Runway sits in more production pipelines than any other video generation tool, and its interface is built around iteration: you prompt, you watch takes accumulate in a session, you pick one, and you move on. The help center describes sessions as the place where you create generations and as a folder or group of generations made at a given time, with outputs saving automatically to the Assets panel. Completed generations can be viewed, downloaded, and managed through the asset browser, and Private is the default storage location. As working storage during a project, this is well organized and easy to navigate.
As a record of how a delivered shot was made, it is thinner than it looks. The export is a plain video file. The text prompt, the input image or keyframes, the model version, the duration and resolution settings, and the seed all stay in the session view. Runway's Gen-4 documentation is explicit that a Fixed seed produces generations with similar motion rather than identical ones, so a seed is a way to get sibling takes, not a replay button. And because video work produces many near-identical candidates per shot, the question that matters most at delivery time, namely which take the client approved and when, is not a concept the tool has at all.
The practical consequence is that Runway documentation happens at two moments: when you generate, and when the client approves. At generation time you capture the inputs and settings while the session is open in front of you. At approval time you pin the exact take, export it, and connect it to the sign-off. Both are quick while the work is fresh, and close to impossible to reconstruct honestly months later.
What Runway stores on its side
- Runway organizes work into sessions, described in the help center as where you create generations and as a folder or group of generations you create at a given time. Source
- Completed generations can be viewed, downloaded, and managed through the asset browser, and Private is the default asset storage location alongside Shared and Favorited. Source
- Gen-4 video supports a Fixed seed setting, and Runway documents that you can copy and paste the seed of a previous output to create generations with similar motion. Source
- Gen-4 renders takes at five or ten seconds and offers six output resolutions, from vertical 9:16 at 720x1280 up to widescreen 21:9 at 1584x672. Source
What gets lost without your own record
- The exported video is a plain file. The prompt, the input image, the seed, the model version, and the duration and resolution settings stay in the Runway session and do not travel with the download.
- The help center does not document any export of the generation record itself, so the session view inside your account is the only place those settings exist.
- A Fixed seed gives you similar motion, in Runway's own words, not an identical regeneration, so the approved export is the only reliable copy of the delivered shot.
- Assets default to private storage, so a take generated under a freelancer's account sits outside the team's reach unless it was deliberately shared to the workspace.
- Nothing in a session records which take the client approved, which were rejected, or why, and with dozens of near-identical candidates per shot that distinction is the record that matters.
The documentation checklist for Runway
- Record the full text prompt and archive the exact input image or keyframes for every kept take, because image-to-video results cannot be interpreted without their inputs.
- Note the model and version that produced the take, for example Gen-4 or Gen-4.5, since Runway ships new models often and the same prompt behaves differently on each.
- Enable Fixed seed when a shot may need sibling takes later, and write the seed down next to the prompt rather than leaving it in the session.
- Record the duration and the resolution setting per take, since both are choices you will be asked about.
- Name sessions after project and shot so the structure inside Runway mirrors your delivery structure, and share client work to the workspace instead of leaving it in private assets.
- At sign-off, export the approved take immediately, record its generation date and session, and connect the file to the approval instead of trusting the asset browser as the archive.
Generated video sits squarely inside the transparency obligations of Article 50 of the EU AI Act, which reaches synthetic media shown to the public, with penalties for transparency violations of up to €15 million or 3% of worldwide turnover. Runway's exports carry no disclosure for you, so what was generated, how it was labeled, and when it went out is your record to produce.
Keep the claim structure of that record honest. It can establish that a prompt, an input image, a seed, and an approved export existed on a date and have not changed since, which is the notarial layer a client dispute actually needs. It cannot establish that a particular input caused a particular frame, and it does not need to. A producer who can put the approved take, its settings, and its sign-off date on the table has answered every question that realistically comes back.
Frequently asked questions
Can I recover the prompt and settings of an old Runway generation?
While the generation still exists in your account, yes: open the session or find the asset in the browser and read the settings from the generation view. None of that is inside the video you exported, so if the account or the session goes, the settings go with it.
If I saved the seed, can I regenerate the exact same shot later?
No. Runway's documentation describes a Fixed seed as producing generations with similar motion, which is useful for sibling takes and continuity, but it is not a replay of the approved shot. Keep the approved export itself as the reference copy.
Where do my Runway generations actually live?
They accumulate in the session where you created them and save automatically to the Assets panel, where you can view, download, and manage them. Private is the default storage location, so shared team access only exists where someone chose to share.
Does the exported video disclose that it was AI generated?
The help center does not document any embedded generation record or disclosure in the download, so plan your EU AI Act Article 50 labeling and your production record independently of the file.
What should the record say when a client signs off a Runway shot?
Which take was approved, from which session, with its prompt, input image, seed, model version, duration and resolution, plus the export date and the name of the approver. That is one short entry if you write it at sign-off and a reconstruction project if you write it later.