hermes-agent/skills/creative/baoyu-comic/SKILL.md

name	description	version	author	license	metadata
baoyu-comic	Knowledge comic creator supporting multiple art styles and tones. Creates original educational comics with detailed panel layouts and sequential image generation. Use when user asks to create "知识漫画", "教育漫画", "biography comic", "tutorial comic", or "Logicomix-style comic".	1.56.1	宝玉 (JimLiu)	MIT	hermes tags homepage comic knowledge-comic creative image-generation https://github.com/JimLiu/baoyu-skills#baoyu-comic

Knowledge Comic Creator

Adapted from baoyu-comic for Hermes Agent's tool ecosystem.

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

When to Use

Trigger this skill when the user asks to create a knowledge/educational comic, biography comic, tutorial comic, or uses terms like "知识漫画", "教育漫画", or "Logicomix-style". The user provides content (text, file path, URL, or topic) and optionally specifies art style, tone, layout, aspect ratio, or language.

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 file paths when the user provides them (or 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 via clarify, or extract style traits verbally as a text fallback
• No reference → skip this section

Usage modes (per reference):

Usage	Effect
direct	Pass the file to image_generate as a reference image on every page (or selected pages)
style	Extract style traits (line treatment, texture, mood) and append to every page's prompt body
palette	Extract hex colors and append to every page's prompt body

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 image_generate accepts multiple reference images → pass both the character sheet (Step 7.2) and the user refs; compress images first per Step 7.1's guidance to avoid payload failures
• If only one ref slot is available → 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

Options

Visual Dimensions

Option	Values	Description
Art	ligne-claire (default), manga, realistic, ink-brush, chalk, minimalist	Art style / rendering technique
Tone	neutral (default), warm, dramatic, romantic, energetic, vintage, action	Mood / atmosphere
Layout	standard (default), cinematic, dense, splash, mixed, webtoon, four-panel	Panel arrangement
Aspect	3:4 (default, portrait), 4:3 (landscape), 16:9 (widescreen)	Page aspect ratio
Language	auto (default), zh, en, ja, etc.	Output language
Refs	File paths	Reference images applied to every page for style / palette / scene guidance. See Reference Images above.

Partial Workflow Options

Option	Description
Storyboard only	Generate storyboard only, skip prompts and images
Prompts only	Generate storyboard + prompts, skip images
Images only	Generate images from existing prompts directory
Regenerate N	Regenerate specific page(s) only (e.g., 3 or 2,5,8)

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.

Scripts

Script	Purpose
scripts/merge-to-pdf.ts	Merge comic pages into PDF (runs with bun)

Resolve {baseDir} as this SKILL.md's directory; script path is {baseDir}/scripts/merge-to-pdf.ts.

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:

File	Description
source-{slug}.{ext}	Source files
analysis.md	Content analysis
storyboard.md	Storyboard with panel breakdown
characters/characters.md	Character definitions
characters/characters.png	Character reference sheet
prompts/NN-{cover|page}-[slug].md	Generation prompts
NN-{cover|page}-[slug].png	Generated images
{topic-slug}.pdf	Final merged PDF

Language Handling

Detection Priority:

1. User-specified language (explicit option)
2. User's conversation language
3. Source content language

Rule: Use user's input language 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.

Workflow

Progress Checklist

Comic Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Setup & Analyze
  - [ ] 1.1 Analyze content
  - [ ] 1.2 Check existing directory
- [ ] 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 character ref if sheet exists)
- [ ] Step 8: Merge to PDF
- [ ] Step 9: Completion report

Flow

Input → Analyze → [Check Existing?] → [Confirm: Style + Reviews] → Storyboard → [Review?] → Prompts → [Review?] → Images → PDF → Complete

Step Summary

Step	Action	Key Output
1.1	Analyze content	analysis.md
1.2	Check existing directory	Handle conflicts
2	Confirm style, focus, audience, reviews	User preferences
3	Generate storyboard + characters	storyboard.md, characters/
4	Review outline (if requested)	User approval
5	Generate prompts	prompts/*.md
6	Review prompts (if requested)	User approval
7.1	Generate character sheet (if needed)	characters/characters.png
7.2	Generate pages (with character ref if available)	*.png files
8	Merge to PDF	{slug}.pdf
9	Completion report	Summary

User Questions

Use the clarify tool to confirm options. Since clarify handles one question at a time, ask the most important question first and proceed sequentially. See references/workflow.md for the full Step 2 question set.

Step 7: Image Generation

Use Hermes' built-in image_generate tool for all image rendering.

Prompt file requirement (hard): write each image's full, final prompt to a standalone file under prompts/ (naming: NN-{type}-[slug].md) BEFORE calling image_generate. The prompt file is the reproducibility record.

Aspect ratio mapping — image_generate supports landscape, portrait, and square. Map as follows:

Storyboard ratio	image_generate format
3:4, 9:16, 2:3	portrait
4:3, 16:9, 3:2	landscape
1:1	square

7.1 Character sheet — generate it (to characters/characters.png, aspect landscape) 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 using as a reference (sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 80 … on macOS, pngquant --quality=65-80 … on Linux) to avoid payload failures. The prompt file at characters/characters.md must exist before invoking image_generate.

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

Character sheet	image_generate reference support	Strategy
Exists	Supported	Pass sheet as reference image on every page
Exists	Not supported	Prepend character descriptions to every prompt file
Skipped	—	All descriptions inline in prompt

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

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

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

References

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

Page Modification

Action	Steps
Edit	Update prompt file FIRST → regenerate image → regenerate PDF
Add	Create prompt at position → generate with character ref → renumber subsequent → update storyboard → regenerate PDF
Delete	Remove files → renumber subsequent → update storyboard → regenerate PDF

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.

Pitfalls

• Image generation: 10-30 seconds per page; auto-retry once on failure
• Use stylized alternatives for sensitive public figures
• 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 - pass sheet as reference if it exists; compress/convert on failure; fall back to prompt-only
• Strip secrets — scan source content for API keys, tokens, or credentials before writing any output file