---
title: "Call shorts.write_beats"
method: POST
path: "/api/v1/tools/shorts.write_beats"
tags: ["shorts"]
---

# Call shorts.write_beats

`POST /api/v1/tools/shorts.write_beats`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://app.goosybear.ai`
- URL: `https://app.goosybear.ai/api/v1/tools/shorts.write_beats`
- Auth: HTTP bearer

Draw this short's beats — 'write the beats for this short', 'storyboard this short' — four to six beats with their full sheets. This is a short's script and its storyboard in ONE act: there is no separate script step. Call it as well when the person wants all the beats drawn again, passing anything they said they want in the short as `wants`. It writes the WORDS and the sheets; it does NOT write the shots each beat is made from — `shorts.mint_stills` does that. Show the person what it drew, let them change it, and offer to write the shots. If they say 'this short' and name no id, call it with the id of the short whose board they are on. ⚠️ IT MAY ALSO CARRY `questions` — real facts the short needs and nobody has given (a name, the product, one number). When it does, ASK THEM AS YOUR VERY NEXT TURN, in your own words, in one message, and NEVER answer one yourself: a made-up name ships in the finished short. THIS TOOL CANNOT RECORD THEIR ANSWERS — send what they say to `videos.answer_script_facts` with the `key` it gave you, and call this one again only once the answers are recorded. The beats already carry a blank everywhere an answer belongs. Not for the shots each beat is made from — that is `shorts.mint_stills`. Over the API it answers in two calls: without confirmation_id it proposes — says what would happen, returns a confirmation_id and changes, spends and sends nothing; the same arguments again with that confirmation_id, on a member's own API key, do it.

Every result names the workspace it ran in. Say which workspace the answer is about. When the account has more than one workspace and none is selected, this tool refuses with `workspace_ambiguous` and lists the choices — offer them, never pick one.

## Headers

- `x-request-id` string

## Request body

- object
  - `short_id` string, uuid: The short's id. OMIT IT when the person means the short whose board they are on — the surface answers it.
  - `wants` string: One thing the PERSON said they want in this short, in their words. Omit it unless they said something.
  - `confirmation_id` string, uuid: Omit to propose: the first call says what would happen, returns a confirmation_id and changes nothing. To go ahead, send the same arguments again with that confirmation_id, on a member's own API key; a service account's key can propose but never confirm.
  - `workspace` string: Which workspace to run in — its slug. Omit to use your default. With more than one reachable workspace and no default, the call is refused and the choices are listed.

## Response `200`

The call was admitted and dispatched. `ok` says whether the tool succeeded — a refusal the tool itself produced is still a 200, exactly as it is a successful JSON-RPC result over MCP.

- union
  - object: The tool ran and answered.
    - `ok` true, required
    - `state` 'confirmation_required'
    - `confirmation_id` string, uuid
    - `expires_in_seconds` integer
    - `request_summary` string: What will happen, in one sentence, for a person to approve before confirming.
    - `short_id` string
    - `beats` object[]
      - `number` integer, required
      - `name` string, required
      - `line` string, required
      - `seconds` number, required
      - `source` 'you' | 'goosy' | 'screen', required
      - `layout` string, required
      - `budget` string, required
    - `seconds` number
    - `needs_filming` boolean
    - `drawing_pictures` boolean
    - `open_at` string
    - `questions` object[]
      - `key` string, required
      - `ask` string, required
      - `why` string, required
      - `example` string, required
    - `questions_note` string, nullable: Say this to the person, in your own words, INSTEAD of asking anything — the questions did not save. Never ask a question from `questions` in the same turn you say this.
    - `workspace` string, required: The slug of the workspace this call ran in.
    - `working_in` object, required: Which workspace this call ran in, and how that was decided. Present on every workspace-scoped result.
      - `label` string, required: The chip words — e.g. "working in: Acme Main".
      - `note` string, required: Why this workspace — e.g. "your default", "this call only".
      - `workspace` string, required: The resolved workspace's slug.
      - `source` 'call-override' | 'key-pin' | 'stored-default' | 'sole-reachable', required: Which rung of the R7 precedence resolved the workspace.
  - ToolRefusal: A call that was admitted and dispatched, and did not succeed.
    - `ok` false, required
    - `code` string, required: The typed reason — e.g. `workspace_ambiguous`, `invalid_arguments`, or the tool's own failure code.
    - `message` string, required: A sentence a person can act on.
    - `workspaces` string[]: On a workspace refusal: the slugs this key may pass as `workspace`.
    - `issues` object[]: On `invalid_arguments`: which fields failed, and why.
      - `path` string, required
      - `message` string, required
    - `path` string: On an authoring refusal: where in your call's input it points, e.g. `steps.<key>.params.<field>`.
    - `fix` string: On an authoring refusal: the change to your call that would pass.
    - `instruction` string: On an authoring refusal: what to do next with it.

## Other responses

- `400`: The request could not be used: the body is present but not a JSON object (`tenant_api.malformed_body`); it is a top-level array carrying more messages than this endpoint accepts (`tenant_mcp.batch_too_large`); or the `Idempotency-Key` header is malformed (`tenant_api.idempotency_key_invalid`), disagrees with the body's `idempotency_key` (`tenant_api.idempotency_key_conflict`), or was sent to an action that cannot replay a retry (`tenant_api.idempotency_unsupported`). Nothing ran.
- `401`: No bearer credential, or one that did not resolve. Deliberately ONE undifferentiated answer for absent / unknown / revoked / expired, so the endpoint is never an oracle over the key space.
- `403`: The credential is good but the surface is not open to it — the platform or account API switch is off, or the holder lacks the `api.access` capability. The `code` says which.
- `404`: No such tool. The body names no tool and is identical for every unrecognised name.
- `429`: Over this key's per-minute cap. Carries `Retry-After` and `error.retry_after_seconds`.

---

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