Meta

The Meta section of a PanelWave manifest — work identity, creators, locales, cover, character roster, content warnings, and rights info.

meta is one of the three required top-level sections. It identifies the work, declares its languages, and carries everything a library, storefront, or reader UI needs to present the work: title, description, creators, cover, characters, and content warnings.

Properties (`Meta`)

Property	Type	Required	Description
`id`	`Identifier`	Yes	Stable unique ID of the work
`title`	`LocalizedString`	Yes	Work title per locale
`locales`	`LocaleCode[]` (min 1, unique)	Yes	All locales the work provides content for
`default_locale`	`LocaleCode`	Yes	Fallback locale when the reader's locale is unavailable
`description`	`LocalizedString`	—	Work description / blurb
`creators`	`Creator[]`	—	Credited people; see below
`publisher`	string	—	Publisher name
`series`	string	—	Series the work belongs to
`issue`	string	—	Issue label within the series (free-form, e.g. `"#7"`, `"Sample One-Shot"`)
`release_date`	string (`format: date`)	—	Release date, e.g. `"2025-09-01"`
`age_rating`	string	—	Free-form age rating label, e.g. `"13+"`, `"16+"`, `"all"`
`tags`	`string[]`	—	Free-form tags for discovery
`cover`	`Identifier` \| `Uri`	—	Cover image. Preferred: an asset catalog ID; an absolute URI is also accepted for static bundles
`characters`	`Character[]` (unique)	—	Character roster; see below
`content_warnings`	`ContentWarning[]`	—	Declared content warnings; see below
`copyright`	string	—	Copyright notice for the work
`license`	string	—	License information for the work

Creator

Each entry in creators:

Property	Type	Required	Description
`role`	string	Yes	Free-form role, e.g. `"writer"`, `"artist"`
`name`	string	Yes	Display name
`url`	`Uri`	—	Link to the creator's site or profile

ContentWarning

Content warnings are declared once here and referenced from panels via Panel.contentWarnings (by id):

Property	Type	Required	Default	Description
`id`	`Identifier`	Yes	—	Warning ID referenced by panels
`label`	`LocalizedString`	Yes	—	Reader-facing label
`defaultBlur`	boolean	—	`false`	Whether affected panels are blurred until the reader opts in

The `Character` roster

Characters are defined once in meta.characters and referenced by speech bubbles (characterId) and character sheet extras.

Property	Type	Required	Description
`id`	`Identifier`	Yes	Character ID
`name`	`LocalizedString`	Yes	Character name per locale
`description`	`LocalizedString`	—	Character description
`images`	object (string → string)	—	Named image URLs, e.g. `{ "portrait": "https://…" }`
`voice`	object	—	TTS voice binding: `provider` (`"elevenlabs"` \| `"custom"`) and `voiceId` (string)
`balloonConfig`	`BalloonConfigOverride`	—	Per-character balloon style overrides, merged onto the work-level defaults from `settings.typography.balloon_config`. See Speech Bubbles

Balloon styling cascades: work defaults → character balloonConfig → per-bubble balloonConfig. Only the fields you specify at each level override the parent.

Example

Adapted from the bundled samples:

{
  "meta": {
    "id": "work-sample-3pages",
    "title": {
      "en-US": "City Noir: Sample",
      "de-DE": "Stadt Noir: Beispiel"
    },
    "description": {
      "en-US": "A sample PanelWave graphic novel with 3 pages and multiple panels per page."
    },
    "creators": [
      { "role": "writer", "name": "Dana Kim" },
      { "role": "artist", "name": "Leo Park" }
    ],
    "publisher": "PanelWave Press",
    "series": "City Noir",
    "issue": "Sample One-Shot",
    "release_date": "2025-09-01",
    "age_rating": "16+",
    "tags": ["noir", "branching"],
    "locales": ["en-US", "de-DE"],
    "default_locale": "en-US",
    "cover": "img-cover",
    "characters": [
      {
        "id": "char-mira",
        "name": { "en-US": "Mira" },
        "description": { "en-US": "Night watch captain navigating dangerous choices." },
        "images": { "portrait": "https://cdn.example.com/chars/mira.png" },
        "voice": { "provider": "elevenlabs", "voiceId": "EL-12345" }
      }
    ],
    "content_warnings": [
      {
        "id": "cw-violence",
        "label": { "en-US": "Stylized violence", "de-DE": "Stilisierte Gewalt" },
        "defaultBlur": false
      }
    ],
    "copyright": "© 2025 PanelWave Press",
    "license": "All rights reserved"
  }
}

Locales and fallback

locales declares every locale the work supports; default_locale must be the one guaranteed to have complete content. When resolving a LocalizedString or a localized asset, consumers try the reader's locale first, then walk the fallback chain down to default_locale. The full resolution algorithm is described in Localization; localized assets are covered in Assets.

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