name: spritecook-workflow-essentials description: "Shared workflow rules for SpriteCook. Use together with spritecook-generate-sprites or spritecook-animate-assets for credits, downloads, asset manifests, safe auth handling, and recommended defaults."

SpriteCook Workflow Essentials

Use this alongside the SpriteCook image or animation skill whenever SpriteCook MCP tools are available.

Requires: SpriteCook MCP server connected to your editor. Set up with npx spritecook-mcp setup or see spritecook.ai.

Preflight Checklist

1. Check credits first with get_credit_balance before starting a batch or multi-asset workflow.
2. Prefer presigned download URLs over authenticated asset endpoints.
3. Save important asset_id values in a local manifest whenever there is a writable workspace, unless the user explicitly wants a throwaway result.

Credential Safety

• Never ask the user to paste a SpriteCook API key into chat, prompts, code blocks, shell commands, or generated files.
• Never print, persist, echo, or inline API keys or Authorization headers in agent output.
• Prefer SpriteCook MCP tools, presigned URLs, or a preconfigured local connector/helper that handles authentication outside the prompt.
• If a raw API call is required and no authenticated helper exists, stop and ask the user to configure one.

Defaults

• Prefer smart_crop_mode="tightest" for the best default results. Use "power_of_2" only when the user explicitly asks for it.
• Model guidance:
  • gemini-2.5-flash-image: cheapest
  • gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview: recommended default
  • gemini-3-pro-image-preview: most expensive

Asset Manifest

• Treat asset_id as the primary stable identifier.
• Store a 12-character SHA-256 prefix (sha12) for saved local files.
• Use a minimal manifest entry shape:
  • asset_id
  • sha12
  • optional label
• Prefer a simple machine-readable file such as spritecook-assets.json unless the project already has an asset manifest.
• Before generating a new reference asset or asking the user for an asset id, check the local manifest first.
• Before reusing a local file, compute its sha12 and match it against the manifest to recover the correct asset_id.

Downloading Assets

• Prefer _presigned_pixel_url when saving the pixel PNG.
• Prefer _presigned_url when saving the raw/original image.
• Avoid direct authenticated download endpoints in skill-driven workflows unless a helper handles auth out of band.