations rather than cards. They exist as part of the chain and nowhere else, which is different from a frame, whose contents are canvas objects that carry on existing if you delete the frame around them. Delete a chain and its steps go with it, leaving nothing orphaned on the board. ## Where chains earn themselves Any sequence you have run more than twice by hand: - Generate, then upscale, then remove the background - Generate a mesh, then remesh it, then retexture it - Restyle a clip, then grade it, then add sound Each of those is three cards, three waits and three chances to forget a step. As a chain it is one press. :::tip[Build it after you have done it once by hand] The steps you want are the ones you just used, with the settings you just tuned. Chaining first and discovering the sequence second is the harder order. ::: Next: [chaining tools](/docs/using-plnty/chains/chaining-tools/) for building one, and [reusing a chain](/docs/using-plnty/chains/reusing-a-chain/) for keeping it.A chain is several tools dropped into one frame and run as one action. The steps run top to bottom, each one taking what the last produced.
Order is the only wiring. There are no connections to draw, no ports to match and no graph to learn: a step’s position in the stack is its place in the sequence, and that is the entire model.
What it looks like
Section titled “What it looks like”The frame holds a row per step, and each row reads like a miniature version of the tool card it stands for: the tool’s icon and name on the left, its model pill on the right, and anything you tuned folded into one grey line underneath.
Above the rows sits the chain’s one input, when its first step is a tool that takes a picture or a clip. Below them sits Run, carrying the summed cost of every step, so a four-step chain shows what four steps cost before you commit to any of them. The number beside Run is how many times one press fires, and the padlock next to the chain’s name keeps the frame open while it works so the results gather in one place.
Why this and not a node graph
Section titled “Why this and not a node graph”A node graph is the general answer and it is a bad first answer. Ports, types, wires and layout are all things to learn before you make anything, and most real sequences are a straight line.
Chains take the straight line and remove everything else. If your sequence genuinely branches, it is two chains.
What a chain is made of
Section titled “What a chain is made of”The steps inside a chain are configurations rather than cards. They exist as part of the chain and nowhere else, which is different from a frame, whose contents are canvas objects that carry on existing if you delete the frame around them.
Delete a chain and its steps go with it, leaving nothing orphaned on the board.
Where chains earn themselves
Section titled “Where chains earn themselves”Any sequence you have run more than twice by hand:
- Generate, then upscale, then remove the background
- Generate a mesh, then remesh it, then retexture it
- Restyle a clip, then grade it, then add sound
Each of those is three cards, three waits and three chances to forget a step. As a chain it is one press.
Next: chaining tools for building one, and reusing a chain for keeping it.