Animated readme logo

Animated README Logo

Goal

Create a portable, validated SVG logo master and a deterministic motion plan, then export only the artifacts the available tools can verify.

When to use

• Create, redesign, transform, animate, export, or review a repository or profile-README logo.
• Audit GitHub README logo compatibility, transparency, reduced motion, or local asset references.
• Turn an existing SVG or raster mark into a validated README asset pipeline.

When not to use

• Ordinary README prose editing with no logo or image concern.
• App/site motion unrelated to repository branding delivery.
• Generic image generation with no README or repository-logo target.

Inputs to inspect

• Repository identity, public brand copy, target surface, and requested task.
• README markup and root-bounded local asset references.
• Existing logo sources, reference-media fidelity needs, transparency, themes, dimensions, accessibility, and export constraints.
• Live provider, authoring, validator, exporter, and inspector capabilities without assuming availability.

Workflow

1. Inspect repository identity, README markup, referenced assets, brand constraints, target surface, and available local or connected capabilities.
2. Select exactly one current task mode:
   • review: assess existing README logo assets without redesigning them.
   • create: design a new mark or intentionally redesign an existing one.
   • transform: faithfully recreate or clean an existing mark.
   • animate-export: define motion or export an already acceptable source.
3. Select the source route before creating anything. Read references/provider-routing.md for every create task and whenever external generation is proposed. Recraft is ineligible for review, a clean existing SVG, a faithful transformation, or any task that needs reference-media fidelity.
4. Preserve originals. Create deterministic derived filenames under the repository's established asset folder, or docs/assets/ when none exists.
5. Produce a self-contained SVG locally at the static first-frame state. A provider result is design input, not proof that the SVG is ready. Use drawio-diagrams only when geometric, editable construction materially helps; it is not a dependency.
6. Strictly validate the SVG. Do not report completion until it passes the bundled validator. Read references/asset-transformation.md for the authoring and validation contract.
7. Write a deterministic motion specification with named layers, explicit keyframes, easing, duration, loop point, and a static reduced-motion state. Read references/motion-rubric.md.
8. Choose README and optional web-demo delivery from references/github-readme-compatibility.md and references/asset-pipeline.md. For static PNG plus animated GIF delivery, keep brand behavior in a trusted repository recipe and use the bundled exporter contract in references/export-recipe.md; do not recreate its rasterization and encoding plumbing in the product repository. Read references/local-tooling.md before declaring an exporter, inspector runtime, or browser unavailable. When a requested export or inspection needs a missing local command, immediately present the minimal installation preflight and ask for explicit approval; stop before installing. Export animated raster formats only when a detected or approved-and-verified tool can produce them and the result can be inspected. Never invent an artifact or successful export.
9. For an existing README, run the read-only audit with an explicit repository root. Treat every local reference as untrusted and root-bounded. Read references/readme-audit-safety.md.
10. Report the public status fields below and the exact files, checks, fallbacks, and remaining blockers.

For a multi-stage request, finish and report one mode before moving to the next mode.

Provider boundary

• Detect live Higgsfield MCP capability, exact recraft_v4_1 availability, and the exact current cost before offering a provider route. Documentation is not availability evidence, and cost must never be hardcoded.
• Present the sanitized brief, live cost, and fixed generation settings before asking for approval.
• Make no credit-consuming call until the user explicitly approves that exact batch after the preflight.
• On unavailable or indeterminate capability, unavailable model/cost data, or explicit refusal, use the direct local SVG fallback.

Safety rules

• Do not install tools, overwrite brand assets, spend credits, publish, or change remote state without the required approval.
• Keep provider approval and local-tool installation approval as separate checkpoints. Approval of one never authorizes the other.
• Do not expose secrets, private paths, internal hostnames, hidden metadata, or customer data in a prompt, asset, snippet, or report.
• Do not send reference media to Recraft or claim it preserves an existing identity.
• Reject absolute, UNC, root-escaping traversal, and symlink-escaping README asset references.
• Do not promise animated SVG, Lottie, or a raster format will work in GitHub README rendering without a compatible fallback and manual GitHub preview.
• Preserve transparency unless the user explicitly requests a background.

References

Read only what the task needs:

• references/provider-routing.md: live Recraft eligibility, cost preflight, approval, fixed settings, and fallback.
• references/output-contract.md: exact public fields and status values.
• references/asset-transformation.md: direct SVG authoring, transformation, validation, and mutation boundaries.
• references/asset-pipeline.md: canonical assets, export capability gates, and transparency checks.
• references/export-recipe.md: trusted repository recipe boundary and reusable static-PNG/animated-GIF exporter contract.
• references/local-tooling.md: minimal exporter selection, installation approval, verification, and browser-preview fallback routing.
• references/motion-rubric.md: deterministic motion specification and reduced-motion requirements.
• references/github-readme-compatibility.md: README versus web delivery and renderer fallbacks.
• references/readme-audit-safety.md: root-bounded README asset inspection.
• references/readme-snippets.md: accessible README and demo markup.

Scripts

• scripts/validate_logo_svg.py <svg> strictly validates the canonical SVG.
• scripts/inspect-animated-image.mjs <asset> verifies a generated, metadata-clean GIF, APNG, or animated WebP without modifying it.
• scripts/export-readme-logo-animation.mjs --root <repo> --recipe <relative.mjs> [--check] [--replace] validates a trusted repository recipe, then exports a static PNG and animated GIF through approved local tools with validate-before-commit and commit-time no-clobber checks. The exporter modifies only absent declared outputs unless --replace is explicit; --check performs no exporter-controlled writes, but the trusted recipe still executes.
• scripts/audit-readme-logo-assets.mjs --root <repo-root> --readme <root-relative-readme> audits bounded, root-contained README references and fallback roles without modifying files.
• scripts/generate-readme-logo-snippet.mjs --fallback <path> --alt <text> --width <px> --height <px> [options] prints markup to stdout.

Run a script with --help before relying on optional flags.

Output format

Always report these fields for an activated task:

Task mode: review | create | transform | animate-export
Source route: <route>
Provider state: <state>
Approval state: <state>
SVG readiness: <state>
Export status: <state>

Then report the asset stack, motion specification, README delivery, validation evidence, and remaining blockers. Use the exact meanings in references/output-contract.md.

Completion criteria

• A complete creation, transformation, or animation path has a self-contained SVG that passes strict validation and a deterministic motion specification.
• A review may finish with a non-ready SVG status only when it reports concrete remediation; it must not claim the asset pipeline is complete.
• Every paid generation is traceable to a live preflight and explicit approval of that exact batch.
• Every claimed raster export exists and passes the relevant inspector.
• Every README-local path stays within the declared repository root after symlink resolution.
• README animation has a meaningful static fallback, reduced-motion delivery, explicit dimensions and alt text, and a required manual GitHub preview.

Runtime portability

Keep one host-neutral workflow. Do not branch on Codex, Cursor, Claude, or another agent name and do not emit agent-specific commands. Tailoring has no present benefit because source, approval, validation, motion, and output contracts are shared. Reconsider a split only if a host later requires a materially different tool or output contract.

Failure modes

• If live provider capability, exact model availability, or current cost cannot be confirmed, report the limitation and author the SVG locally.
• If provider approval is pending, stop before generation. If it is declined, record that once and continue locally.
• If strict SVG validation fails, correct the source and rerun validation; do not claim readiness.
• If a required exporter or inspector runtime is missing and installation has not been declined or forbidden, present the exact minimal tool preflight and ask for approval immediately. Use Export status: blocked while approval is pending; install nothing yet.
• If installation is declined, forbidden, or unavailable, keep the validated SVG and motion spec, report Export status: capability-unavailable, and create no placeholder.
• If Playwright cannot find its expected browser, do not classify the raster exporter as unavailable. Reuse an existing configured Chrome or Chromium executable, then an existing agent-browser; request approval before any CLI or browser download.
• If a README asset reference fails root containment, reject it before reading and report the path class.