1 Research Done
Artifact: products/refract/research/research.md — completed 2026-07-18 by רותם (research), skills: prism-research, marketing-skills:competitor-profiling, marketing-skills:competitors.
Live-sourced research (WebFetch + WebSearch, 2026-07-18) on three direct competitors:
| Product | Free tier | Paid range | Positioning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Higgsfield | 10 credits/day, watermark | $15–$99/mo (+$62–89/seat business) | Multi-model aggregator, creative suite |
| Artlist AI | none confirmed | $29.99–$79.99/mo + add-ons | AI layer on an existing 10M+ user brand (Artlist Studio) |
| Suno | 10 songs/day, no signup | Pro/Premier, exact price unconfirmed | Fastest-to-full-result, try-before-signup |
Key finding: none of the three market "the truth/assembly layer over generation providers" as their core thesis — every one of them is, structurally, a similar provider-aggregator-plus-assembly-UI, but none states it as the differentiator. Refract's own PRFAQ language already stakes this ground; it isn't yet exploited by any competitor reviewed.
Onboarding-flow suggestion (unconfirmed, input to Vision — not a decision): brief → instant job acceptance, no signup (Suno-style) → storyboard/animatic within minutes as the first "wow" moment → signup only when continuing to shot production → live progress tracking, never a fake loading bar.
2 Vision Gate: P6 — Ben, immediately Approved 2026-07-18
Artifacts: products/refract/PRFAQ.md +
decisions/2026-07-18-vision-p6-saas-scope.md (the ratified resolution).
"Refract is not a proof lab. It must mature into a finished, launch-ready mass-market SaaS product through the complete governed SpecKit pipeline."Klaus's PRFAQ (written 2026-07-17) undersold that scope by framing Sand as the near-term sole client. Ben's 2026-07-18 instruction confirmed and sharpened D-022#029 directly: build the full SaaS shell — onboarding, UI, positioning vs. Higgsfield/Artlist/Suno — in parallel with M1's technical proof, not sequenced after it.
Ratified scope: Refract is PRISM's flagship, launch-ready, mass-market SaaS product. Sand Israel is a bounded design-partner/pilot case within that build (D-022#032), not the ceiling on ambition — M1's montage proof happens through the Sand engagement, while the SaaS shell is built now. Positioning gap (Rotem's competitor research, 2026-07-18): none of Higgsfield/Artlist/Suno claim to be "the truth and assembly layer over generation providers" — despite functionally being aggregators/composers themselves. That is Refract's open thesis.
Unchanged, still separately gated: no paid generation spend, no re-registration, no public claims, no deploy — each clears its own gate independently.
3 Brand + Mockup Gate: P6 — a deployed link, not chat Not started
Artifact: none. products/refract/brand/ does not exist.
No brand direction notes, no DesignSync artifacts (dashboard.html / mobile.html / tokens.html), no Ben-receipted waiver on file. Per the project-build-standard's four laws ("no silent skips"), this stage is recorded honestly as not started — not skipped-with-approval, and not implied "in progress." This atlas page itself deliberately reuses prism-site's neutral Glass Box tokens rather than invent a Refract-specific look, precisely because that decision belongs to this stage, not to a status page built ahead of it.
4 Spec Partial — drafted, ungated
Artifacts: products/refract/specs/001-m1-montage-revival/spec.md (heavy tier, D-027, spec-kit) + openspec/changes/refract-revival-m1/proposal.md (light-tier OpenSpec bridge for board-card tracking).
Fully drafted spec-kit spec: 3 user stories (P1 — full local loop brief→montage; P1 — honest
cost/time record, never invented, never marketing "seconds" on the finished video; P2 —
boundary check confirming no client delivery / public deploy / registry change), 6 functional
requirements (FR-001..FR-006 — deterministic montage, real cost/duration record, no silent
paid-provider spend, explicit failure surfacing), 4 success criteria (SC-001..SC-004), edge
cases and assumptions. A requirements quality checklist exists at
specs/001-m1-montage-revival/checklists/requirements.md.
The OpenSpec bridge proposal states the same Why/What/Invariants/Out-of-scope in board-card form: no paid spend, no client delivery, no public deploy, deterministic montage (cut=concat, not frame-drift xfade), explicit failure surfacing; out of scope for this slice: lipsync, subtitles, music (M2), multi-scene continuity (M3).
tasks.md's own task 0 ("Ben P6 — PRFAQ gate") checkbox and the
spec-kit `checklists/requirements.md` sign-off are still unchecked — the content is written
and the gate cleared, but the formal ratification checkbox hasn't been ticked yet. That's a
quick housekeeping step, not an open decision.
5 Architecture + Tasks Gate: P7 (if load-bearing assumptions) Not started
Artifact: openspec/changes/refract-revival-m1/tasks.md — task list only, 0/9 items checked.
The 9-item task list exists (Ben P6 gate check · fixture shot-list assembly · concept/brief lock · per-shot generation · deterministic montage assembly · finish pass · run-record logging · boundary check · success-criteria verdict) but nothing on it has been executed.
The standard requires design.md + tasks.md together for this stage — only the tasks half exists; no architecture doc has been written, and no P7 review has been requested yet. Recorded as not started, not "in progress," since a bare unchecked task list without an architecture pass does not constitute stage progress on its own.
6 Implement Not started
Artifact: none under products/refract/implementation/.
Zero code changes or production runs have executed for this M1 slice. Note this is distinct
from products/refract-video/ — the pre-existing production codebase
(deterministic montage, finish, VO, music, provider adapters, 180 passing tests) this plan
builds on top of, which is real and already working, but has not yet had an M1-specific
governed run per this spec. No live link exists for the Refract product itself.
7 Review + Evaluation Gate: P6 — the link Not started
Artifact: none. products/refract/reviews/ / decisions/ do not exist for this track.
No implementation receipt, no build/budget/honesty gates, no Lighthouse pass (not applicable until Implement produces a live surface), and no Ben P6 approval — because there is nothing built yet to review or approve.
8 Knowledge Not started
Artifact: none. products/refract/lessons/ does not exist.
No lessons captured and no memory/ promotions logged for this
revival track yet — expected, since Implement and Review haven't happened.