hermes-agent/skills/creative/baoyu-comic/references/workflow.md

Complete Workflow

Full workflow for generating knowledge comics.

Progress Checklist

Copy and track progress:

Comic Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Setup & Analyze
  - [ ] 1.1 Analyze content
  - [ ] 1.2 Check existing ⚠️ REQUIRED
- [ ] 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 Character sheet (if needed)
  - [ ] 7.2 Generate pages
- [ ] Step 8: Completion report

Flow Diagram

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

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Step 1: Setup & Analyze

1.1 Analyze Content → analysis.md

Read source content, save it if needed, and perform deep analysis.

Actions:

1. Save source content (if not already a file):
   • If user provides a file path: use as-is
   • If user pastes content: save to source-{slug}.md in the target directory using write_file, where {slug} is the kebab-case topic slug used for the output directory
   • Backup rule: If source-{slug}.md already exists, rename it to source-{slug}-backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.md before writing
2. Read source content
3. Deep analysis following analysis-framework.md:
   • Target audience identification
   • Value proposition for readers
   • Core themes and narrative potential
   • Key figures and their story arcs
4. Detect source language
5. Determine language:
   • If user specified a language → use it
   • Else → use detected source language or user's conversation language
6. Determine recommended page count:
   • Short story: 5-8 pages
   • Medium complexity: 9-15 pages
   • Full biography: 16-25 pages
7. Analyze content signals for art/tone/layout recommendations
8. Save to analysis.md using write_file

analysis.md Format: YAML front matter (title, topic, time_span, source_language, user_language, aspect_ratio, recommended_page_count, recommended_art, recommended_tone) + sections for Target Audience, Value Proposition, Core Themes, Key Figures & Story Arcs, Content Signals, Recommended Approaches. See analysis-framework.md for full template.

1.2 Check Existing Content ⚠️ REQUIRED

MUST execute before proceeding to Step 2.

Check if the output directory exists (e.g., via test -d "comic/{topic-slug}").

If directory exists, use clarify:

question: "Existing content found at comic/{topic-slug}. How to proceed?"
options:
  - "Regenerate storyboard — Keep images, regenerate storyboard and characters only"
  - "Regenerate images — Keep storyboard, regenerate images only"
  - "Backup and regenerate — Backup to {slug}-backup-{timestamp}, then regenerate all"
  - "Exit — Cancel, keep existing content unchanged"

Save result and handle accordingly:

• Regenerate storyboard: Skip to Step 3, preserve prompts/ and images
• Regenerate images: Skip to Step 7, use existing prompts
• Backup and regenerate: Move directory, start fresh from Step 2
• Exit: End workflow immediately

---

Step 2: Confirmation - Style & Options ⚠️

Purpose: Select visual style + decide whether to review outline before generation. Do NOT skip.

Display summary first:

• Content type + topic identified
• Key figures extracted
• Time span detected
• Recommended page count
• Language (detected or user-specified)
• Recommended style: [art] + [tone] (based on content signals)

Use clarify one question at a time, in priority order:

Question 1: Visual Style

If a preset is recommended (see auto-selection.md), show it first:

question: "Which visual style for this comic?"
options:
  - "[preset name] preset (Recommended) — [preset description] with special rules"
  - "[recommended art] + [recommended tone] (Recommended) — Best match for your content"
  - "ligne-claire + neutral — Classic educational, Logicomix style"
  - "ohmsha preset — Educational manga with visual metaphors, gadgets, NO talking heads"
  - "Custom — Specify your own art + tone or preset"

Preset vs Art+Tone: Presets include special rules beyond art+tone. ohmsha = manga + neutral + visual metaphor rules + character roles + NO talking heads. Plain manga + neutral does NOT include these rules.

Question 2: Narrative Focus

question: "What should the comic emphasize? (Pick the primary focus; mention others in a follow-up if needed)"
options:
  - "Biography/life story — Follow a person's journey through key life events"
  - "Concept explanation — Break down complex ideas visually"
  - "Historical event — Dramatize important historical moments"
  - "Tutorial/how-to — Step-by-step educational guide"

Question 3: Target Audience

question: "Who is the primary reader?"
options:
  - "General readers — Broad appeal, accessible content"
  - "Students/learners — Educational focus, clear explanations"
  - "Industry professionals — Technical depth, domain knowledge"
  - "Children/young readers — Simplified language, engaging visuals"

Question 4: Outline Review

question: "Do you want to review the outline before image generation?"
options:
  - "Yes, let me review (Recommended) — Review storyboard and characters before generating images"
  - "No, generate directly — Skip outline review, start generating immediately"

Question 5: Prompt Review

question: "Review prompts before generating images?"
options:
  - "Yes, review prompts (Recommended) — Review image generation prompts before generating"
  - "No, skip prompt review — Proceed directly to image generation"

After responses:

1. Update analysis.md with user preferences
2. Store skip_outline_review flag based on Question 4 response
3. Store skip_prompt_review flag based on Question 5 response
4. → Step 3

---

Step 3: Generate Storyboard + Characters

Create storyboard and character definitions using the confirmed style from Step 2.

Loading Style References:

• Art style: art-styles/{art}.md
• Tone: tones/{tone}.md
• If preset (ohmsha/wuxia/shoujo/concept-story/four-panel): also load presets/{preset}.md

Generate:

1. Storyboard (storyboard.md):

   • YAML front matter with art_style, tone, layout, aspect_ratio
   • Cover design
   • Each page: layout, panel breakdown, visual prompts
   • Written in user's preferred language (from Step 1)
   • Reference: storyboard-template.md
   • If using preset: Load and apply preset rules from presets/

2. Character definitions (characters/characters.md):

   • Visual specs matching the art style (in user's preferred language)
   • Include Reference Sheet Prompt for later image generation
   • Reference: character-template.md
   • If using ohmsha preset: Use default Doraemon characters (see below)

Ohmsha Default Characters (use these unless user specifies custom characters):

Role	Character	Visual Description
Student	大雄 (Nobita)	Japanese boy, 10yo, round glasses, black hair parted in middle, yellow shirt, navy shorts
Mentor	哆啦 A 梦 (Doraemon)	Round blue robot cat, big white eyes, red nose, whiskers, white belly with 4D pocket, golden bell, no ears
Challenge	胖虎 (Gian)	Stocky boy, rough features, small eyes, orange shirt
Support	静香 (Shizuka)	Cute girl, black short hair, pink dress, gentle expression

These are the canonical ohmsha-style characters. Do NOT create custom characters for ohmsha unless explicitly requested.

After generation:

• If skip_outline_review is true → Skip Step 4, go directly to Step 5
• If skip_outline_review is false → Continue to Step 4

---

Step 4: Review Outline (Conditional)

Skip this step if user selected "No, generate directly" in Step 2.

Purpose: User reviews and confirms storyboard + characters before generation.

Display:

• Page count and structure
• Art style + Tone combination
• Page-by-page summary (Cover → P1 → P2...)
• Character list with brief descriptions

Use clarify:

question: "Ready to generate images with this outline?"
options:
  - "Yes, proceed (Recommended) — Generate character sheet and comic pages"
  - "Edit storyboard first — I'll modify storyboard.md before continuing"
  - "Edit characters first — I'll modify characters/characters.md before continuing"
  - "Edit both — I'll modify both files before continuing"

After response:

1. If user wants to edit → Wait for user to finish editing, then ask again
2. If user confirms → Continue to Step 5

---

Step 5: Generate Prompts

Create image generation prompts for all pages.

Style Reference Loading:

• Read art-styles/{art}.md for rendering guidelines
• Read tones/{tone}.md for mood/color adjustments
• If preset: Read presets/{preset}.md for special rules

For each page (cover + pages):

1. Create prompt following art style + tone guidelines
2. Embed character descriptions inline (copy relevant traits from characters/characters.md) — image_generate is prompt-only, so the prompt text is the sole vehicle for character consistency
3. Save to prompts/NN-{cover|page}-[slug].md using write_file
   • Backup rule: If prompt file exists, rename to prompts/NN-{cover|page}-[slug]-backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.md

Prompt File Format:

# Page NN: [Title]

## Visual Style
Art: [art style] | Tone: [tone] | Layout: [layout type]

## Character Reference (embedded inline — maintain exact traits below)
- [Character A]: [detailed visual traits from characters/characters.md]
- [Character B]: [detailed visual traits from characters/characters.md]

## Panel Breakdown
[From storyboard.md - panel descriptions, actions, dialogue]

## Generation Prompt
[Combined prompt passed to image_generate]

After generation:

• If skip_prompt_review is true → Skip Step 6, go directly to Step 7
• If skip_prompt_review is false → Continue to Step 6

---

Step 6: Review Prompts (Conditional)

Skip this step if user selected "No, skip prompt review" in Step 2.

Purpose: User reviews and confirms prompts before image generation.

Display prompt summary table:

Page	Title	Key Elements
Cover	[title]	[main visual]
P1	[title]	[key elements]
...	...	...

Use clarify:

question: "Ready to generate images with these prompts?"
options:
  - "Yes, proceed (Recommended) — Generate all comic page images"
  - "Edit prompts first — I'll modify prompts/*.md before continuing"
  - "Regenerate prompts — Regenerate all prompts with different approach"

After response:

1. If user wants to edit → Wait for user to finish editing, then ask again
2. If user wants to regenerate → Go back to Step 5
3. If user confirms → Continue to Step 7

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Step 7: Generate Images

With confirmed prompts from Step 5/6, use the image_generate tool. The tool accepts only prompt and aspect_ratio (landscape | portrait | square) and returns a URL — it does not accept reference images and does not write local files. Every invocation must be followed by a download step.

Aspect ratio mapping — map the storyboard's aspect_ratio to the tool's enum:

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

Download procedure (run after every successful image_generate call):

1. Extract the url field from the tool result
2. Fetch it to disk, e.g. curl -fsSL "<url>" -o comic/{slug}/<target>.png
3. Verify the file is non-empty (test -s <target>.png); on failure, retry the generation once

7.1 Generate Character Reference Sheet (conditional)

Character sheet is recommended for multi-page comics with recurring characters, but NOT required for all presets.

When to generate:

Condition	Action
Multi-page comic with detailed/recurring characters	Generate character sheet (recommended)
Preset with simplified characters (e.g., four-panel minimalist)	Skip — prompt descriptions are sufficient
Single-page comic	Skip unless characters are complex

When generating:

1. Use Reference Sheet Prompt from characters/characters.md
2. Backup rule: If characters/characters.png exists, rename to characters/characters-backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.png
3. Call image_generate with landscape format
4. Download the returned URL → save to characters/characters.png

Important: the downloaded sheet is for the agent's own reference when writing each page's prompt text below. image_generate cannot accept it as a visual input.

7.2 Generate Comic Pages

Before generating any page:

1. Confirm each prompt file exists at prompts/NN-{cover|page}-[slug].md
2. Confirm that each prompt has character descriptions embedded inline (see Step 5). image_generate is prompt-only, so the prompt text is the sole consistency mechanism.

Page Generation Strategy (embed everything in the prompt text):

Character sheet	Strategy
Exists	Use it as an agent-side reference when composing each prompt; embed the key traits inline in the prompt text
Skipped	Prompt file already contains all descriptions inline

Example embedded prompt (prompts/01-page-xxx.md):

# Page 01: [Title]

## Character Reference (embedded inline — maintain consistency)
- 大雄：Japanese boy, round glasses, yellow shirt, navy shorts, worried expression...
- 哆啦 A 梦：Round blue robot cat, white belly, red nose, golden bell, 4D pocket...

## Page Content
[Original page prompt body — panels, dialogue, visual metaphors]

For each page (cover + pages):

1. Read prompt from prompts/NN-{cover|page}-[slug].md
2. Backup rule: If image file exists, rename to NN-{cover|page}-[slug]-backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.png
3. Call image_generate with the prompt text and mapped aspect ratio
4. Download the returned URL → save to NN-{cover|page}-[slug].png
5. Report progress after each generation: "Generated X/N: [page title]"

---

Step 8: Completion Report

Comic Complete!
Title: [title] | Art: [art] | Tone: [tone] | Pages: [count] | Aspect: [ratio] | Language: [lang]
Location: [path]
✓ source-{slug}.md (if content was pasted)
✓ analysis.md
✓ characters.png (if generated)
✓ 00-cover-[slug].png ... NN-page-[slug].png

---

Page Modification

Action	Steps
Edit	Update prompt → Regenerate image → Download new PNG
Add	Create prompt at position → Generate image → Download PNG → Renumber subsequent (NN+1) → Update storyboard
Delete	Remove files → Renumber subsequent (NN-1) → Update storyboard

File naming: NN-{cover|page}-[slug].png (e.g., 03-page-enigma-machine.png)

• Slugs: kebab-case, unique, derived from content
• Renumbering: Update NN prefix only, slugs unchanged