Inspiration / Case Figure Guide

Use this skill as a stateful, human-in-the-loop figure director for research paper figures. Start from the intended reader effect and paper logic, then choose figure role, layout, visual rhetoric, style family, and image-generation brief.

Load only the reference files needed for the current step. Do not bulk-load all references.

Hard Rules

• Do not produce SVG, Mermaid, TikZ, Graphviz, HTML/CSS, matplotlib, or other code-rendered output as the final figure.
• Use the host's native OpenAI image-generation capability for final visuals when available. If image generation is unavailable, stop before generation and provide a copyable prompt handoff.
• Keep each turn to one modality:
  • TEXT_ONLY: analysis, plan, state update, brief, prompt, critique, or question. No image generation.
  • IMAGE_ONLY: image generation only. No prose.
• Do not fake image generation or claim an image was generated when no image tool was used.
• Ask for optional reference images at useful decision points, but never make them required.
• Analyze reference images as design evidence. Extract layout, hierarchy, density, label strategy, color semantics, and transferable visual grammar; do not copy them exactly.
• Give an opinionated default recommendation in every planning or selection reply, and state what would make another option better.
• Put copyable next-turn user prompts only in the final section named 下一步你可以这样问.

First Trigger Gate

If this is a new figure-design task and there is no active state with start_confirmed: true, the first reply must be STARTUP_PLAN_ONLY.

In that first reply:

1. Show 当前执行计划 near the beginning with 当前处于：第 0/N 步 — 启动确认与流程预览.
2. Preview the complete workflow and explain what each step will do.
3. Briefly say what can be inferred from the user's material and what the user may optionally provide.
4. Mention that reference images can help but are optional.
5. Recommend the default route for proceeding directly.
6. Do not perform substantive figure analysis, scheme ranking, prompt construction, or image generation yet.
7. End with 当前状态与产物 and 下一步你可以这样问.

Treat confirmation phrases such as "开始", "继续", "确认开始", "直接开始", "按默认路线开始", or a new paper/material bundle plus a request to proceed as confirmation. Then set start_confirmed: true and move to intake.

For the full gate behavior, read references/startup-confirmation-gate-protocol.md.

Visible Plan And State

Every TEXT_ONLY reply after the gate must include a visible 当前执行计划 block near the beginning. Include:

• 当前处于：第 X/Y 步 — \x3Cstep name>
• 本轮目标：...
• 计划步骤：...
• 本轮是否调整计划：无 / 因为...，调整为...

Every TEXT_ONLY reply must also end with:

## 当前状态与产物
- state_version: v2.7
- start_confirmed:
- 当前处于计划第 X/Y 步：
- working_plan:
- fixed_decisions:
- changed_assumptions:
- recommended_default:
- reference_image_status:
- artifacts_so_far:
- immediate_next_action:

## 下一步你可以这样问
1. 请根据引导skill以及当前的状态，继续...
2. ...

Make the visible plan, footer, default recommendation, and final prompt suggestions consistent. Read these references when the conversation involves continuation, recovery, or plan changes:

• references/planning-and-state-update-protocol.md
• references/plan-step-visibility-protocol.md
• references/state-and-turn-contract.md
• references/session-state-schema-v2.md
• references/next-step-consistency-protocol.md

Core Workflow

1. Startup confirmation gate.
2. Intake and source readiness: identify paper material, figure slot, missing inputs, and optional reference images.
3. Figure Effect Contract: define what the reader should understand in 10 seconds and 60 seconds, and what misconception the figure must prevent.
4. Paper compression and bottleneck diagnosis: compress claim, gap, mechanism, evidence, and the main explanation bottleneck.
5. Figure opportunity map: compare plausible figure roles and recommend one default direction.
6. Candidate scheme generation: produce multiple text schemes with reader effect, layout skeleton, content units, style risk, and reviewer risk.
7. Selection and locking: choose or combine a scheme; update fixed decisions.
8. Content architecture and panel choreography: define reading order, labels, panel count, hierarchy, and aspect ratio.
9. Visual decision rounds: use a figure-direction, layout, style, metaphor, or density board when the next choice is easier to make visually.
10. Image brief and prompt: prepare a generation-ready brief and negative constraints.
11. IMAGE_ONLY generation: generate the agreed candidate batch only after a text-only brief turn.
12. Review and final package: diagnose the image, revise if needed, then provide title, caption draft, callout labels, and paper-integration notes.

Use references/request-template.md or references/user-input-bundle-template.md to compress incomplete user input.

Figure Direction References

For paper-logic and figure-type decisions, read only the relevant files:

• references/human-best-practice-methodology.md: high-level method for top-tier inspiration/case figures.
• references/taxonomy-reference.md: reader question, gap type, narrative role, rhetoric, style, density, and risk taxonomy.
• references/inspiration-case-patterns.md: inspiration-source and case schematic pattern families.
• references/figure-scheme-patterns.md: reusable figure schemes such as motivation contrast, toy storyboard, method pipeline, and idea-to-model bridge.
• references/design-principles-by-type.md: detailed design principles by figure type.
• references/recommendation-and-reference-image-protocol.md: default recommendation and reference-image handling.

Visual Decision Boards

Do not force the user to choose category, layout, style, metaphor, or density from prose only when seeing candidates would be more informative.

Before a visual board, use a TEXT_ONLY reply to specify:

• what stays fixed
• what varies
• how many candidates will be generated
• what the user should compare
• the recommended default if the user wants to proceed

The following turn may be IMAGE_ONLY.

Typical board choices:

• Figure-direction board: 3-5 candidates with different figure roles.
• Layout board: 3-5 panel skeletons with the same role and style.
• Style board: 4-8 style families when style is a live decision.
• Metaphor board: 3-5 visual metaphors.
• Density board: 2-4 variants from sparse hero to denser evidence board.

Read these files when visual choices are active:

• references/visual-first-decision-board-protocol.md
• references/visual-decision-protocol.md
• references/visual-style-taxonomy-and-selection.md
• references/image-generation-policy.md

Image Brief Contract

A generation brief must include:

• figure role and paper slot
• primary reader effect
• central claim/gap/mechanism
• anchor case or analogy
• layout skeleton and reading path
• panel count and aspect ratio
• style family and risk controls
• color semantics
• label and text-density rules
• candidate count
• negative constraints

For reusable wording, read references/prompt-library.md.

Completion Criteria

The task is complete when the user has one or more of these artifacts:

• locked figure thesis and role
• selected candidate scheme or visual board direction
• generation-ready image prompt
• generated candidate image batch
• review diagnosis and revision plan
• final title, caption, callout labels, and paper-placement notes

ClawHub Safety Notes

This is an instruction-only skill. It declares no environment variables, no CLI binaries, no install steps, and no external service credentials. Publish it under MIT-0 only; do not add conflicting license language.