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

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:

references:
  - ref_id: 01
    filename: 01-ref-scene.png
    usage: style
    traits: "muted earth tones, soft-edged ink wash, low-contrast backgrounds"

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 | | 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 used for style / palette trait extraction (not passed to the image model). See [Reference Images](#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](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](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)
• Conflict: append timestamp (e.g., turing-story-20260118-143052)

Contents: | File | Description | |------|-------------| | source-{slug}.md | Saved source content (kebab-case slug matches the output directory) | | analysis.md | Content analysis | | storyboard.md | Storyboard with panel breakdown | | characters/characters.md | Character definitions | | characters/characters.png | Character reference sheet (downloaded from image_generate) | | prompts/NN-{cover\|page}-[slug].md | Generation prompts | | NN-{cover\|page}-[slug].png | Generated images (downloaded from image_generate) | | refs/NN-ref-{slug}.{ext} | User-supplied reference images (optional, for provenance) |

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 descriptions embedded in prompt)
- [ ] Step 8: Completion report

Flow

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

Step Summary

| Step | Action | Key Output | |------|--------|------------| | 1.1 | Analyze content | analysis.md, source-{slug}.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 | .png files | | 8 | 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](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 int