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.
4. When a workflow involves follow-up generations or animations for the same subject, identify and reuse the canonical asset_id instead of generating from scratch again.
5. If the agent loses track of generated asset IDs, recover them with list_recent_assets(limit=...) before failing.

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

• For recent-asset recovery flows, prefer list_recent_assets(limit=...).
• Treat sprite_url as the single primary asset URL to inspect, save, or hand off to downstream tools.
• Treat spritesheet_url as an optional secondary artifact. Use it only when present and only when you specifically need a spritesheet export.
• For single-asset inspection flows, get_asset_metadata(asset_id) also exposes a primary url plus optional spritesheet_url.
• Avoid relying on low-level internal fields such as _presigned_pixel_url or _presigned_url in agent-facing workflows unless no higher-level field is available.
• Avoid direct authenticated download endpoints in skill-driven workflows unless a helper handles auth out of band.