Adapted from [baoyu-comic](https://github.com/JimLiu/baoyu-skills) 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
Hermes' `image_generate` tool is **prompt-only** — it accepts a text prompt and an aspect ratio, and returns an image URL. It does **NOT** accept reference images. When the user supplies a reference image, use it to **extract traits in text** that get embedded in every page prompt:
**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 for provenance
- 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 |
|-------|--------|
| `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 |
| `scene` | Extract scene composition or subject notes and append to the relevant page(s) |
**Record in each page's prompt frontmatter** when refs exist:
Character consistency is driven by **text descriptions** in `characters/characters.md` (written in Step 3) that get embedded inline in every page prompt (Step 5). The optional PNG character sheet generated in Step 7.1 is a human-facing review artifact, not an input to `image_generate`.
## Options
### Visual Dimensions
| Option | Values | Description |
|--------|--------|-------------|
| Art | ligne-claire (default), manga, realistic, ink-brush, chalk, minimalist | Art style / rendering technique |
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](references/auto-selection.md). Read it before recommending combinations in Step 2.
## File Structure
Output directory: `comic/{topic-slug}/`
- Slug: 2-4 words kebab-case from topic (e.g., `alan-turing-bio`)
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](references/workflow.md) for the full Step 2 question set.
**Timeout handling (CRITICAL)**: `clarify` can return `"The user did not provide a response within the time limit. Use your best judgement to make the choice and proceed."` — this is NOT user consent to default everything.
- Treat it as a default **for that one question only**. Continue asking the remaining Step 2 questions in sequence; each question is an independent consent point.
- **Surface the default to the user visibly** in your next message so they have a chance to correct it: e.g. `"Style: defaulted to ohmsha preset (clarify timed out). Say the word to switch."` — an unreported default is indistinguishable from never having asked.
- Do NOT collapse Step 2 into a single "use all defaults" pass after one timeout. If the user is genuinely absent, they will be equally absent for all five questions — but they can correct visible defaults when they return, and cannot correct invisible ones.
### Step 7: Image Generation
Use Hermes' built-in `image_generate` tool for all image rendering. Its schema accepts only `prompt` and `aspect_ratio` (`landscape` | `portrait` | `square`); it **returns a URL**, not a local file. Every generated page or character sheet must therefore be downloaded to the output directory.
**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** — the storyboard's `aspect_ratio` field maps to `image_generate`'s format as follows:
| Storyboard ratio | `image_generate` format |
|------------------|-------------------------|
| `3:4`, `9:16`, `2:3` | `portrait` |
| `4:3`, `16:9`, `3:2` | `landscape` |
| `1:1` | `square` |
**Download step** — after every `image_generate` call:
1. Read the URL from the tool result
2. Fetch the image bytes using an **absolute** output path, e.g.
3. Verify the file exists and is non-empty at that exact path before proceeding to the next page
**Never rely on shell CWD persistence for `-o` paths.** The terminal tool's persistent-shell CWD can change between batches (session expiry, `TERMINAL_LIFETIME_SECONDS`, a failed `cd` that leaves you in the wrong directory). `curl -o relative/path.png` is a silent footgun: if CWD has drifted, the file lands somewhere else with no error. **Always pass a fully-qualified absolute path to `-o`**, or pass `workdir=<abs path>` to the terminal tool. Incident Apr 2026: pages 06-09 of a 10-page comic landed at the repo root instead of `comic/<slug>/` because batch 3 inherited a stale CWD from batch 2 and `curl -o 06-page-skills.png` wrote to the wrong directory. The agent then spent several turns claiming the files existed where they didn't.
**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. The prompt file at `characters/characters.md` must exist before invoking `image_generate`. The rendered PNG is a **human-facing review artifact** (so the user can visually verify character design) and a reference for later regenerations or manual prompt edits — it does **not** drive Step 7.2. Page prompts are already written in Step 5 from the **text descriptions** in `characters/characters.md`; `image_generate` cannot accept images as visual input.
**7.2 Pages** — each page's prompt MUST already be at `prompts/NN-{cover|page}-[slug].md` before invoking `image_generate`. Because `image_generate` is prompt-only, character consistency is enforced by **embedding character descriptions (sourced from `characters/characters.md`) inline in every page prompt during Step 5**. The embedding is done uniformly whether or not a PNG sheet is produced in 7.1; the PNG is only a review/regeneration aid.
**Backup rule**: existing `prompts/…md` and `…png` files → rename with `-backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS` suffix before regenerating.
Full step-by-step workflow (analysis, storyboard, review gates, regeneration variants): [references/workflow.md](references/workflow.md).
## References
**Core Templates**:
- [analysis-framework.md](references/analysis-framework.md) - Deep content analysis
- [character-template.md](references/character-template.md) - Character definition format
**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
- **Always download** the URL returned by `image_generate` to a local PNG — downstream tooling (and the user's review) expects files in the output directory, not ephemeral URLs
- **Use absolute paths for `curl -o`** — never rely on persistent-shell CWD across batches. Silent footgun: files land in the wrong directory and subsequent `ls` on the intended path shows nothing. See Step 7 "Download step".
- 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. The PNG is a review/regeneration aid; page prompts (written in Step 5) use the text descriptions in `characters/characters.md`, not the PNG. `image_generate` does not accept images as visual input
- **Strip secrets** — scan source content for API keys, tokens, or credentials before writing any output file
