diff --git a/clams/app/__init__.py b/clams/app/__init__.py
index 3f1bc2b..3c8d2cc 100644
--- a/clams/app/__init__.py
+++ b/clams/app/__init__.py
@@ -240,8 +240,13 @@ def annotate(self, mmif: Union[str, dict, Mmif], **runtime_params: List[str]) ->
         t = datetime.now()
         with warnings.catch_warnings(record=True) as ws:
             annotated, cuda_profiler = self._profile_cuda_memory(self._annotate)(mmif, **refined)
+            # turn pending document properties into `Annotation`s now, so a
+            # view whose only output is document properties is not empty;
+            # `serialize()` repeats this later, skipping values already written
+            annotated.generate_capital_annotations()
             new_views = [v for v in annotated.views if v.id not in existing_view_ids]
-            is_empty = lambda v: len(v.annotations) == 0 and not v.has_error() and not v.has_warnings()
+            # an app-set error or warnings view has no annotations, but is kept
+            is_empty = lambda v: not (v.has_content() or v.has_error() or v.has_warnings())
             for v in new_views:
                 if is_empty(v):
                     del annotated.views._items[v.id]  # no public API to remove a view (mmif-python)
@@ -397,7 +402,9 @@ def sign_view(self, view: View, runtime_conf: dict) -> None:
         """
         view.metadata.app = str(self.metadata.identifier)
         if self.metadata.app_tags:
-            view.metadata.set_additional_property('appTags', list(self.metadata.app_tags))
+            # item assignment stores the tags in the declared `appTags` field
+            # when mmif-python has one, and as an additional property otherwise
+            view.metadata['appTags'] = list(self.metadata.app_tags)
         if self._RAW_PARAMS_KEY in runtime_conf:
             for k, v in runtime_conf.items():
                 if k == self._RAW_PARAMS_KEY:
diff --git a/clams/develop/__init__.py b/clams/develop/__init__.py
index cb682e4..0bc4601 100644
--- a/clams/develop/__init__.py
+++ b/clams/develop/__init__.py
@@ -2,12 +2,15 @@
 import pathlib
 import re
 import shutil
+import warnings
 from string import Template
 from typing import List
 
 import clams
 
 update_tmp_suffix = '.tmp'
+# Recipes with a ``deprecated`` message are left out of the default recipe
+# set and warn when baked on request.
 available_recipes = {
     'app': {
         'description': 'Skeleton code for a CLAMS app',
@@ -20,12 +23,18 @@
         'targetdir': '.github',
     },
     'utl-tf': {
-        'description': 'Local helper module for iterating TimeFrames and collecting per-TF frame tasks '
+        'description': 'DEPRECATED. Local helper module for iterating TimeFrames and collecting per-TF frame tasks '
                        '(baked into ``utils/timeframe.py``; backend-agnostic, safe to edit/delete)',
         'sourcedir': 'utl-tf',
         'targetdir': 'utils',
+        'deprecated': 'The `utl-tf` recipe is deprecated and is no longer baked by default. mmif-python now '
+                      'provides its functions: use `Mmif.get_annotations_of_labels()` to filter TimeFrames by '
+                      'label, and `mmif.utils.video_document_helper.iter_timeframe_images()` to sample images '
+                      'per TimeFrame with the TimePoint each image came from.',
     },
 }
+default_recipes = [name for name, recipe in available_recipes.items()
+                   if 'deprecated' not in recipe]
 
 
 class CookieCutter(object):
@@ -37,7 +46,13 @@ def __init__(self, name: str, outdir: str, recipes: List[str]):
         if recipes:
             self.recipes = recipes
         else:
-            self.recipes = list(available_recipes.keys())
+            self.recipes = list(default_recipes)
+        for recipe in self.recipes:
+            message = available_recipes.get(recipe, {}).get('deprecated')
+            if message:
+                # FutureWarning, unlike DeprecationWarning, is shown to CLI
+                # users by default
+                warnings.warn(message, FutureWarning, stacklevel=2)
         
     def tokenize_rawname(self):
         word_pat = re.compile('[A-Z][a-z]+|[0-9A-Z]+(?=[A-Z][a-z])|[0-9A-Z]{2,}|[a-z0-9]{2,}|[a-zA-Z0-9]')
@@ -158,7 +173,7 @@ def prep_argparser(**kwargs):
         action='store',
         nargs='+',
         default=[],
-        help=f"Pick recipes to bake. DEFAULT: {list(available_recipes.keys())}"
+        help=f"Pick recipes to bake. DEFAULT: {default_recipes}"
     )
     parser.add_argument(
         '-n', '--name',
diff --git a/clams/develop/templates/utl-tf/timeframe.py.template b/clams/develop/templates/utl-tf/timeframe.py.template
index 5dc9585..1a380eb 100644
--- a/clams/develop/templates/utl-tf/timeframe.py.template
+++ b/clams/develop/templates/utl-tf/timeframe.py.template
@@ -1,6 +1,14 @@
 """
 TimeFrame iteration / frame-sampling helpers, local to this app.
 
+DEPRECATED: mmif-python now provides these functions. Use
+``Mmif.get_annotations_of_labels()`` in place of
+:func:`iter_timeframes`, and
+``mmif.utils.video_document_helper.iter_timeframe_images()`` in place of
+:func:`collect_timeframes_of_interest` (it yields
+``(time_frame, images, timepoint_ids)``, and wrapping those into
+``clams.app.PromptTask`` is left to the app).
+
 Generated by ``clams develop -r utl-tf``. The code in this file is part
 of your app, not the SDK; edit it freely, refactor as needed, or delete
 the whole file if your app does not iterate TimeFrame annotations.
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 28989b7..d0731a5 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ classifiers = [
     "Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: Only",
 ]
 dependencies = [
-    "mmif-python==1.5.4",
+    "mmif-python==1.6.0",
     "Flask>=2",
     "Flask-RESTful>=0.3.9",
     "gunicorn>=20",
diff --git a/tests/test_clamsapp.py b/tests/test_clamsapp.py
index a3ea819..829fe23 100644
--- a/tests/test_clamsapp.py
+++ b/tests/test_clamsapp.py
@@ -336,11 +336,6 @@ def test_annotate(self):
                 self.assertEqual(len(v.metadata.parameters), 1)  # 'pretty` parameter was passed 
         out_mmif = Mmif(self.app.annotate(out_mmif))
         self.assertEqual(len(out_mmif.views), 4)
-        views = list(out_mmif.views)
-        # insertion order is kept
-        self.assertEqual(views[0].metadata.timestamp, views[1].metadata.timestamp)
-        self.assertEqual(views[2].metadata.timestamp, views[3].metadata.timestamp)
-        self.assertTrue(views[1].metadata.timestamp < views[2].metadata.timestamp)
 
     def test_run_id(self):
         # first run
@@ -538,6 +533,53 @@ def _annotate(self, mmif, **kwargs):
         self.assertTrue(view.has_error())
         self.assertFalse(view.has_warnings())
 
+    def test_self_reported_warning_view_is_not_pruned(self):
+        class WarningClamsApp(clams.app.ClamsApp):
+            def _appmetadata(self):
+                pass
+            def _annotate(self, mmif, **kwargs):
+                new_view = mmif.new_view()
+                self.sign_view(new_view, kwargs)
+                new_view.metadata.warnings = ['simulated warning']
+                return mmif
+        out_mmif = Mmif(WarningClamsApp().annotate(self.in_mmif))
+        self.assertEqual(len(out_mmif.views), 1)
+        view = next(iter(out_mmif.views))
+        self.assertEqual(view.metadata.warnings, ['simulated warning'])
+
+    def test_document_properties_stay_in_own_view(self):
+        # an app whose only output is document properties keeps its own view;
+        # the generated `Annotation`s must not go to an earlier app's view
+        class DocPropsClamsApp(clams.app.ClamsApp):
+            def _appmetadata(self):
+                pass
+            def _annotate(self, mmif, **kwargs):
+                new_view = mmif.new_view()
+                self.sign_view(new_view, kwargs)
+                mmif['v1'].add_property('duration', 1234)
+                mmif['t1'].add_property('author', 'me')
+                return mmif
+        in_mmif = Mmif(self.in_mmif)
+        earlier = in_mmif.new_view()
+        earlier.metadata.app = 'http://apps.clams.ai/earlier-app/v1'
+        earlier.new_annotation(AnnotationTypes.TimeFrame, start=0, end=10)
+        app = DocPropsClamsApp()
+        out_mmif = Mmif(app.annotate(in_mmif.serialize()))
+        self.assertEqual(
+            0, len(list(out_mmif[earlier.id].get_annotations(AnnotationTypes.Annotation))))
+        own_views = [v for v in out_mmif.views
+                     if v.metadata.app == str(app.metadata.identifier)]
+        self.assertEqual(len(own_views), 1)
+        self.assertFalse(own_views[0].has_warnings())
+        # one `Annotation` per document, even though `serialize()` converts
+        # the same pending properties a second time
+        anns = list(own_views[0].get_annotations(AnnotationTypes.Annotation))
+        self.assertEqual(len(anns), 2)
+        props = {a.get_property('document'):
+                 {k: v for k, v in a.properties.items() if k not in ('id', 'document')}
+                 for a in anns}
+        self.assertEqual({'v1': {'duration': 1234}, 't1': {'author': 'me'}}, props)
+
     def test_gpu_mem_fields_default_zero(self):
         """GPU memory fields default to 0."""
         metadata = AppMetadata(
diff --git a/tests/test_develop.py b/tests/test_develop.py
index 95a8c02..4d58ed0 100644
--- a/tests/test_develop.py
+++ b/tests/test_develop.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import sys
 import tempfile
 import unittest
+import warnings
 from pathlib import Path
 from unittest import mock
 
@@ -16,12 +17,25 @@
 from clams.develop import CookieCutter
 
 
+class TestRecipeDefaults(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    def test_default_recipes_leave_out_deprecated(self):
+        with warnings.catch_warnings():
+            warnings.simplefilter('error')
+            cutter = CookieCutter(
+                name='app', outdir=tempfile.gettempdir(), recipes=[])
+        self.assertTrue(cutter.recipes)
+        self.assertNotIn('utl-tf', cutter.recipes)
+
+
 class TestUtlTfRecipe(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def setUp(self):
         tmp = tempfile.TemporaryDirectory()
         self.addCleanup(tmp.cleanup)
-        with contextlib.redirect_stdout(io.StringIO()):
+        # `utl-tf` is deprecated, and asking for it warns
+        with self.assertWarns(FutureWarning), \
+                contextlib.redirect_stdout(io.StringIO()):
             CookieCutter(
                 name='tfapp', outdir=tmp.name, recipes=['utl-tf']).bake()
         path = Path(tmp.name) / 'tfapp' / 'utils' / 'timeframe.py'