Tech Story Comic

Knowledge Comic Creator

Create original knowledge comics with flexible art style × tone combinations.

User Input Tools

When this skill prompts the user, follow this tool-selection rule (priority order):

1. Prefer built-in user-input tools exposed by the current agent runtime — e.g., AskUserQuestion, request_user_input, clarify, ask_user, or any equivalent.
2. Fallback: if no such tool exists, emit a numbered plain-text message and ask the user to reply with the chosen number/answer for each question.
3. Batching: if the tool supports multiple questions per call, combine all applicable questions into a single call; if only single-question, ask them one at a time in priority order.

Concrete AskUserQuestion references below are examples — substitute the local equivalent in other runtimes.

Image Generation Tools

When this skill needs to render an image, resolve the backend in this order:

1. Current-request override — if the user names a specific backend in the current message, use it.
2. Saved preference — if EXTEND.md sets preferred_image_backend to a backend available right now, use it.
3. Auto-select (when the preference is auto, unset, or the pinned backend isn't available):
   • Codex (imagegen) — first, inspect your available-skills / tool inventory. If a skill named imagegen is listed, you are running inside Codex and MUST use it: invoke via the Skill tool with skill: "imagegen", passing the saved prompt file's content (plus output path and aspect ratio per Codex imagegen's own args). Codex imagegen is the official raster backend in that runtime and outranks any non-native skill (e.g., baoyu-image-gen) unless the user has explicitly pinned a different preferred_image_backend.
   • Codex via codex exec (codex-imagegen) — if the current runtime exposes no native imagegen skill but the codex CLI is on PATH with an active codex login, route through baoyu-image-gen --provider codex-cli (preferred), or — if baoyu-image-gen is unavailable — invoke the bundled wrapper directly. Details, parameters, and the runtime-discovery procedure live in references/codex-imagegen.md — load that file only when this branch is selected.
   • Cursor (GenerateImage) — if the runtime exposes a native GenerateImage tool, you are running inside Cursor and it outranks any non-native skill the same way Codex imagegen does. Two hard caveats: (a) it has no aspect-ratio parameter — state the target aspect ratio / dimensions explicitly in the prompt text passed as description; (b) it does not accept an output directory — it saves to a tool-managed location, so after generation copy/move the file to the skill's expected output path (e.g., outputs/.../NN-xxx.png). Reference images go in reference_image_paths.
   • Other runtime-native tools — if the runtime exposes a different native image tool (e.g., Hermes image_generate), use it the same way.
   • Otherwise, if exactly one non-native backend is installed (e.g., baoyu-image-gen), use it.
   • Otherwise (multiple non-native backends with no runtime-native tool), ask the user once — batch with any other initial questions.
4. If none are available, tell the user and ask how to proceed.

⛔ Never substitute SVG, HTML, canvas, or other code-based rendering for raster image generation. Codex imagegen's own description says it should be used "when the output should be a bitmap asset rather than repo-native code or vector." If you cannot resolve a raster backend via step 3, fall through to step 4 and ask the user — do not silently emit SVG, write inline <svg> markup, or produce HTML/CSS art as a substitute. This applies even if the article/section seems "diagram-like": the consumer skill calling this rule has already decided that a raster image is what it needs.

⛔ Never repair rendered text by painting over a generated bitmap. Do not use ImageMagick, Pillow, Canvas, SVG, HTML/CSS, OCR scripts, or any other programmatic overlay to cover, rewrite, erase, stroke, or replace dialogue, sound effects, panel labels, or any other text inside an already generated comic page. If text is wrong or unclear, regenerate from a corrected prompt, redraw the page with less or no on-image text, or ask the user which imperfect candidate to keep.

Setting preferred_image_backend: ask forces the step-3 prompt every run regardless of available backends. Users change the pinned backend via the ## Changing Preferences section below.

Prompt file requirement (hard): write each image's full, final prompt to a standalone file under prompts/ (naming: NN-{type}-[slug].md) BEFORE invoking any backend. The backend receives the prompt file (or its content); the file is the reproducibility record and lets you switch backends without regenerating prompts.

Concrete tool names (imagegen, GenerateImage, image_generate, baoyu-image-gen) above are examples — substitute the local equivalents under the same rule.

Batch Generation Policy

After every prompt file for the current generation group has been saved and verified, generate images in batches by default.

Priority order:

1. Use the chosen backend's native batch / multi-task interface if it exists. Each task must keep its own prompt file, output path, aspect ratio, session ID, and direct reference images.
2. If no native batch interface exists but the runtime can issue parallel tool calls, dispatch up to generation_batch_size images at a time. Default: 4. An explicit user request in the current message, such as --batch-size 4 or "并行4张一起生成", overrides EXTEND.md.
3. If neither native batch nor parallel tool calls are available, generate sequentially.

Rules:

• Honor workflow dependencies first: generate characters/characters.png before pages that use it as a reference.
• Never start the first page batch until all selected page prompt files exist on disk.
• Retry failed items once without regenerating successful items.
• Do not use subagents merely to parallelize image rendering. Use subagents only for separate prompt iteration or creative exploration.

Reference Images

Users may supply reference images to guide art style, palette, scene composition, or subject. This is separate from the auto-generated character sheet (Step 7.1) — both can coexist: user refs guide the look, the character sheet anchors recurring character identity.

Intake: Accept via --ref <files...> or when the user provides file paths / pastes images in conversation.

• File path(s) → copy to refs/NN-ref-{slug}.{ext} alongside the comic output
• Pasted image with no path → ask the user for the path (per the User Input Tools rule above), or extract style traits verbally as a text fallback
• No reference → skip this section

Usage modes (per reference):

Record in each page's prompt frontmatter when refs exist:

references:
  - ref_id: 01
    filename: 01-ref-scene.png
    usage: direct

At generation time:

• Verify each referenced file exists on disk
• If usage: direct AND the chosen backend accepts multiple reference images → pass both the character sheet (Step 7.2) and the user refs via the backend's ref parameter; compress images first per Step 7.1's guidance to avoid payload failures
• If the backend accepts only one ref → prefer the character sheet for pages with recurring characters; embed user-ref traits in the prompt body instead
• For style/palette usage → embed extracted traits in every page's prompt text (applies regardless of backend capability)

Options

Visual Dimensions

Partial Workflow Options

Details: references/partial-workflows.md

Art, Tone & Preset Catalogue

• Art styles (6): ligne-claire, manga, realistic, ink-brush, chalk, minimalist. Full definitions at references/art-styles/<style>.md.

• Tones (7): neutral, warm, dramatic, romantic, energetic, vintage, action. Full definitions at references/tones/<tone>.md.

• Presets (5) with special rules beyond plain art+tone:

  Preset	Equivalent	Hook
  ohmsha	manga + neutral	Visual metaphors, no talking heads, gadget reveals
  wuxia	ink-brush + action	Qi effects, combat visuals, atmospheric
  shoujo	manga + romantic	Decorative elements, eye details, romantic beats
  concept-story	manga + warm	Visual symbol system, growth arc, dialogue+action balance
  four-panel	minimalist + neutral + four-panel layout	起承转合 structure, B&W + spot color, stick-figure characters

  Full rules at references/presets/<preset>.md — load the file when a preset is picked.

• Compatibility matrix and content-signal → preset table live in references/auto-selection.md. Read it before recommending combinations in Step 2.

Script Directory

Important: All scripts are located in the scripts/ subdirectory of this skill.

Agent Execution Instructions:

1. Determine this SKILL.md file's directory path as {baseDir}
2. Script path = {baseDir}/scripts/<script-name>.ts
3. Replace all {baseDir} in this document with the actual path
4. Resolve ${BUN_X} runtime: if bun installed → bun; if npx available → npx -y bun; else suggest installing bun

Script Reference:

File Structure

Output directory: comic/{topic-slug}/

• Slug: 2-4 words kebab-case from topic (e.g., alan-turing-bio)
• Conflict: append timestamp (e.g., turing-story-20260118-143052)

Contents:

Language Handling

Detection Priority:

1. --lang flag (explicit)
2. EXTEND.md language setting
3. User's conversation language
4. Source content language

Rule: Use user's input language or saved language preference for ALL interactions:

• Storyboard outlines and scene descriptions
• Image generation prompts
• User selection options and confirmations
• Progress updates, questions, errors, summaries

Technical terms remain in English.

Story Line Layer ⛔ REQUIRED

This skill is a thin story layer over the proven knowledge-comic engine: every visual, storyboard, and generation mechanism is upstream and unchanged. The layer adds one requirement — the comic must be a story, not a topic tour.

Before content analysis (Step 1.2), read story-analysis.md and fix the story line:

1. Characters hit a concrete dilemma first — a situation the target reader recognizes, with something at stake.
2. Concepts arrive one by one, as the story needs them — each concept appears at the moment the previous step fails or runs out (its "why now"), never front-loaded as a list.
3. The ending resolves the opening dilemma with the learned concepts — the final pages SHOW characters applying the knowledge (answer the interview question, fix the system, run the command), not a summary recital.
4. Write the story line into analysis.md — learning goal, dilemma, concept chain with why-now per concept, scope boundary, misconception inventory, source-bound claims, page budget (§7).
5. Page count — if the user did not specify one, derive it from the concept chain (≈ 2 × concepts + 3) and confirm it in Step 2.
6. Page craft — the target rhythm: the learner's want or wrong belief → the concept named and shown as one large visual metaphor → a plain-words landing; a turn that costs something; each page ending on an open limitation the next page picks up (§8).

Before generating images, run both storyboard checks — rhythm (§8.8) and ending (§9); they catch pages that teach nothing.

Everything else — art styles, storyboard structure, prompt format, character sheets, density, image generation — follows the upstream workflow unchanged.

Workflow

Progress Checklist

Comic Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Setup & Analyze
  - [ ] 1.1 Preferences (EXTEND.md) ⛔ BLOCKING
    - [ ] Found → load preferences → continue
    - [ ] Not found → run first-time setup → MUST complete before other steps
  - [ ] 1.2 Analyze, 1.3 Check existing
- [ ] Step 2: Confirmation - Style & options ⚠️ REQUIRED
- [ ] Step 3: Generate storyboard + characters
- [ ] Step 4: Review outline (conditional)
- [ ] Step 5: Generate prompts
- [ ] Step 6: Review prompts (conditional)
- [ ] Step 7: Generate images
  - [ ] 7.1 Generate character sheet (if needed) → characters/characters.png
  - [ ] 7.2 Generate pages (with --ref if character sheet exists)
- [ ] Step 8: Merge to PDF
- [ ] Step 9: Completion report

Flow

Input → [Preferences] ─┬─ Found → Continue
                       │
                       └─ Not found → First-Time Setup ⛔ BLOCKING
                                      │
                                      └─ Complete setup → Save EXTEND.md → Continue
                                                                              │
        ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
        ↓
Analyze → [Check Existing?] → [Confirm: Style + Reviews] → Storyboard → [Review?] → Prompts → [Review?] → Images → PDF → Complete

Step Summary

Step 7: Image Generation

Pick a backend once per session using the ## Image Generation Tools rule at the top. If the backend is a repo skill (e.g., baoyu-image-gen), read its SKILL.md and use its documented interface rather than its scripts.

codex-imagegen invocation: when the rule resolves to codex-imagegen, see references/codex-imagegen.md for the invocation contract (preferred baoyu-image-gen --provider codex-cli path, runtime wrapper discovery, parameter notes, stdout schema, batch semantics — n=1 per call so page batches must dispatch one wrapper call per page).

7.1 Character sheet — generate it (to characters/characters.png, aspect 4:3) when the comic is multi-page with recurring characters. Skip for simple presets (e.g., four-panel minimalist) or single-page comics. Compress to JPEG before use-as---ref (sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 80 … on macOS, pngquant --quality=65-80 … elsewhere) to avoid payload failures. The prompt file at characters/characters.md must exist before invoking the backend.

7.2 Pages — each page's prompt MUST already be at prompts/NN-{cover|page}-[slug].md before invoking the backend; the file is the reproducibility record. Strategy depends on the character sheet:

Execution strategy: Generate the character sheet first when needed. Then build the selected page task list from saved prompt files and dispatch pages in batches per the ## Batch Generation Policy: backend native batch first, runtime parallel tool calls second, sequential only as fallback. --regenerate N and --images-only apply the same batching rules to the selected existing prompts.

Backup rule: existing prompts/…md and …png files → rename with -backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS suffix before regenerating. Aspect ratio from storyboard (default 3:4; preset may override).

--ref failure recovery: compress sheet → retry → still fails → drop --ref and embed character descriptions in the prompt text.

Full step-by-step workflow (analysis, storyboard, review gates, regeneration variants): references/workflow.md.

EXTEND.md Paths ⛔ BLOCKING

If EXTEND.md is not found, first-time setup is blocking — complete it before any content analysis or style/tone questions.

EXTEND.md supports: watermark, preferred art/tone/layout, custom style definitions, character presets, language preference, preferred image backend, generation batch size. Schema: references/config/preferences-schema.md.

References

Story Layer (this skill's addition):

• story-analysis.md - Story line, concept chain, and ending check ⛔ read before Step 1.2

Core Templates:

• analysis-framework.md - Deep content analysis
• character-template.md - Character definition format
• storyboard-template.md - Storyboard structure
• ohmsha-guide.md - Ohmsha manga specifics

Style Definitions:

• references/art-styles/ - Art styles (ligne-claire, manga, realistic, ink-brush, chalk, minimalist)
• references/tones/ - Tones (neutral, warm, dramatic, romantic, energetic, vintage, action)
• references/presets/ - Presets with special rules (ohmsha, wuxia, shoujo, concept-story, four-panel)
• references/layouts/ - Layouts (standard, cinematic, dense, splash, mixed, webtoon, four-panel)

Workflow:

• workflow.md - Full workflow details
• auto-selection.md - Content signal analysis
• partial-workflows.md - Partial workflow options

Config:

• config/preferences-schema.md - EXTEND.md schema
• config/first-time-setup.md - First-time setup
• config/watermark-guide.md - Watermark configuration

Page Modification

IMPORTANT: When updating pages, ALWAYS update the prompt file (prompts/NN-{cover|page}-[slug].md) FIRST before regenerating. This ensures changes are documented and reproducible.

Text correction policy:

• If dialogue, sound effects, panel labels, or any other rendered text is misspelled, garbled, hard to read, or visually weak, do not patch the bitmap with code.
• For text-correction regenerations, write a new prompt file and a new output path so the flawed candidate is preserved for comparison.
• Post-processing is limited to crop, resize, compression, or format conversion that does not alter text or the main composition.

Notes

• Image generation: 10-30 seconds per page
• Auto-retry once on generation failure
• Use stylized alternatives for sensitive public figures
• Maintain style consistency via session ID
• Step 2 confirmation required - do not skip
• Steps 4/6 conditional - only if user requested in Step 2
• Step 7.1 character sheet - recommended for multi-page comics, optional for simple presets
• Step 7.2 character reference - use --ref if sheet exists; compress/convert on failure; fall back to prompt-only
• Watermark/language configured once in EXTEND.md

Changing Preferences

EXTEND.md lives at .baoyu-skills/baoyu-comic/EXTEND.md (project) or ~/.baoyu-skills/baoyu-comic/EXTEND.md (user). Three ways to change it:

• Edit directly — open EXTEND.md and change fields. Full schema: references/config/preferences-schema.md.
• Reconfigure interactively — delete EXTEND.md (or ask "reconfigure baoyu-comic preferences" / "重新配置"). The next run re-triggers first-time setup.
• Common one-line edits:
  • preferred_image_backend: auto — default; runtime-native tool wins, falls back to the only installed backend, asks only if multiple non-native are present.
  • preferred_image_backend: codex-imagegen — pin to Codex's built-in.
  • preferred_image_backend: baoyu-image-gen — pin to the baoyu-image-gen skill.
  • preferred_image_backend: ask — confirm backend every run.
  • generation_batch_size: 4 — default number of page images to render concurrently when the backend/runtime supports batch or parallel generation.
  • watermark.enabled: true, preferred_art, preferred_tone, preferred_layout, language — shift the auto-selection defaults and cosmetic choices.