Art Skill
Complete visual content system for creating illustrations, diagrams, and visual content.
Customization
Before executing, check for user customizations at: ~/.claude/PAI/USER/SKILLCUSTOMIZATIONS/Art/
If this directory exists, load and apply:
PREFERENCES.md- Aesthetic preferences, default model, output locationCharacterSpecs.md- Character design specificationsSceneConstruction.md- Scene composition guidelines
These override default behavior. If the directory does not exist, proceed with skill defaults.
🚨 MANDATORY: Voice Notification (REQUIRED BEFORE ANY ACTION)
You MUST send this notification BEFORE doing anything else when this skill is invoked.
- Send voice notification:
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8888/notify \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"message": "Running the WORKFLOWNAME workflow in the Art skill to ACTION"}' \ > /dev/null 2>&1 & - Output text notification:
Running the **WorkflowName** workflow in the **Art** skill to ACTION...
This is not optional. Execute this curl command immediately upon skill invocation.
🚨🚨🚨 MANDATORY: Output to Downloads First 🚨🚨🚨
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚠️ ALL GENERATED IMAGES GO TO ~/Downloads/ FIRST ⚠️
⚠️ NEVER output directly to project directories ⚠️
⚠️ User MUST preview in Finder/Preview before use ⚠️
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━This applies to ALL workflows in this skill.
Workflow Routing
Route to the appropriate workflow based on the request.
- Remove background from image →
Workflows/RemoveBackground.md - Brand wallpaper with logo integration →
Workflows/BrandWallpaper.md - YouTube thumbnail checklist →
Workflows/YouTubeThumbnailChecklist.md - Blog header or editorial illustration →
Workflows/Essay.md - D3.js interactive chart or dashboard →
Workflows/D3Dashboards.md - Visualization or unsure which format →
Workflows/Visualize.md - Mermaid flowchart or sequence diagram →
Workflows/Mermaid.md - Technical or architecture diagram →
Workflows/TechnicalDiagrams.md - Taxonomy or classification grid →
Workflows/Taxonomies.md - Timeline or chronological progression →
Workflows/Timelines.md - Framework or 2x2 matrix →
Workflows/Frameworks.md - Comparison or X vs Y →
Workflows/Comparisons.md - Annotated screenshot →
Workflows/AnnotatedScreenshots.md - Recipe card or step-by-step →
Workflows/RecipeCards.md - Aphorism or quote card →
Workflows/Aphorisms.md - Conceptual map or territory →
Workflows/Maps.md - Stat card or big number visual →
Workflows/Stats.md - Comic or sequential panels →
Workflows/Comics.md - YouTube thumbnail (with existing assets) →
Workflows/YouTubeThumbnailChecklist.md - Ad-hoc YouTube thumbnail (generate from content) →
Workflows/AdHocYouTubeThumbnail.md - PAI pack icon →
Workflows/CreatePAIPackIcon.md
Core Aesthetic
Default: Production-quality concept art style appropriate for editorial and technical content.
User customization defines specific aesthetic preferences including:
- Visual style and influences
- Line treatment and rendering approach
- Color palette and wash technique
- Character design specifications
- Scene composition rules
Load from: ~/.claude/PAI/USER/SKILLCUSTOMIZATIONS/Art/PREFERENCES.md
Reference Images
User customization may include reference images for consistent style.
Check ~/.claude/PAI/USER/SKILLCUSTOMIZATIONS/Art/PREFERENCES.md for:
- Reference image locations
- Style examples by use case
- Character and scene reference guidance
Usage: Before generating images, load relevant user-provided references to match their preferred style.
Image Generation
Default model: Check user customization at SKILLCUSTOMIZATIONS/Art/PREFERENCES.md Fallback: nano-banana-pro (Gemini 3 Pro)
Model-Specific Size Requirements
Each model accepts different --size formats. Using the wrong format causes validation errors.
| Model | --size format | Valid values | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
flux | Aspect ratio | 1:1, 16:9, 3:2, 2:3, 3:4, 4:3, 4:5, 5:4, 9:16, 21:9 | 16:9 |
nano-banana | Aspect ratio | 1:1, 16:9, 3:2, 2:3, 3:4, 4:3, 4:5, 5:4, 9:16, 21:9 | 16:9 |
nano-banana-pro | Resolution tier | 1K, 2K, 4K (also accepts --aspect-ratio separately) | 2K |
gpt-image-1 | Pixel dimensions | 1024x1024, 1536x1024, 1024x1536 | 1024x1024 |
Note: nano-banana-pro uses --size for resolution quality and a separate --aspect-ratio flag for aspect ratio (defaults to 16:9).
🚨 CRITICAL: Always Output to Downloads First
ALL generated images MUST go to ~/Downloads/ first for preview and selection.
Never output directly to a project's public/images/ directory. User needs to review images in Preview before they're used.
Workflow:
- Generate to
~/Downloads/[descriptive-name].png - User reviews in Preview
- If approved, THEN copy to final destination (e.g.,
cms/public/images/) - Create WebP and thumbnail versions at final destination
# CORRECT - Output to Downloads for preview
bun run ~/.claude/skills/Media/Art/Tools/Generate.ts \
--model nano-banana-pro \
--prompt "[PROMPT]" \
--size 2K \
--aspect-ratio 1:1 \
--thumbnail \
--output ~/Downloads/blog-header-concept.png
# After approval, copy to final location
cp ~/Downloads/blog-header-concept.png ${PROJECTS_DIR}/YourWebsite/cms/public/images/
cp ~/Downloads/blog-header-concept-thumb.png ${PROJECTS_DIR}/YourWebsite/cms/public/images/Multiple Reference Images (Character/Style Consistency)
For improved character or style consistency, use multiple --reference-image flags:
# Multiple reference images for better likeness
bun run ~/.claude/skills/Media/Art/Tools/Generate.ts \
--model nano-banana-pro \
--prompt "Person from references at a party..." \
--reference-image face1.jpg \
--reference-image face2.jpg \
--reference-image face3.jpg \
--size 2K \
--aspect-ratio 16:9 \
--output ~/Downloads/character-scene.pngAPI Limits (Gemini):
- Up to 5 human reference images
- Up to 6 object reference images
- Maximum 14 total reference images per request
API keys in: ${PAI_DIR}/.env
Examples
Example 1: Blog header image
User: "create a header for my AI agents post"
→ Invokes ESSAY workflow
→ Generates charcoal sketch prompt
→ Creates image with architectural aesthetic
→ Saves to ~/Downloads/ for preview
→ After approval, copies to public/images/Example 2: Technical architecture diagram
User: "make a diagram showing the SPQA pattern"
→ Invokes TECHNICALDIAGRAMS workflow
→ Creates structured architecture visual
→ Outputs PNG with consistent stylingExample 3: Comparison visualization
User: "visualize humans vs AI decision-making"
→ Invokes COMPARISONS workflow
→ Creates side-by-side visual
→ Charcoal sketch with labeled elementsExample 4: PAI pack icon
User: "create icon for the skill system pack"
→ Invokes CREATEPAIPACKICON workflow
→ Reads workflow from Workflows/CreatePAIPackIcon.md
→ Generates 1K image with --remove-bg for transparency
→ Resizes to 256x256 RGBA PNG
→ Outputs to ~/Downloads/ for preview
→ After approval, copies to ${PROJECTS_DIR}/PAI/Packs/icons/